Phare Ponleu Selpak: Cambodian circus show breaks Guinness world record
In the face of the Covid crisis, the circus, seeking funding, came up with something truly creative to attract attention: putting on a show that could break the Guinness World Record.
Phare Ponleu Selpak, a Cambodian non-profit arts school, set a Guinness World Record by staging a circus show that lasted 24 hours, 10 minutes, and 30 seconds in Battambang. The show took place between March 7 and 8, 2021, but the record was confirmed by Guinness World Records (GWR) in November.
Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPSA) is an organization founded by Cambodian refugees to help children overcome the trauma of war and to restore the country's culture and education after the Khmer Rouge genocide. The organization now supports the education of 800 disadvantaged children and trains hundreds more in the visual, musical, and performing arts to help lift hundreds of families out of poverty and keep Cambodian culture alive.
Over the past decade, PPSA has taken innovative steps to avoid aid dependence by establishing a grassroots animal-free circus and a tourist attraction that funded their rescue programs. This included the creation of Phare Performing Social Enterprise (PPSE), in which the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation is a shareholder. This company is responsible for producing and distributing the circus performances while employing young performers from disadvantaged backgrounds trained by the NGO.
Faced with Covid-related restrictions that put an end to live performances, and therefore to artists' sources of income, PPSA sought alternative sources of income and came up with something truly creative to attract attention. An idea that drew on the same creativity and resilience that led to the creation of the association and that allowed it to break a world record and thus enter the Guinness Book of Records.
