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CameronFord -

Another great edition of DJCC!
Arrived on the Friday evening and had fun hanging out, playing some dobble and doing a little bit of juggling in the hub.
Got a good night's sleep in a dorm room and woke up ready for some juggling on Saturday.
The venue on Saturday is really good, with squash courts for workshops, a nice big main hall and a side hall as well if the main hall is too busy.
I started off with some hoop passing before moving on to club passing. Managed to juggle a pattern I recently came up with: https://passing.zone/cambled-v/
Finished the day with some ring passing.
Went into town for some food before the show.
The show was amazing this year - best one day convention show I can remember for a long time. The headline act did some very impressive unicycling and rola bola.
Lisa Ellipse was amazing <3
Keith and Antonia had some really nice flowy acts and the compare did a great job.
Looking forward to next year already!


#DJCC2022 #ConventionReview

momo - - Parent

It is nice to see Andy juggling.

Maria -

EJC 2022

Finally, three years from the last EJC, time to meet again!

So... EJC Tres Cantos.

I had a great week! Stayed at a hotel this time because I wanted air-conditioning, didn't regret that choice.

The weather was hot. Each day as hot as the Swedish heat record.

The site was... Well... Spread out, rather than large. A lot of walking between the different gyms, bars, camping spaces and shows. The electric scooters helped, towards the middle of the week there seemed to be more of them, usually available at all the places where the jugglers were.

Air-conditioning in the main hall didn't work well enough to keep it cool. Sure, it was better than outdoors... The 12h gym was better, but still warm.

I spent most of the days in the 12h gym, which was claimed by the passers as passing zone already on the second day. That was a nice gym. That's where I started my days, after buying breakfast on the way. The distance to the main gym meant I usually didn't go there until in the evenings. Which also means that I didn't really see the workshop boards. I didn't participate in a single workshop this year.

The main site bar was kind of boring, the only drinks offered were beer or soda, and I don't like beer. The bar at the fire space was somewhat better, also offering Cuba libre and yin lemon. I bought cider at the supermarket instead.

Food options on site were limited, basically pizza or noodles. The pizza was not bad, but the non-existent queue system meant it was difficult to get food there at the most busy times (like, right after a show). There were restaurants nearby, though, so I went off-site for dinner with friends most evenings.

There were quite a few things that could have worked better, but mostly minor things. Inconsistent maps, where the printed map showed the wrong location for the 12h gym. Program changes that were sometimes announced online, sometimes on info boards in the main hall, and you weren't always sure which information was the latest. That got better towards the end of the week, though. Shows, music, renegade was initially planned for after midnight, but had to end at midnight for "legal reasons". This made them move the renegade to the main gym, pretty much the only indoor space they could use, but that made the hall noisy and, together with the heat, not a very nice place for late night juggling. And it was the only place for late night juggling.

I also noticed that badges were not always checked when entering areas where there was supposed to be badge control, like the main camping.

Shows? I didn't watch that many shows.
Air-conditioning in the big top worked really well. Almost too well... But, well, at least it was a break from the heat.
The Mediterranean show was good, the second act (three people, one unicycle, a few juggling clubs) was great!
The gala show was okay, some good acts, but nothing extraordinary. I liked the ring juggling act (the solo act) best. The trapeze act was also good. The bounce juggling was probably good on another stage, where the audience is all in the front, but not very interesting from the side.

I only visited the Traders to get my clubs serviced by Henry's. Would probably have gone there to look around a bit at some point, too, had it been closer to where I was juggling all day.

Anyway, the people is what makes the EJC, and this years event was as filled with wonderful, friendly people as always. And since I have been to every EJC since 2014, and a few other conventions, too, I now know enough people to often be able to find someone I know even when the people I know best are doing something else.

So, the best thing for me was probably that for once I can't remember any point during the event when I felt lonely. Probably has more to do with a few friends of mine than anything else, but still. That usually happens to me even at large events...

#EJC2022TresCantos #ConventionReview

5balls -

#NBGCON11 #ConventionReview

Last weekend I went to the juggling convention in Nürnberg in germany - sometimes the largest juggling convention in germany so lets write about it. It got quite long but I hope it might be interesting for some :).

I had to go there after work, so at 3 p.m. I took my stuff and jumped on the bus to the train station. Wonder why my stuff is always so heavy, I had packed a backpack with my juggling props i.e. four clubs, three cigar boxes, 12 balls (ok, could have packed less, just took two bags), one contact juggling ball, four rings and clothing, sleeping back, air matress and hygenic stuff. I thought it was minimal but boy was it heavy again!

And then I also took my finnish grammar and flashcards with me - it was a three hour train ride and I thought I could learn some on the train. But then I met two jugglers sometimes attending our club meeting, so I had a nice conversation with them instead.

Arriving on Nürnberg I had the adress but did not remember the station where to get out and getting out at the station named after the street was not the best choice but the walk was not too bad. We had met some jugglers from Nürnberg on the tram, one who had the strong frankish dialect and tried to guide us a bit but admitted that he had never been to this part of town. With smartphone navigation it was still easy to find.

The juggling convention takes place in a huge (for german standards) school as it is an indoor convention at this time of the year. There were some people playing with fire toys on the schoolyard, when we arrived. The theme of the convention was "Artenschutz" which translates literally to "Protection of species" and less literally to "Wildlife conservation". Arriving there where some tree branches forming an ark behind the door and some clubs decorated as animals, i.e. a bee. There was also a frog making frog noises when passing. Registration went smooth with the preregistered online ticket with a barcode on it (I'm thinking about reintroducing such tickets for our own convention in Tübingen again) but funnily for the preregistered tickets there was a queue while for the non registered jugglers there was none. Anyway I only had to wait very shortly which is impressive for a convention with more than 700 jugglers at least (this was the number of preregistered people I heard - total number of jugglers will have been higher. Two years ago it was over a thousand people making it the largest convention in germany, larger than the convention in Berlin). The badge was a small bag with a seed bomb in it. We had jokingly said, that they stole the theme from our juggling convention in Tübingen which was earlier this year in september. Our juggling convention had the theme "Juggling for future" and we had small bags with seeds in it as badges as well - so there were some parallels... but honestly it was kind of inevitable that two conventions chose the same motto this year and when you choose this motto the badge idea is also quite obvious. Apart from that our convention is with 100 to 200 people max one tenths smaller so we don't really compete ;).

