On a breezy night by the banks of the Rhine in Basel's St Johann neighbourhood, around 2,000 people of all ages from around the world cheer for the acrobats painted in gold and a man squeezing himself into a gigantic green ball.
The performances are part of Art Parcours, a section of the Art Basel fair that features site-specific artworks, exhibitions and performances free to the public, a foretaste of what may be expected in Hong Kong next year when it hosts its first edition of the Basel event.
'It's not only the people coming to the fair, but also the people in the city,' says Jens Hoffmann, director of San Francisco's Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts at the California College of the Arts, the curator of Art Parcours.
Call it great marketing or synergy, the Swiss city is buzzing with other events for people, while affluent art collectors make multimillion-dollar purchases of works at Messe Basel, where Art Basel is held.
A multitude of museum exhibitions were staged during last month's fair, including works by American Jeff Koons and Paris-based Algerian artist and filmmaker Philippe Parreno at the Beyeler Foundation, early paintings from the Impressionist master Renoir at the Kunstmuseum and Kunsthaus Baselland showing works by international as well as Swiss artists.
The fair joined Theatre Basel to present the Swiss premiere of the Life & Death of Marina Abramovic, the exceptional and haunting stage show on the living 'godmother of performance art' Abramovic, which was commissioned by the Manchester International Festival.
Satellite fairs such as Liste showing works by international young artists and galleries were also staged during the week.