Siem Reap’s most unique, authentic top-rated evening entertainment. More than just a circus, Phare performers use theatre, music, dance and modern circus arts to tell uniquely Cambodian stories; historical, folk and modern. The young circus artists will astonish you with their energy, emotion, enthusiasm, and talent. Phare artists are students and graduates from Phare Ponleu Selpak’s (www.phareps.org) vocational training centre in Battambang. The association was formed in 1994 by 9 young men coming home from a refugee camp after the Khmer Rouge regime. They were greatly helped during that time by an art teacher using drawing classes as therapy and wanted to share this new skill among the poor, socially deprived and troubled youngsters in Battambang. They founded an art school and state schools followed to offer free education. A music school and theatre school were next and finally, for the kids who wanted more, the circus school. Today more than 1,200 pupils attend the state school daily and 500 attend the alternative schools. Phare Ponleu Selpak also has extensive outreach programmes, trying to help with the problems highlighted in their own tales. Phare The Cambodian Circus offers these students and graduates somewhere to hone their skills and a place to earn a decent wage. Money that will take them out of poverty and give them self-respect and freedom.