After receiving my badge I was looking for Peter who had arrived earlier and would have reserved a sleeping place in one of the classrooms for me. I didn't see him but a lot of others jugglers from my juggling club sitting at the mensa tables of the school. When I texted him where he was he texted back to look right... he had sat on one of the neighbouring tables all along... duh :). I took my stuff and set up my sleeping place. The room was quite nice and I had a sort of corner because someone had put up a table with some cloth next to me. Also it was better than the two other rooms you had to pass through to get to our room - it would have been much nicer for the people sleeping there, if they had opened the other stairwell but I understand that they did not want to make another badge control point there.

This year the food was provided by a vegetarian catering service, which prooved to be a good choice. Considering how many hours on work we put into cooking food on our convention, this is really neat, but probably not feasible for the size of our convention. After getting my plate of curry I set next to Peter and watched some of the people playing fire. There were a lot of staff players but nothing particularly standing out when we watched. I think we juggled for a bit after that but my memory is fading, should have made notes there :).

Anyway we saw the open stage - which was good. There was a czech (?) juggler with a staff which took the character of a sailor. He reminded me strongly of Alexander Koblikov and maybe his act was inspired on it but it was an original act, where he rolled the staff on his had while juggling three balls - quite impressive and if he works on it and extends it can be a quite nice show act on its own.

We considered watching the fire open stage but as it was starting to rain, we went back inside. Juggling in the main hall prooved to be quite difficult as it was quite cramped (even though it was a big hall with 1200 square meters). We went to the small hall to see if there was more space there. There was going to be a juggling competition there so we stayed to watch these. They said that there would not be a fight night combat* and that there would be a one to one juggling competition instead. I did not get the exact rules and I did not really care - in my opinion they could have done without the jury and competition altogether - but what I cared about was the high level technical juggling which was very impressive. I particular enjoyed the juggling of Ludwig Klam who - apart from other crazy tricks - did a five ball boston mess. I did some solo juggling after that and I think I went to bed somewhere around 2 a.m..

Breakfast on the next morning was quite good with some typical german choices (i.e. breadrolls, several cold cuts, cheese, vegetarian spreads, Müsli, fruits and some vegetables, milk, coffee, tea as beverages). It is quite common for german conventions to provide breakfast and one dinner on the arrival day with the convention ticket and this convention was a bargain with 25 Euro including all of that (including the gala show ticket) but venue costs vary quite a lot in germany. The costs for renting such a school for the weekend varies between nothing to some thousand euros depending on the regulations of the city (unfortunately in Tübingen I think we are at the higher end of the spectrum). Second day dinner was not included but could be purchased for another five euro, which I did.

Did some nice juggling on this day - nothing particular new but some solid solo work and some nice passing session which included other people from the convention so all was good :). Also saw a nice four person feed with three people rotating around each other in a cascade way which looked quite feasible for our juggling club as well (We tried it this week but it did not work as well as I thought it would. But I'm sure we can make it work if we work on it). Also brought one of my clubs for repairs to Henry's who had a small stand beside the main hall. It was not really broken but the silver foil on one of the clubs handles was disappearing and I don't like the feeling of that so much. Considering they completely replaced the handle, the top and the knob for five euros I'm quite happy with that.

We went into Nürnberg city to get some gingerbread as well. Nürnberg is well known for its gingerbread so when you are there at this season of the year it is really not avoidable - you have to eat it - I'd say ;). My smartphone showed me a gingerbread store quite near and it was on a quite nice island but we did not find the cheap "Lebkuchenbruch" stuff there. "Bruch" means literally "broken", and it is some of the gingerbread they consider of being not good enough for the normal sale. In reality it may have some small optical defects but is as good as the normal stuff but considerable cheaper. We went a bit further to the second gingerbread store (yes, there are several stores in Nürnberg selling nothing else than gingerbread) and there they had some "Lebkuchenbruch". I think I paid something like nine euros something for a pack of 500 g of chocolate coated "Elisenlebkuchen" - very good quality stuff and indeed I did not saw anything wrong with them why they considered them "Bruch".

I had a ticket for the early gala show which was a bit stupid, as all my friends had tickets for the late show but I either didn't pay enough attention when doing the prereg or I did not know which show they would take. Either way I was standing in line quite early because I knew there would form a queue quite early and I wanted to have a good seat. The venue in the school is quite good. I don't know how many people fit in there (I would guess about 300-500) but it is in an amphitheater like stage with the stage being almost circular and being as close to the audience as it can be. The show was fantastic. The moderator Shiva Grings took up the motto of the convention and had the character of an expedition manager looking into strange creatures. As Matthias Romir was the artistic producer of the show again this year my expectations where quite high and I was not disappointed. When seeing the many hats on stage in the beginning I was wondering if it was an showact I had seen before and quite enjoyed. It was a different show but by the same guy, Michael Zandl and again it was very good! I'm normally not so much into hats but this is really good! There was an act of physical theatre where Anita Bertolami took on different roles which was quite funny and impressive but maybe could have been a bit shorter. After the break there was a diabolo act from Solvejg Weyeneth which I really loved. Again, I'm usually not into diabolo acts as often they are just like "Hey I'm soo cool look at what tricks I can do" type of acts, but this was totally different. Very creative use of two lines which were spanned over the stage and quite high technical level - as far as I can tell; I'm not a diabolo player. The dart act of Bernhard Zandl I had seen before (in fact he had won the cabaret price "Tübinger Fröschle" on our own convention with this act this year) but it is a very good act and I enjoyed watching it a second time. There was a good acrobatic act by Dries Vanwalle and Xenia Bannuscher which I might have seen before and the very good food juggling by Ariane Öchsner and Roxana Küven which I have seen some times before but enjoyed very much watching again. The last act by Florent Lestage was something I had never seen before. He combined canes with clubs and a quirky humour and it was a very enjoyable and creative act.
I did more juggling on the convention and was quite exhausted but happy after this days. Ride back to Tübingen with Peter was uneventfull but nice. Overall it was a really nice convention (and the last one of the year if you don't count the Glühwein juggling convention or the Passout juggling convention around newyear) the only thing is that the juggling hall can get quite full - which is not surprising considering how many people were there. I guess you can't do much about that though - it seemed more full than two years ago (Nürnberg juggling convention is every other year) and I wonder if that is because there were more jugglers or they were more motivated ;). Maybe we german jugglers should get less disciplined and more lazy like the clichee of british jugglers ;).

