The European Youth Circus is an artistic festival at which young European artists between the ages of 12 and 25 present their artistic performances to an audience and a jury in competition events in order to win one of the coveted prizes.

The European Youth Circus has developed since 1987 from a gymnasium event organized by the 1st Wiesbaden Circus and Variety School of the Romanian artist Joan Dumitru and other circus schools. In 1988 and 1989, the event moved to the old Wiesbaden variety building of the "Scala" in Dotzheimer Straße, in 1990 to the Tattersall community center in the Bergkirchen district and in 1991 to the Wiesbaden suburb of Delkenheim. Under the sponsorship of the Cultural Office and under the direction of the Cultural Officer Jürgen Dusch, the professionalization of the festival began and the cooperation with the Frankfurt Varieté "Tigerpalast" and its directors Margareta Dillinger and Johnny Klinke, who is also the spokesman for the international jury, has continued to this day.

In the following years - since 1991 for the first time under the sole sponsorship of the Department of Culture - more and more young artists applied to take part in the festival. Structural improvements and the strict definition of application and selection criteria led to the festival gaining great European recognition. Since 1994, it has been held every two years, alternating with the Colloquium on European Circus Culture. Contacts with the European Commission's Directorate-General for Education and Culture in Brussels paid off in 1995 in the form of conceptual and financial support. In 1996, the "Euro-Festival of Young Artists" was organized in cooperation with the European Union and the Fédération Européenne des Ecoles de Cirque. In 1998, the festival moved to the Dern site in Wiesbaden city center.

The new title "European Youth Circus" was born in coordination with the partners in Brussels. The winners of the 1998 festival developed a show under the guidance of leading variety choreographers, which premiered in Wiesbaden and was subsequently shown in the French town of Châtellerault. The European Union had approved a substantial financial grant for the "European Youth Circus".
In 2000, the German President took over the patronage of the event. EYC artists represented the festival as one of only four cultural contributions from the European Union at the Expo 2000 world exhibition in Hanover. In 2002, the German UNESCO Commission took over the patronage of the EYC. Exhibitions, films and readings on artistic themes were and are organized as part of the supporting programme. Since 2000, the ecumenical church service in the tent construction on the Dern site has been a fixed part of the festival program. In 2004, Jörg-Uwe Funk took over the management of the European Youth Circus from Jürgen Dusch, and the European Circus Association replaced the previous colloquium on circus culture with its European conference.

Apart from a one-off collaboration with the Flic-Flac circus in 2006, the festivals have been held in Sarrasani GmbH tent structures since 1998. Over 100 acts from around 15 European countries regularly apply to take part in the festival. The selection committee chooses around 25 performances. Two different competition shows are developed and presented at several events. The festival jury selects the winners of the cash and non-cash prizes and the award winners present themselves to the audience again in two gala performances.

Over the years, the European Youth Circus has gained great importance as a cultural event in Europe. This is documented by sold-out events, international guests and European reporting.