Phare, the Cambodian Circus: Tickets, Seats, Which Show and Is It Worth It (2026)

Phare is the one evening in Siem Reap worth planning a day around, and the ticket decision is simpler than it looks: buy Section B, check which production is on your date, and leave the hotel at 7:15 p.m. Everything else on this page is about getting those three things right.

Most of what is written about Phare treats it as a circus, which sets the wrong expectation, and lists the seats without saying what each one actually sees. It rarely mentions that the production changes every week or so, that one of them is about surviving the Khmer Rouge and one is a village cabaret, and that the choice matters more than the section if you are bringing a seven-year-old. The prices also circulate in versions several years old.

Prices, show times and the production calendar below were checked against Phare’s own ticket, schedule and FAQ pages in October 2026.

It Is Theater, Not a Circus Act

The word circus suggests a ringmaster, a sequence of acts and animals. Phare has none of those. Each production is a single hour-long piece with a story, a soundtrack played live, actors who also dance and acrobats who also act. The acrobatics are real and sometimes dangerous, which is why flash photography is banned, but they serve a narrative about war, village life, money, ghosts or cultural difference.

That distinction decides whether you leave happy. Someone expecting trapeze tricks in sequence may find a quiet ten-minute scene of village courtship slow. Someone expecting a theater piece finds the acrobatics a bonus. The productions are performed mainly through movement, music and gesture, so language is rarely a barrier.

It also sets Phare apart from the rest of the evening offer. The evening shows pillar separates theater from dinner shows, and Phare is the only full-length theater production in town. If Khmer classical dance is what you came for, Phare is not it, and the Apsara dance guide covers where to see it.

Who Performs, and Where the Money Goes

The performers are students and graduates of Phare Ponleu Selpak, whose name means “the brightness of the arts.” The school was founded in Battambang in 1994 by nine young men returning from a refugee camp on the Thai border, where they had taken drawing classes as children. It now teaches visual arts, music, theater and circus, and the Siem Reap big top opened in February 2013 so that graduates could earn a living at home rather than on tour abroad.

The circus is a business unit of Phare Performing Social Enterprise, a for-profit company majority-owned by the school. The circus pays the school through royalties, fees, donations and most of its profit. Phare states on its own pages that almost 75 percent of profit goes back to the school. That makes the ticket one of the more direct ways a visitor’s money reaches a Cambodian arts organization, a question the social enterprises guide treats in more detail.

There are no animals in any production.

Which Production Is On Your Date

Phare rotates productions in blocks of about seven to ten days. The title depends on your date, not your choice, so check the calendar before you buy. The published calendar for late 2026:

Dates	Production	Matinee at 5:00 p.m.
October 24 to 31	White Gold	No
November 1 to 8	White Gold	Wed, Fri, Sun
November 9 to 18	Khmer Metal	Wed, Fri, Sun
November 19 and 20	Phare during Tini Tinou	Yes
November 21 to 30	Sokha	Wed, Fri, Sun
December 1 to 11	Khmer Angkor Village	Wed, Fri, Sun
December 12 to 21	White Gold	Wed, Fri, Sun
December 22 to 31	Sokha	Wed, Fri, Sun

The page does not yet list January to March 2027. Confirm the production with the box office when you book, because the calendar layout on the site is not always clear about where one block ends.

Khmer Angkor Village

The verdict: the production for families and first-timers. A cabaret-style snapshot of rural Cambodian life, with drama, dance, live music and circus, and the only one Phare describes as fun for all ages. The limitation: it is the lightest of the five, and adults who want the full weight of what Phare can do will find it less memorable than Sokha.

Sokha

The verdict: the strongest piece and the hardest one. A child haunted by war, whose memories of surviving the Khmer Rouge blend with nightmares, finds strength through art and helps her community heal. It draws on the founders’ own childhoods. The limitation: it includes scenes of violence and torture, and it is the wrong night for a child under about ten.

White Gold

The verdict: a solid middle option. An individual and his community try to balance the demands of the modern world against the Buddhist teaching of moderation. The limitation: the theme is abstract, and it lands with less force than Sokha.

Khmer Metal

The verdict: the one for adults who like noise. Set in a grungy Phnom Penh rock bar where the owner and his brother chase money while the customers chase love in the wrong places. The limitation: loud music throughout, and the subject matter suits teenagers and adults more than young children.

Same Same But Different

The verdict: the comedy. The artists poke fun at cultural differences, their own included, and visitors are part of the joke. The limitation: it ran in early October 2026 and does not appear in the November and December calendar.

Older productions, including Sokrias (Eclipse), Influence, Preu (Chills), Ponleu Samnang and Tchamlaek (Weird), return in other months.