*I heard there still was a fight night on saturday but apparently I only heard of it afterwards ;). Even though I'm probably in no position to have an opinion on that having neither taken part in a fight night nor in a convention in Berlin I wonder if there should not be more points for a convention of this size and juggling level. On the other hand maybe this is fair considering the best players currently live in Berlin.

JonPeat - - Parent

Thank you for writing your review, I enjoyed it. :-)
I was very interested to hear about the shops dedicated entirely to gingerbread.

What did you do for your evening meals at the convention?
Were there restaurants nearby?

Was it outdoor camping / cooking as well as sleeping in classrooms or did everyone enjoy the luxury of sleeping indoors?
Does the venue change every 2x years?

Thanks again,

Cheers, Jon

5balls - - Parent

Glad you enjoyed it :)

It was not too far from the center of Nürnberg, so it would not have been a problem to go to a nearby restaurant, however food on friday evening was included in the convention ticket and for saturday I paid five euros extra to eat at the convention as well (Usually the prices you pay help the convention pay their bills, so they also sold snacks, drinks and gingerbread at the convention). The convention ended on sunday afternoon and I just took a good breakfast on sunday morning and had brought some food with me for the return trip. I only ate a very big breakfast in the morning and in the evening... usual procedure on juggling conventions for me (ok some Lebkuchen in between ;)).

There was no option for outdoor camping but it would have been quite tough anyway I think :). Maybe british jugglers are a bit tougher ;) , but I think the average german juggler would not camp at this temperatures outside (two years ago there was snow on this convention which we didn't have this time but still I would not go outside without jacket). But they have quite a lot of classrooms for sleeping (which even had carpet, so it was quite nice). I forgot to mention that they also had put signs on any room for the endangered art form - I slept in the Hula Hoop room :D.

It was the same venue two years ago, but I can't tell for the previous years. Usually if the venue is good and there is no problem (like changed regulations / prices) it tends to be the same venue every time. I've been just told by a juggling friend that there were less participants than two years ago so my impression was apparently wrong. He didn't have any numbers though. There is a big juggling convention in Munich also every two years on the other year, but that could also be coincidence, I think this is organized by a different team. I have not been there yet though (maybe I will go next year).

BTW, are you one of the organizers of Chocfest? If it would not be so far this is one convention I would definitely attend :).

Cheers,
Florian

JonPeat - - Parent

I was just surprised that there was indoor sleeping room for everyone (700 - 1000 jugglers).
Sounds like a big place.

I am not one of the Chocfest organisers but will be there in January to enjoy all of the chocolate cakes. It's worth the trip! ;-)

Cheers, Jon

Maria -

Swedish Juggling Convention 2018!

Well, JugglingEdge asked what it was like for me, so here we go...

Me and the Swedish Juggling Convention:
This was my 6th time going to the SJC, every year since 2013, and the second time it was held in Tranemo.

The venue:
Tranemo is a small town, and a little bit cumbersome to get to if you are not driving. At least 3 buses from the closest airport, or two buses from a somewhat large train station, or one bus from a small train station.

Other than that, the venue is great!
In the same building, there is:
Gym 1, 24h juggling space
Gym 2, extra juggling space during the day, sleeping hall during the night.
Small dining area
Small kitchen (mostly used by organisers for breakfast, coffee and tea for the participants)
Plenty of (hot) showers and toilets
Saunas
...even a swimming pool, that was open for the jugglers during a few hours on one of the days.

The show was held in an adjacent building, and there is a grocery store right across the street.

While the sleeping hall was a bit cold the first night, it got better for the second and third... At least I think so, I was wearing some extra clothes for those nights though. My sleeping bag is for summer camping, I'm sure it was not an issue for anyone with a warmer sleeping bag.

The jugglers:
About 45 people participated in the convention this year. Many of them were the Swedish jugglers that I am used to meeting at SJC, but there were also some new faces. As usual, all of them really nice people, and I didn't feel the slightest bit worried about leaving wallet and phone in the gym when going to eat in the dining area.

Food:
Included in the ticket price was simple breakfast (corn flakes with milk/yoghurt/vegan options, sandwiches with ham/cheese/hummus, orange juice, coffee, tea),
and a hot meal a day! (Choice between "meat" or "vegan" meal.) The food was good, but the best thing about food included in the ticket, in my opinion, is that everyone eats together. A good opportunity to chat with someone you don't know yet!

The show:
The gala show was held in a school building next to the gym. The performers were good, but there were too many "slow" acts. I got a bit bored, actually. I did enjoy the last acts, though, a ring act by Filip Zahradnický and a somewhat more "traditional" circus juggling act by Lauri Koskinen.
All five acts were solo acts. Some kind of duo or group act would have been nice.

Workshops:
There were workshops. I'm not that good at attending workshops if they are not about club passing... But I went to Speed Passing (of course), "Juggling technique" (with Lauri Koskinen) and part of the "Add movement to your juggling". I also tried a few throws from the ring juggling workshop.

The Club Passing:
Well, here is my main reason for going to juggling conventions! Most of the jugglers participated in the Speed Passing, which was great, but we didn't have enough time to actually let everyone pass with each other.
I passed a lot with O (often with 1-3 more jugglers), with V and with S. Mostly patterns that I have done before (if you want to know which ones they are in my log). I also passed a little bit with beginners.

The Games:
Pretty much the usual games. I participated in "Simon Says", "Jugglers Long Jump", "Gandini Crown Gladiators" and "Combat", but without any chance of winning any of them. No club passing, unfortunately.

Open stage/Renegade:
A combined Open Stage and Renegade was held in the main gym on the last evening. The open stage acts were nice. The renegade was OK but a bit too long, in the end it was just the same people coming up on stage over and over again to show a new trick. Nice tricks for sure, but after spending part of the afternoon watching games I wanted to juggle. It felt a little bit rude to walk away when most people stayed to watch, but eventually me and S did that anyway, and took our clubs to the second gym for some passing. S was only there over the day and had also spent time watching games, so we were happy when the renegade ended so we could find some more passers. Not that I don't enjoy 2-people passing with S, but we pass together every week anyway.

Other:
Great organising team that wants to keep organising the Swedish Juggling Convention, in the same place, for at least a few years. We are hoping for the convention to grow! Thank you!

A bit surprised that I didn't see anyone playing board games this year. There are usually at least a few people doing that in the evenings. I think most people spent the late evenings either juggling or in the sauna.

