Bending over backwards ...

Somalian acrobat Ali Mswabi trains hard to perfect his performances with Hakuna Matata, says Richard Fitzpatrick

LAST year, the Street Performance World Championship attracted 240,000 visitors, in Cork and Dublin, second only to St Patrick’s Day as the nation’s largest, free family festival.

It returns this year — to Fitzgerald Park in Cork next weekend, and to Dublin’s Merrion Square the following week with 16 acts, including a human ‘cannonball’ and a human ‘pretzel’ — the latter is the American contortionist Jonathan Burns, who told his parents he would make a living by squeezing himself through toilet seats.