The Tini Tinou festival

The biennial Tini Tinou International Circus Festival runs November 17 to 24, 2026, across Siem Reap and Battambang, with visiting companies from Asia, Europe and Australia. Phare’s own big top shows on November 19 and 20, both at 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. Festival passes start at $40 per adult on the festival’s ticketing. The limitation: the program is spread between two cities, so a pass makes sense only if you are in Siem Reap for several nights that week.

Sections and Seats

The big top seats 330 people on tiered benches around a ring. There are three sections, and two of them are unreserved.

Section A

The verdict: worth it only if you need to arrive late. Reserved seats in the front half of the center block, $38 for adults and $18 for children 5 to 11, with a locally made souvenir. You can walk in at 7:50 p.m. and sit in your seat. The limitation: the front rows are so close to the ring that the aerial acts above you require looking straight up.

Section B

The verdict: the best value in the tent. Unreserved seating in the rear half of the same center block, $28 and $15. The upper rows are high enough to see the whole ring and the aerial work at eye level, which is where Phare’s best moments happen. The limitation: unreserved means arriving by about 7:30 p.m. to pick a good row in high season.

Section C

The verdict: fine for adults willing to queue, poor for small children. The two side blocks, unreserved, $18 and $10. Phare warns that some seats have a partly obstructed view, and Section C holders often line up 45 minutes before the show to get the better ones. The limitation: arrive at 7:30 p.m. and a child may end up behind a tent pole.

Matinees, Timing and the Evening

The big top opens two hours before the show. From 5:30 p.m. there is Cambodian street food, drink specials, the Phare Cafe and the boutique, which sells prints and artwork by the school’s students and graduates. The show starts at 8:00 p.m., lasts about an hour without an interval, and ends with the artists in the ring for photos. Nobody is admitted once it starts.

From November 2026 to March 2027, a 5:00 p.m. matinee runs on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. For anyone with a 4:30 a.m. alarm for the Angkor Wat sunrise, the matinee is the better show: out by 6:00 p.m., dinner at 6:30 p.m., bed by 9:00 p.m.

A sensible 8:00 p.m. evening runs like this. Eat in town at 5:30 p.m., or pre-order a set menu at Phare Cafe for 6:45 p.m. Leave at 7:15 p.m. for the 10-minute ride. Check in at the window by 7:30 p.m., which Phare asks for anyway. Back in town by 9:30 p.m.

The tent has air conditioning, evaporative coolers and fans, and it is still an open-air tropical venue. Wear light clothing, put mosquito repellent on your ankles before you sit, and do not expect it to be cold. There is no dress code. The show runs 365 nights a year, rain included, and the rainy season guide explains why a 6:00 p.m. downpour rarely affects an 8:00 p.m. curtain.

Photos and videos are allowed with the flash off, and videos under three minutes may be shared with Phare’s tags.

Children

Phare is the best evening in Siem Reap for children from about seven, and a gamble below that. Phare’s own pages say the productions are family-friendly but serious, deal with war, discrimination, poverty and ghosts, and may use smoke, loud noise and strobe lights. They advise asking the ticketing team about very young children.

Children 5 to 11 pay the child rate. The ticket page lists only adult and child prices and says nothing about children under 5, so ask the box office before arriving with a toddler. Aim for a Khmer Angkor Village date if the calendar allows, and avoid Sokha with children under about ten. The Siem Reap with kids pillar fits the evening around a day that probably started at dawn, and the kids activities guide has the afternoon options.

Booking and the Reseller Bundle

Tickets sell four ways at the same published price: the Phare website, email to ticketing@pharecircus.org, phone on +855 92 225 320 or +855 15 499 480, and the box office, open 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. For online purchases, the card used must be shown at check-in. Changes and refunds are accepted up to one day before the show. Phare recommends booking ahead because Sections A and B often sell out.

Resellers bundle the same sections with a hotel pickup by tuk-tuk. Compare the bundle with the published price plus $6 to $8 for a round-trip tuk-tuk. If the pickup is included and the section is named, a bundle can come out even. If the section is not named, assume Section C.

Phare also sells packages on its ticket page: Phare Insider, which adds a backstage visit to the show, and a spa, dinner and show combination with tuk-tuk transport. Neither price is shown on the ticket page itself.

Phare Against the Other Evenings

Phare is the right choice for most single evenings, but not every evening.