Great jugglers doing awesome tricks! Happy that a few of them also posted videos on Facebook after the convention.

Sometimes when people do awesome tricks I can't help feeling a little bit like it's useless for me to juggle, I'll never be close to their level anyway... At other times, it is inspiring and I just want to juggle more. Well. At least it is fun, and I think I am a decent club passer by now, though not a very good solo juggler.

#SJC2018 #ConventionReview

david - - Parent

Great review. You had me at sauna and the food included sounds good too. Please alert the Edge about next years registration, even though it's not too likely I'll be able to get there.

Maria - - Parent

Thank you!

Yes, sauna is very nice after a day of juggling.

Sure, I'll let the Edge know, if the organisers don't. :) The convention is always during Easter, so usually it's possible to combine it with BJC (I did that last year).

JonPeat -

Camvention 2017 - Review

Thank you for running another excellent convention, Camvention! :-D

I have written a review and I know some of you are excited to read it. Unfortunately, it will not be posted online till Wednesday this week due to delays on the IJA side of the pond.

JonPeat - - Parent

... interestingly a copied and pasted emoji from Facebook meant the rest of message was not posted...

Here it is:

Thank you for running another excellent convention, Camvention! :-D

I have written a review and I know some of you are excited to read it. Unfortunately, it will not be posted online till Wednesday this week due to delays on the IJA side of the pond. (sad emoji face with a little tear on its sad face)

If you keep an eye on this page you may get the first glimpse when it does come online: https://www.juggle.org/category/ejuggle-festival-reviews/

I will re-post with a direct link when it does become available. :-)

Scott Seltzer - - Parent

https://www.juggle.org/camvention-2017-cambridge-juggling-convention-review-uk/

Delays were on the IJA side of the Mediterranean.

-Scott

Orinoco -

I just got back from Bungay 18. On the journey up, the A12 was closed for resurfacing. After a slow single lane stretch myself & the six cars between me & a very distinctive lorry all followed the diversion signs which led us in a neat circle back into the slow single lane stretch which was somewhat irritating. Then I arrived on site, stress immediately dissipated & it all went a bit Bungay.

In no particular order then…

We enjoyed glorious sunshine for the whole week aside from a brief ~20 minute rainy spell. 4 of us stood just inside the entrance of the main tent looking out at the rain. Then in silence & led by Avril we all just stepped outside to enjoy the cooling effect which was a lovely moment. Some people get wet, others feel the rain.

On my first night I broke into a bottle of Becherovka that I acquired over Christmas & enjoyed sharing it with others. It's an interesting drink; I describe it as a liquid mince pie. I think slightly more people enjoyed it than didn't. This may have been a contributing factor to Richard, Ewan, Sam & I rigorously debating the precise nature of Kelis' milkshake & her yard well into the next day.

I woke up the next morning almost as drunk as I was when I went to bed.

Bungay is all about the board games for me. This year I added a copy of Kingdomino to my games collection. A very simple domino themed deck building game that I heartily recommend to everyone.

I played several 3+ hour games over the week: Caverna with Kat, Susannah, Adam & Andy, Castles of Mad King Ludvig with Andy, Ron & Richard, Small Worlds with Dom, Ernest, Jude & Anna (which saw some poor decisions based on some very suspect counting I thought), & Say Goodbye to the Villains; a card game that simulates a battle in feudal Japan, after which I felt I had genuinely been in a physical fight. Shockingly the annual Power Grid session was not one of them which we managed to race through in an unprecedented 2 hours.

All this was nothing to the game of croquet featuring myself, Ewan, Mandy, Ash & Greg. I wisely kitted myself out with my tea-towel headgear to protect my neck from the relentless sun. I would not have been able to survive the game without it. This earned me the nickname Orinoco of Arabia from spectators. Earlier in the week Kat was chatting to a friend who plays croquet competitively. It turns out that at Bungay we play a mixture of American rules & English rules, & our posting rule that sends a player back to the beginning is something we have just made up & is not played anywhere else. Apparently the friend was horrified when they found out about our rule, "That would make a game last for hours!" Yes, yes it does. All 5 of the players were posted twice, Mandy was posted 3 times. I was agonisingly one hoop away from invincibility just before both of my postings. For the long range posting attempts we employed the 'post or buttercups' technique, which is where you line up the shot to send your opponent into the post, but take a golf swing so that if you miss the force of the shot sends them out of bounds & deep into the field. When I posted Greg I was momentarily worried that I cracked the post. Incidentally in non-Bungay croquet if your ball is sent out of bounds you are supposed to bring your ball back & drop it just inside the boundary. We circumvent this rule by not having any boundaries. This allowed Ewan to tie up Ash for 3 turns by sending his ball into someone's tiny popup tent. 5 hours into the game concentration, stamina & will to live were all waning severely. The only thing that held in all players was sheer bloody-mindedness. When Ash made it through the last gate it looked like it was going to be all over, but he missed a shot allowing Greg to get through the last gate too, then he pulled off a splendidly executed 8 shot sequence to clinch the game. Not bad for only his 2nd ever match.

I discovered one of the caterers, Greg, was Romanian which allowed me to try out some of my Romanian language skills. Unfortunately for him my Romanian is entirely focused on flirting with a beautiful lady friend who I go dancing with, but I think he handled it pretty well.

Heckmeck Barbecue is a game involving gambling on the rolls of 8 die. I was pretty good at quickly calculating the odds, but the thing about probabilities is even the unlikely outcomes happen occasionally. Kat rolling 4 1s when almost anything except a 1 would do was amusing, me rolling 4 worms, then 2 5s, then another 2 5s to bust less so. Void's yes/no game complete with the oh so satisfying reception bell turned very rowdy very quickly. Farmer Paul's attempt at the game was hilarious. Only he could ramble for 3 minutes on the simple question, "Do you have a favourite actress?"

Dominique particularly enjoyed Andy & I relentlessly spit roasting Richard during Robo Rally. This was another long gaming session that was interrupted for a brief argument involving everyone in the cafe over the correct pronunciation of 'scone'.

I had a look at Dee's notebook that included detailed analysis of the copious amount of gin flowing on site. I thought my notes were hard to follow but at least I don't jump my sentences back & forth over several lines. The joyously incoherent Chilli had quite clearly been involved in the tasting process.

I enjoyed talking to Dr Helen, I find the life of a working doctor incredible & fascinating.

