Here are the minutes from the BJC 2026 Business Meeting:

Sammy-Joh - 2026-04-09 12:12:52 UTC #

Here are the minutes from the BJC 2026 Business Meeting:

Organisers: Lucie Ludar-Smith & Andrew Ludar-Smith
Chair: Andy Harrison
Minutes: Sam Hardwick

Open and thanks – Andy
The meeting was opened and the agenda was introduced.

BJC 2026 Report – Andrew
• Crew have eaten 40kg of bananas.
• Full week attendees – 432, inc. crew.
• 254 day tickets of various descriptions (day and ½ day).
• Max. footfall is therefore 686 people on site at any point. About 90% of 2024 numbers, which is fine.
• Broke even 1-2 days ago – much applause! Includes bar takings.
• Crew is about 45 people, e.g. site/reg desk. Also 50 or so external contractors.
• Having a £5 hero donation has worked better, as even people here for a day or ½ day can do it: £570 added by hero donations (about 114 people).
• Supporter tickets (pay full ticket price at early bird time) – 19 people chose to do this, some of these added hero donations too.
• Have had a fair few locals coming in, but we put this event on for the juggling community so no advertising to locals. Approx. 10-20 families. Comment from audience was that we used to have a day aimed more towards locals, and anecdotal evidence from local chats in the park was that people didn’t know about – school sent info out one day before the event on 1st April…! Reaching out to local community groups didn’t get any take up. Only advertised slightly the Gala Show, as it had capacity and other shows didn’t. Time/effort to reach out to local people has a fairly low return.

Feedback
Known issues:
• Showers were cold – did get better through the convention, thanks for keeping trying.
Questions:
• Would the crew run the event here again?
o Not the ideal site, but we would run here again if it was here or no BJC.
o Accessibility issues, not really wheelchair friendly.
o Renegade noise carried a lot.
o School agreed we would have X, Y, Z; and then didn’t provide it.
o Certainly an option though.
• Thank you from the Site Team to the rest of the community for their response in the storm.
• Thank you from attendees to Site Team/Crew as well – really saved everyone.
• More offers of tents and space in tents than we had people who needed them.
• Balloon Room stats: 346 people through the room. Décor done – future teams could include balloon folks in site visits so they can make even better decorations tailored to the site.

Things we liked
• Nice to have a fire space.
• Accessible show much appreciated.
• Excellent variety of workshops.
• Sensory Room was well used.
• Washing up sinks and stations much appreciated.
• Thanks to FlowCeption for decorating the glow space. (Spinning@ would be interested in doing the fire space next year.)
• Battle Night was amazing! Everyone working together to sort out capacity issue was great.
• Chill Out Room was good (but scents/sensory things were overwhelming at a couple of points – people responsible were spoken to). This was Spinning @, who had to improvise inside at short notice due to the wind.
• Accessible seating in show venue being constantly fed back on by those who used it, and then worked on/improved was incredible. Felt very listened to.
• Slacklines and slackline crew have been great.
• Same with the EBTs.
• Appreciate the effort gone into providing accessibility for those that need it.
• Wheelchair users thank general attendees for being very helpful, e.g. moving piles of shoes, opening doors, etc.
• Thanks to Show Team with their busy schedule, and Crew Welfare Team for looking after them.

Things we weren’t so keen on
• Hard to get all information – e.g. need a group to shower. Comms needs improving, not sure how… maybe a specific place to post updates? Hard when internet is patchy, as Discord doesn’t help.
• Sensory room got messed up at one point. Very disappointing – can’t keep providing expensive equipment if this keeps happening. Might need to lock when supervisors leave in future years.
• Sometimes hard for stewards to know exactly what was needed for shows re. capacity, etc.
• Ability to lock individual rooms was negotiated with the school, but not provided.
• Struggled with the separate evening workshop board – open to ideas!
• Venue wouldn’t let them look round out of school time, but couldn’t view all the spaces when kids were in them.

