The term "New Circus" refers to a type of entertainment spectacle with fantastical poetic imagery that's evolved from traditional circus performances over the past 30 years, most notably (and stylishly) in France. It embraces the traditional circus skills of acrobatics, clowning, object manipulation, fire and light spectacle. It also maintains the traditional function of circus as a ritualistic sublimation of human weirdness, where audiences alternate between fear and laughter at a series of different acts before celebrating the whole mess in exultant procession and music.

New Circus is also an art form for contemporary times. It incorporates psychological understanding into archetypal imagery of fairy tales and transformation, tending to string acts together into more coherent theatrical story lines, creating thrills and amazement not by displaying freaks or trained animals, but by spectacular human skill and technological wizardry.

Old or new, circuses celebrate life. And Letní Letná, Prague's New Circus festival, now in its third year, promises to deliver wonder and merriment for all ages this year with a string of performances in circus tents and in the open air, along with music, children's activities and street parades on the high, wide Letná Park overlooking the city.

As in both of its two previous incarnations, the festival brings major international proponents of the art form to Prague mounting large-scale productions, and also presents top-quality local talent in the related areas of clowning, puppetry and visual or comic theater. The festival creates a "complete little circus town," says spokesman Jiří Sedlák, "with lots of tents, different activities, places to eat and drink, and after every performance in the evening, a free concert by great local bands." These include the Tam Tam Orchestra (a Czech drumming and salsa band), Žáha (funk) and Jan Budař (a Czech film star known for his roles in Vladimír Morávek's movies) with his Eliščin band. The main performances are in the evening, but events and creative activities begin at 11 a.m., with Czech fairy tales, clowning, puppetry and special children's performances three times daily.

The main acts this year are French groups Compagnie Malabar and Cirque Trottola, and Escalarta Circus from Spain. Malabar will present two evening performances of Helios II, an extravagant fire show of innovative pyrotechnics performed in the open air in honor of the sun god. The group also uses a spectacular 9-meter-high (30-foot-high) and 24-meter-long mechanical praying mantis that incorporates live music and several human acrobats hanging from ropes, animating its parts. This cyber-punk fairy-tale beast moves with eerie grace, preceded by two leaping, stilted creatures that will also be seen bouncing through the streets of the city center.

Trottola, bringing its own tent, combines pantomime, juggling, trapeze and acrobatics in the wordless production Spinning Top, which tells of an apparently magical toy in a sweet and stirring allegorical tale.

In contrast to the two big shows from France, the Spanish duo Escalarta insists on intimate "chamber" performances for audiences of 80 people seated in the round. A male-female pair does balancing and cabaret acts, and parodies traditional roles such as the strong man from the traditional traveling village circus. "We believe in small structures where intimacy results in a communal togetherness, and generates a magical energy, that, for a little while, rubs out the self-centered way that is rotting society," the duo's publicity statement says.

Also on the bill are a number of Czech favorites, such as the ever-innovative Forman Brothers with their Baroque Opera, the absurdist art-clown group Matapa and Václav Strasser and his highly entertaining giant bubble creations.

The event opens with a parade Monday, Aug. 21, starting from the Klementinum at 3 p.m. Musicians, jugglers, clowns and other circus performers will make their way to Old Town Square, stopping along the way to perform.