On the far side of the camping area there was a minor campfire incident, fortunately I had a saucepan of washing up water in my hand when I heard the call. I don't think it would have turned into anything serious.

Eddy Bacon's contact juggling was superb in the show. I also very much enjoyed Karen's belly dance, Avril's song describing Bungay from the point of view of an alien & Duncan's juggling bird impressions.

I did a couple of short handstand sessions & about 5 minutes of club juggling over the course of the week. I think my transition to social juggler is complete.

#BBU2017 #conventionreview

lukeburrage - - Parent

" It turns out that at Bungay we play a mixture of American rules & English rules, & our posting rule that sends a player back to the beginning is something we have just made up & is not played anywhere else."

This explains a lot.

charlieh - - Parent

The Bungay rules of croquet are based on my hazy recollections of how I played at home as a kid. Since I first introduced the current set to Bungay (and large parts of it survive even though I've replaced quite a lot via eBay) I think it's perfectly fitting that we stick to them...even introduce them to others in an attempt to shake up the croquet world!

The Void - - Parent

I thought they were based on how Simon taught me, and others, when we played at his house. Anyway, Bungay rules rock. And 4 hour games are just fine. (But 5+ is pushing it.)

charlieh - - Parent

OK. Maybe it's a combination....in any case, our rules is right and their rules is wrong.

Orinoco - - Parent

Absolutely, I think I'd find anything other than Bungay rules croquet to be boring.

Funny thing is I've been having conversations about croquet with muggles for years about what a savage & vindictive game croquet is. Now I know that they've only played croquet lite.

I think the Bungay rules need to be written up for the Bungay website.

The Void - - Parent

I think you might need to ask a Squirrel whether the correct spelling of "Greg" might, in some circumstances, be "Bogdan".
Oh, and it's definitely pronounced "scone".

Orinoco - - Parent

It might indeed, I just took the first syllable from the first of his somewhat excessive amount of names from the full name on his FB profile!

& don't you go trying to provoke another pronunciation war. We are a tolerant & peaceful community here on the Edge where all 3 possible pronunciations are acceptable.

Cedric Lackpot - - Parent

'Twas my first one for about six years, so I made up for it by attending twice ... and it would've been three times had I stopped over on Monday night as well.

Bungay tings :-

  1. The weather.
  2. The weather.
  3. The weather.
  4. Being back in the laid-back convention loop after waaaay too long a hiatus.
  5. Ewan, Becky, Greig, Karen, Mandy, Leo, Freya, Ron, Rob, Cathy, Tarim, Guy, Susannah, and all the rest. Old friends the lot of you (even the ones I haven't known very long) and I am very grateful for your company.
  6. The truly humungous hare in the road just before I arrived the second time. Up close wildlife infallibly raises my spirits and leaves me agog with wonder.
  7. Andy's improbably crap Kubb shot. I'm still chuckling about it now.
  8. Although it still hurts me deeply, I must not forget our dear and absent friend Gary, whom I miss every day.

Anyhow, it'll probably be back again next year, but you really shouldn't come, you wouldn't like it.

charlieh - - Parent

8...for those of you who couldn't make it: There was an informal gathering in the tent on Sunday afternoon over tea & cake, where we shared memories of Gary (some were written down for posterity) and some people made woven paracord shapes, which was a favourite of his.

We will not forget. It is a testament to the strength of our community - and of some particular members of it - that after such a terrible shock last year we continue to come together and share such joy.

Dee - - Parent

My Bungay

Arrived Saturday lunchtime with Sam, having caught the train from London Liverpool St together. Met by Void at Halesworth Station. Some confusion as to if we needed to wait for Sarah, but she was arriving into Bungay so no need. Stopped off in the co-op before making our way to site.

Erected tent just to the edge of the family camping area and then went for a wander. This didn't prove to be the potential disaster that it could have been. It turns out that while most noises wake me up at night, apparently I can sleep right through children crying!

Off site adventures during my stay included: 1 trip to Co-op with Andy; 1 trip to Southwold (Tuesday); 1 trip to river swimming (Thursday); 1 walk to the brewery and back (Sunday - but I was back onsite before the brewery opened).

Mostly I was very lazy, in particular on the second Saturday, when my silk sleeping bag liner saw some good use on the couch [I was completely done in by the heat and sinus medication]. I read lots of books, juggled some on Sunday morning, encouraged Ash more (well done on the progression from 10 to over 100 catches of three clubs in a week and hence winning £5) and generally took the chance to catch up with people. Watched the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte's van.

Some cunning plans formed for EJC2019, including introducing "Bungay rules" croquet to the masses and a mini-golf course. Of course only time, resources and space on the Newark site will see if these can actually come into fruition (so no holding breath on these).

Gin tasting notes to follow. Participants in this gin tasting session were me, LP, Ewan, Becky, Helen and later joined by Robbie. So, Orin, I'm afraid that your speculation about Chilli being involved were wide of the mark. My notes were hampered by my resolution to keep all the notes about each gin on a different page - one gin in particular had rather extensive comments.

Left site at midday on Monday, dropped by David to Halesworth Station to begin my rather epic public transport journey back to Bristol, the first stage (to Ipswich) accompanied by Greg and Karen.

Orinoco - - Parent

Your sleeping bag liner made for a very effective camouflage against the sofa you were sleeping on. A couple of people took a detour to an alternative seat when they got close enough to realise.

Don't forget the Blankety blank theme tune for your playlist!

charlieh - - Parent

Wow, that was a wonderful 10 days.

Notwithstanding our house being demolished around us, so we have no idea where anything is, and our car needing replacement the day before the festival (I bought another car, which initially had no MOT, faster than I've ever bought one before), we weren't going to miss this year at any price.

Highlights included some of the warmest and sunniest weather for years, meaning we spent a lot of time at the seaside and the river. Smoked mackerel bought directly from the fisherman at Aldeburgh eaten on the beach with our fingers. Brave women swimming in the North Sea at Southwold while all the men except equally brave Russell looked on, followed by a hilarious group effort to preserve Anna's modesty with a tent of towels as she changed (Europeans you probably won't understand this bit). What seemed like endless lazy days in the buttercup field watching kites fly, children run about and croquet played. Later sat in a wood-fired hot tub at 2 in the morning watching the International Space Station cross the sky.