Ideas
• Bunkhouse marquee in case of future evacuations, like Glastonbury.
• Old duvet covers used by Newcastle Circus Fest for workshop boards – could be an option, if there is a space to hang them. Or cut up the evening board and put the evening bit next to each day bit. Or rotate them?
• Visual checklist of things stewards need to know beforehand, maybe a bit of training, e.g. numbers for fire risk assessment. Different with a sports hall that only had one door, usual big top is very different.
• “BJC Steward School” would be helpful – let’s get new faces in.
• Could have set the Quiet Room up as a more welcoming space (couldn’t find the light switches!).
• Suggestion to change the date to old PLAY Festival dates – better weather, nice time for professionals (debated).
• Can we have an “old aged pensioners” price – many have been coming and supporting for 30+ years. This year has had a pay what you can afford ticket, which could be for OAPs. Lucie and Andrew would do this again.
• Site maps and info about venue on the website. (Weren’t allowed to this year. School kept things locked that they shouldn’t have, and provided incorrect maps. Printer issues during the convention didn’t help with signage.)
• More visible symbol of who is available for welfare help – different to site crew welfare. Attendee welfare is something we need something for in future years, becoming more of a prevalent issue.
• Student price ticket – there was a group discount for uni students.

If you have more feedback, email the CIC. (If you have access needs that means emailing isn’t appropriate, please speak to Reg Desk before you go, or catch a member of the CIC at another convention.)

Notices – Andrew
• Big thank you from Lucie & Andrew to Crew, sub-contractors and attendees/volunteers throughout the week!
• And a HUGE thank you to Lucie and Andrew from the meeting attendees. They would do it again 😊
• BJC’s online presence is becoming an issue for finding venues. Videos on YouTube from past events, comments on public-facing Facebook group, etc. Governing Bodies/Headteachers see this and think maybe they don’t want to allow us to use their venue.
• Historically, BJC has been run as a different organisation each year and not hit the VAT threshold. We hit it for BJC 2024 as Blue Mouse Events CIC, made the argument that we wouldn’t do it again… then we ran another one as the same company. This year we’ve tried to not charge for anything we didn’t need to. Break even point and VAT threshold were very close. Knock on consequence of hitting VAT threshold will be we need to charge 20% on tickets. What if it’s a charity? There are solutions to be discussed, yes.
• The community has got bigger, the event has got bigger, there’s more on than there used to be. Significant layer of added responsibility and therefore work. We’re happy we took it on, but in terms of the time commitment, this is at least a ¼ of Lucie & Andrew’s collective earning power in terms of time (both are self-employed; and has made them ineligible for free childcare. That level of opportunity cost is not long-term sustainable.
• People have asked if BJC 2026 would like donations to help with the costs of the wind damage – the BJC can’t take more income, but we will connect dots for people to donate to Fiery Jack’s and Spinning @. Please ask if you’d like to donate to these places.

Future Bids - Andy
• No interest yet for 2027. If there is anyone, please come and talk to the current team.
• Andrew & Lucie want to bid for 2028. Been looking at other venues, have a broad bid. Can help with 2027.
• If you want to know things – email the CIC email address. (One group said they didn’t bid for 2027 because there wasn’t a BJC Business Meeting in 2025.)
• If you want to run a BJC in 2027 but can’t find a venue, talk to Lucie and Andrew – they could potentially help with this step.

2028 Bid - Andrew
• Use a bigger, more suitable, venue, e.g. a showground.
• Grow to just over 1000 attendees.
• Include other related communities, e.g. unicyclists and kendamas.
• If that falls through, could default back to here for the venue.
Community present voted in favour.

Notices - Dee
• Return clean plates to the caterers.
• Vehicles tomorrow – need lots of volunteers to marshal. Under 10mph if you’re moving, put your hazards on.
• Off site by 2pm absolute latest. If you’re here past that, we expect you to be VERY helpful.
• There will be a skip arriving for rubbish just outside Reg. Desk. If you can take broken tents home and then dispose of them, that would be great. NO GAS CANISTERS in general waste.