Phare or a dance dinner

A dinner show pairs a set menu or buffet with classical and folk dance. Kanell on 7 Makara Street serves a five-course set menu from $29 per guest with Apsara dance and a Bokator demonstration from 7:30 p.m. Koulen Restaurant on Sivatha Boulevard sells a buffet and dance show through resellers at $19 to $22 with transfers. The Apsara Theatre on Street 26 in Wat Bo, a wooden theater in the grounds of Angkor Village Hotel that the hotel says has run since 1997, serves a Khmer dinner from 7:30 p.m. before an 8:30 p.m. performance by a troupe of 30, open to non-guests, and does not publish its price online. The honest verdict: different evenings, both worth doing on a stay of three nights or more. The limitation of the dinner format: slow, formal and quieter than Phare.

Phare or shadow puppets

Bambu Stage in Wat Damnak village seats 40 in a garden and lists a shadow-puppet Ramayana from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. at $25. The honest verdict: the better choice for anyone who prefers a small room to a big top. The limitation: it does not publish its days of the week, so the date has to be checked when booking. The Sbek Thom guide explains the art form.

Phare in Battambang

The school itself is in Battambang, a long day trip by bus from Siem Reap, where Phare Ponleu Selpak offers campus visits and student performances. The Battambang from Siem Reap guide covers whether to make the trip.

By Situation

You have one evening in Siem Reap

Phare in Section B, booked a day ahead. Check whether your date falls on Sokha or Khmer Angkor Village and decide accordingly.

You are traveling with children under ten

Khmer Angkor Village if the calendar allows, a matinee if it falls on a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday between November and March, and Section B rather than C so nobody ends up behind a pole.

You have a sunrise the next morning

The 5:00 p.m. matinee. Out by about 6:00 p.m. and asleep by 9:00 p.m.

You are on a tight budget

Section C at $18, arrive at 7:15 p.m. to queue, and eat at the night markets or a noodle stall beforehand. The daily budget pillar fits it into a $30 town day.

You care most about the story

Sokha. Book Section A or B, read the synopsis beforehand, and give yourself an hour afterward rather than heading straight to bed.

What It Actually Costs

Item	Adult (12+)	Child (5 to 11)	Notes
Section A	$38	$18	Reserved, front of center block, souvenir
Section B	$28	$15	Unreserved, rear of center block
Section C	$18	$10	Unreserved, side blocks, some obstructed views
Matinee, 5:00 p.m.	Same by section	Same by section	Wed, Fri, Sun, Nov 2026 to Mar 2027
Tini Tinou festival pass	From $40	Not published	November 17 to 24, 2026
Tuk-tuk from Pub Street	$3 to $5 each way		$6 to $8 round trip with waiting
Phare Cafe meal	Not published		Set menu can be pre-ordered

Not included: dinner, drinks, the driver’s tip ($1 to $2 for waiting) and anything from the boutique. Prices are in dollars, change under $1 comes in riel at about 4,000 to the dollar, and a torn note is refused at the window. The money guide covers the rest.

A family of two adults and two children aged 5 to 11 pays $86 in Section B, $56 in Section C and $112 in Section A, before the tuk-tuk.

What Other Guides Get Wrong

1. Calling it a circus and stopping there. It is an hour of theater with acrobatics in service of a story. Expecting a sequence of tricks is the main source of disappointed reviews.
2. Ignoring the production calendar. Five different shows rotate in late 2026, from a village cabaret to a piece about surviving the Khmer Rouge. The date chooses the show, and the show matters more than the seat for a family.
3. Recommending Section A as the best seat. Section B, in the same center block, sees the aerial acts better from its upper rows and costs $10 less. Section A buys a reserved seat, not a better view.
4. Quoting old prices. The 2026 prices are $18, $28 and $38 for adults and $10, $15 and $18 for children 5 to 11. Older lists still circulate with lower figures and without the souvenir in Section A.
5. Saying there is only one show a night. From November 2026 to March 2027 there is also a 5:00 p.m. matinee three times a week, the best option before a sunrise.
6. Leaving out where the money goes. The circus is majority-owned by a non-profit school in Battambang and returns most of its profit to it. That is the reason to buy directly rather than through a reseller who keeps a margin.

Show times, ticket prices and the production calendar checked against Phare’s own website in October 2026. Calendars change and productions rotate. Confirm the production and time with the box office when booking.

Where to Go Next

Phare is one evening among several, and the evening shows pillar sets it against the dinner shows, the puppet theater and the dancers of Banteay Srei. For the dance evening Phare does not provide, the Apsara dance guide compares the venues program by program, and things to do in Siem Reap at night fills the hours after a 9:00 p.m. finish. The three-day itinerary places Phare on the second night so that it never collides with a sunrise, and getting around Siem Reap has the fares for the ride to Ring Road.