The Bungay show was well....the most Bungay ever. We had a novice and friendly compere, belly dancing, two songs, a group kids act (which my daughter punctuated with a sudden spectacular nosebleed), 3-ball bird impressions, that trick again, pole spinning and Eddy Bacon's flawless contact. It felt like a village talent show, in a good way. Afterwards a few people wanted to learn 'that trick' and I spent some time teaching ball spinning. We also played a lot of volleyclub with quite a few beginners learning the ropes (and the Bungay rules, which can best be described as 'don't be *too* evil'). We even had a Fight Night - I finished fourth after folding in the final stages, partly due to being intimidated by those who take it seriously.

Cafe Chameleon cooked tasty grub (seriously, if you're involved in a UK event you should book them, they're lovely) all week including a couple of Sunday roasts using meat from the farm itself. St Peters Brewery had its annual spike in sales of Badly Labelled Beer. In between jugglers' generosity manifested itself as crisps, chocolate, cake and beverages were shared. Lots of games were played apparently, including the ones which cover an entire table with cardboard bits and take far too long to complete. Endless conversations about subjects both serious and silly (I remember: Victorian rainwater collection systems, boat welding and 'beating the boundary').

There were some new additions to the family: first-timer adults declaring they were *definitely* coming back again next time and tiny kids discovering how to stay up late and run around in the buttercups. Our two raided Bungay's extensive charity shops for slightly battered toys & books and the youngest became slightly obsessed with origami (when he wasn't involved in the ongoing Nerf Ninja war fought valiantly between tents and from behind old sofas and chairs).

The world's shortest and most relaxed 'business meeting' concluded that a) wasn't it good b) let's do it again c) let's not change much at all. Bungay will be back next year.

The Void - - Parent

Poker data updated: https://tlmb.net/misc/BBUPokerTournamentsBunagyBallsUp.txt

The Void - - Parent

My pics are up (Some IG repetition) at https://tlmb.net/galleries/BBU18/ No re-uploads, please.

The Void - - Parent

The epic splendour of BBU Fight Night can be seen here:
http://juggling.tv/16463

The Void - - Parent

Set-up slogging.
Completing my collection of The Catch.
Cubing Rubiks.
Lost Cities, Chess, Chessss And Ladders, The Game, The Yes-No game, Spyfall, The Oxford Word game, Robots both ricochet and Micro, boiled head Kuub, Table Tennis. That 5-in-a-row tile game I don't know the name of.
Charity shopping.
Slingshots.
Birdsong.
Crosswords.
The BBU backcross challenge, and other silliness at the top of the field.
New people!
Nut roasts and halloumi at Chameleon Cafe.
The horrible weather.
Charlie taking the quiz win, after 2nd place last year. Monte & Nat in the final too.
Being rubbish at the BBU trick in the show. I'm blaming borrowed equipment.
Undefeated at Scrabble, Croquet and Chessss And Ladders.
The sky full of stars, kites, satellites, and planets.
Filming kendama tricks.
Forgetting the grudge match and substitute poker trophies.
Finally getting to hold the poker trophy, a year after winning it... But only by making a new one.
Handing out ice creams, and getting the karma back a few days later.
Charging phone and ipod exclusively from solar all week.
Observing the progress of Monte's van.
Wood pigeons nesting above the sink.
No cats.
Supercool people being nonetheless cancer-seeking stench-ridden junkies.
Getting Paul's missing 50th answer in his bird quiz.
Dave's plaintiff "But I've already come second!" a couple of hands before condemning Andy into his 4th runner-up spot.
Post-show diabolo session with Sean_ and Susannah.
Fight Night turning out to be quite fun, even though beforehand I was very unenthused about running it. Plus... points!
- "I've had enough of feeling stupid for tonight."
- "See you in the morning!"
Avril's BBU song.
No trebuchet! (It was a fallow year.)

Monte - - Parent

Turning £2 into £25.50 over 4 cash games. (only 4! I was starting to think Bungay might be broken).
Building my new kitchen instead of repairing last years Trebuchet.....mixed feelings about this.
Being persecuted by Charlie in the 15 to 1 final because he saw me as the greatest threat.....
Having some great games of whiff waff with the riff raff (having a winning total against everyone except Mandy)
Actually spending some time juggling (well you have to do something while you wait for the ping pong table to become free)
New faces this year was a great thing.
Helping Clare and Chilli in the cafe with contributions such as venison pie, spinach and cream cheese crepes and pineapple upside down cake.
Winning the grudge match trophy off Ewan with a str8 on the flop.

All this and some great weather made for one of the best Bungays yet.
If you haven't been to BBU yet, why the hell not it's great.......

charlieh - - Parent

sorry to persecute but I had to win after last year's Mastermind second place. Would have preferred to face Void again this year but I suppose someone had to run the quiz...at least that was his excuse!

The Void - - Parent

Ron has offered to run the quiz next year, so you'll get your rematch. Frances Farmer shall have her revenge on Seattle.

Orinoco -

The 30th British Juggling Convention, Nottingham

First thing on the morning after the BJC I laid out my tent, mopped the underside, applied some spray polish to the zips (try it, it works wonders!) then left it out to dry. I returned to it an hour later to find I had laid it out over an ant colony. Much of this review was written in between picking ants off of my clothes. Try not to scratch while reading this.

Stephen, this is what a long piece of text looks like.

Friday, 7th April

My BJC started at 5:30am on Friday morning. After a bowl of porridge & a very picturesque drive watching the sun rise over the misty Sussex & Kent countryside I arrived at Kevin's place just before 7am. We crammed everything we had into the boot including Dorothy before picking John up from Etchingham station. Thankfully he just had the one bag to squeeze in. The drive to Nottingham was pretty uneventful. We stopped for a second breakfast off the M1 where we had a nice full English including satisfyingly thick cut bacon & a serious wedge of black pudding. John spent a quid less than us on some onion rings from elsewhere in the services then had to break into his camping supplies when he got back in the car. There was one slow spot where everyone was slowing down to look at a car on its roof but we made good time & arrived in Nottingham at about midday. We picked up some supplies at the nearby Asda where I had the pleasure of using the world's squeakiest wheeled shopping basket. We also scouted out a promising local cafe for breakfast in the morning.

We arrived on site around 12:30pm. Fellow TWJCer Nicola was already there having set off at 4am. I know she has a crazy high IQ, but when she does stuff like that it doesn't do her any favours. We helped set up some tables for the bar area & finished off the last section of fencing for the camp site. Site supremo Anna Inman was rightfully very pleased to have the site ready to open 2 hours before the official opening time. I took the tour of the car parks & arranged to do the second shift on one of the marshal posts. However, when I turned up for duty after pitching my tent I wasn't needed.

We made camp just inside the inner wooden fence by the gate on the left hand side of the campsite as you came from the main building. This was a good idea because if we were anywhere else I would've been tempted to vault the fence to save myself a trek & I would definitely have hurt myself.

At some point in between all that I picked up my registration pack from the main reg desk which appeared to be well organised & running efficiently. Our pass this year was a printed fabric wristband with a pressed metal clamp the same as used for BJC 2016 however, the fabric this year was silky smooth making the pass much more comfortable to wear. Kudos to whoever produced the information booklet, top quality all round.

I spent most of the afternoon saying hello to old friends that I haven't seen for ages. It was great to see Izzy back to her effervescent bouncy self after her ordeal at Crawley festival last year. She was acting chaperone for her friend Steve who was there for his first ever BJC. I met up with Mark Watson & Jon Peat in the campsite & introduced them to Dorothy. Jon was nursing a broken left hand after coming off of his bike (if only he was a bit more coordinated) which was really tough timing. Like me he was already taking notes for his write up that will be coming soon.

In the early evening I cooked myself some veg & halloumi, which I have to say was an excellent choice on my part. Kev struggled to decide what to have from his vast stash of food he acquired from his Italian restaurant owning friends. Not long afterwards we were joined by Simon, Laura & George, then a little later still we were joined by Paul & Louisa (not Laura) with the TWJC bar tent. Paul has now installed a much improved LED lighting system & a fridge running off of a womping great battery & a huge PV solar panel. The lighting system has many different modes, my favourite was all red which felt like being on the bridge of a Klingon warship. On tap we had two kegs of Paul's home brewed beers. The usual dark convention ale & a new one for this year called An Innocent Blonde which was a delicious Leffe clone that made me question my commitment to cider.

Later in the evening I joined in with the crowd playing with Duncan's beautifully crafted Kururin. Somehow we had all forgotten what they were called & had collectively settled on the incorrect name Kuroshin. He had a dozen or so turned from various woods with different finishes. Like most people I preferred the white beech(?) wood ones with the black tops. Playing with them was highly addictive & wonderfully satisfying when you could get it to work. The sound of a good roll was very pleasing.

It was a long tiring day for me so I packed it in at about 12:30am.

Saturday, 8th April

I woke up early on Saturday morning when the tents were still frosty, I found Dorothy had spent the night outside & had white frosted hair but was otherwise ok. I joined Kevin, Paul, Louisa (not Laura), John, Nicola & Duncan for a 3 minute walk to the Broxtowe Cafe. The staff were fast & efficient as we challenged them with a sudden surge of the largest breakfast platters they had to offer. The food was great & very reasonably priced. We were all very pleased & sufficiently stuffed.

When we got back to site I made it to the main hall for my first juggle of any kind since August last year (yes, really). I spent an hour mostly working on 3 club stuff which wasn't as bad I was expecting. When I last juggled I was able to perform most of my drills first time, while this was not the case this time round it didn't take many attempts for me to regain my rhythm & hit my target number of catches. During this morning it was nice to chat with Nigel Roder, Andy Fraser & Adam Leigh in particular. In the afternoon I had a welcome nap as I tried to escape the burning sun. This nap was greatly aided by Paul's beer.

Later on I played with Duncan's Kururin in the bar again. I managed to get pretty consistent at rolling the stick in a line, stopping with each finger in turn on each flip which was very pleasing. After that I headed into the...

British Show

All the shows other than the main gala show were held in the dogleg area just off the main gym. The stage was framed by a large aerial rig that was used extensively over the course of the festival. The audience was seated on very uncomfortable bleachers. We managed to bag seats in the back row so at least we had a rail to lean against.

Our compère for the show was the indomitable Tiff who filled in the gaps with tricks & songs from his considerable repertoire including spinning 2 rings in opposite directions on one leg while juggling 7 balls leading to a nice 007 pun, a Brunn combination trick & playing the match of the day theme tune while juggling a football with his feet. He then nearly killed Kevin when he booted the ball into the audience which Kev blocked inches from his face. My favourite skit was his walking on sunshine gag with the banjo.

Opening the show were Brook & Becky with a top passing routine to the fun sounds of Robots by Flight of the Conchords. They finished with a monster long run of 9 club ultimates. Beyond that I don't remember a great deal. There was a 3 ball juggler who although remained largely static performed a wide variety of patterns very smoothly with very few drops. CJ showed good strength on the corde lisse but I was left cold. Børre Isac L'orange from Norway (in the British show?) performed with triangular rings, he kept my attention with many triangle specific patterns but lost it with the regular ring juggling. Another chap camped it up in a tutu, a joke which is getting old now but still managed to make me chuckle in places. The final act was a highly adept poi spinner who was very good with a solid handstand in the middle but I just couldn't connect to his style of humour.

My style of humour is much more...

Old Skool

Once again Jay dinged his bell at Brits Pink Nigel & Nigel Roder, & guests Rhonda Murray from the US & Greg Phillips from Canada. My favourite panelist was Rhonda who had some wonderful stories from her life as a circus performer, I particularly loved how she used to encourage other kids to hurt themselves by pretending that the stunts she had been trained to do since the age of 3 were easy. There were some great one liners from Greg especially, & a lot of very enjoyable hero bashing. The conversation was dominated by Pink Nigel who shut Rhonda down on a couple of occasions though which I did not appreciate. So it was nice to finish on the simple question of, "What is your record for 5 clubs?" everyone was low to mid double digits, Rhonda seemed embarrassed to say she stopped counting after 200.

Rhonda's answer about a dream show lineup sounded great, but there was one name that I don't think any of us had heard of so I caught up with Rhonda for more information & it turns out that it is comedian Arthur Fratelli.

Sunday, 9th April

After a good night's sleep I had a nice hot shower then went to sit in the warm where I intended to do some writing but I ended up chatting to Max Oddball, Nathan & Nigel instead, mostly about the current state of the international circus prop retail industry. I then went back to camp for some breakfast, the cafe was not open on Sundays so I made do with my own supplies while Kevin & Paul went off in search of an alternative.

We lounged around for the rest of the morning making good use of the TWJC bar & chatting to various people. We got on the buses into town at 2pm, Dorothy enjoyed looking out at the locals who returned bemused stares. Two students sitting behind us were playing a very Southendesque game where if you were the first to spot a yellow car you got to punch your opponent in the leg. At the end of the journey we were deposited just outside Nottingham castle for the games. I didn't join in much but did enjoy playing on the spring loaded horses in the kids playground. I also learned how to juggle Dorothy & two balls. Dorothy joined in the big toss up but most of us just lounged around & enjoyed the hot weather. A number of people commented on my Lawrence of Arabia style head gear I had fashioned by draping my tea towel over the back of my head & neck then wedging it in place with my sun hat. It worked brilliantly & personally I felt it was one of my better decisions after already picking up some sunburn on the first day while putting up the fencing.

After the games we set off for food & found May Sum, a large Chinese restaurant offering an all you can eat buffet for £7.50. Challenge accepted. It was bustling with customers many of whom were Chinese which was a good sign, an army of staff were constantly bringing out fresh dishes. I thought the sweet & sour pork was particularly good. I didn't realise that the meal deal also included unlimited visits to the desert bar as well. In the end I worked through 3 plates of main course food, but could only manage 2 bowls of ice cream, a slice of strawberry cheese cake, a slice of swiss roll, some fruit salad & two servings of jelly. Kevin's traditional attempt to go chocolate free during the BJC took a turn for the worse when he drank a ramekin full of chocolate sauce from the chocolate fountain.

We then made our way to the theatre where we found seats near the front of the top tier. Our seats had a good view but not much legroom. Russell Wells & a team of helpers built a gigantic green octopus with a 6+ foot diameter head (I wondered if it would pop to reveal Mr Toons in his union flag underpants again) and tentacles that could reach across the entire auditorium being waved about by volunteers with long poles. I'm not sure if the puppet was supposed to be decapitated or not but the audience enjoyed bouncing the head around before the start of...

The Gala Show

Rosie Kelly started the evening off with a highly entertaining reverse psychology tannoy announcement about phones, flash photography & the like. She proved a fantastic host with boundless enthusiasm, razor sharp wit & ample silliness. Her juggling club puppet & the kids/ducks skit had me in stitches.

Our opening act was Gustavo Ollitta from Brazil with a Buugeng or 'S' staff manipulation routine. I'm not often into flow arts but the flow is strong in this one. He was smooth & created hypnotic opical illusions. I also geekily enjoyed trying to work out how the props were connected to allow him to manage the shape changes. Being a relatively new prop it was many people's first time seeing it. It was a shame there was a bit of a prop malfunction towards teh end but he covered as best he could & regardless it was a very strong act, well thought out & well performed.

Next up was Kathrin Pancakes with a one ring balancing & manipulation act which unfortunately did nothing for me. The dramatic music was far too overpowering for the understated activity on stage.

This was followed by the lovable Paddy & Harry with their Dueling Hats routine. I've seen it three times now & I still love it. I think this act will be one that will live on for years. It won't need to change because it is spot on. (I wonder if that's enough to get a third quote from me on Paddy's acts page?)

Closing the first half was Anni Küpper from Germany with her act, Paganini. She came on stage with one club & a length of rope. She then deftly bound her wrists together with an elaborate handcuff knot. I knew I was going to like this act by the way she tied herself up. She elegantly performed a whole array of tricks while working around her bonds maneouvering herself from having her hands in front of her body to behind her back & back again. Highlights for me were a right foot kick up to a left leg knee catch, balancing the club on the back of her heel then flipping it back to a balance on her toes. This was a fantastically put together act performed with class.

Coming back from the interval we had Emma Hörnell from Sweden performing a hoop juggling act that was rammed full of lots of original tricks. Many involved rolling hoops over her body so that the hoop rotates around an axis running through two opposite edges of the hoop as opposed to an axis running perpendicular to the plane enclosed by the hoop (to the mathematicians &/or hoopers: there has got to be different words for that surely?). The act was a tour de force of technical ability but I didn't like the presentation. Mostly I didn't like the periods where she was simply whipping & beating herself with a hoop. It wasn't goofy enough to be slapstick comedy. It wasn't really anything, it just didn't suit the act.

From Israel, Asaf Mor presented his act Nine to Five, an intense club manipulation routine combined with body popping & break dancing. I have to admit I was flagging by this stage & I struggled to follow along despite the obviously high skill on display. The tricks he was performing throughout the act were clearly different but there was not enough variety in the shape & style to keep me interested. There were some ironic muted cheers from behind me for the very brief section of traditional toss juggling.

Waking me back up to full attention with my eyes wide open was Nadia Lumley. As well as millimetre perfect control of a cyr wheel she threw in some stunningly elegant breakdancing performed in a graceful ballet style. In addition her footwork on the base of the wheel was exquisite. I'm not sure what act Nigel was watching (it's ok to say you nipped off to the bar Nigel, no one will hold it against you) because I very clearly remember her performing cartwheels & a penny drop, the latter because she also performed it with a spectacular high-kicking leg sweep on each rotation. This was a breathtaking routine that had me rapt throughout. This was easily my favourite act of the show.

For the grand finale we enjoyed diaboloist Guillaume Karpowicz. Those of you who have been reading my juggling convention reviews over the years will be all too familiar with the phrase 'generic diabolo act'. I've always believed that the nature of the prop & the physics behind it result in a certain style that all diaboloists gravitate to. Well it turns out that isn't true. Instead of smooth flowing circles Guillaume flawlessly performed a sharp staccato routine full of harsh & surprising straight lines. The whole shape & style of his diabolo technique is unlike any diaboloist I've seen before. Awesome stuff.

Congratulations Claire Stephens for putting together a great show, well done!

After the show while everyone was sprinting down the road to get on the early buses back to site, we casually wandered up to the one that appeared on one of the cross roads that everyone had run past. We sat on the top deck with Dorothy perched on the shelf of the front window, occasionally sliding from side to side on some of the tighter corners.

Back at the site Glyn joined us in the TWJC bar where we enjoyed dissecting the show.

At some point I managed to reach the stage where I was drunk enough to believe it would be a good idea to visit the...

Renegade Stage

I wasn't intending to stay for long because Renegade has not been my thing for a long while now, but I ended up staying for the whole show which went on to 3am & I had a fantastic time. The atmosphere of the whole show was one of friendly riotous fun & reminded me of why I used to enjoy Renegades from years ago. The reason for this great atmosphere was largely the result of the host for the evening, the fabulous cross dressing Clunge Wonkle of the Cunty Bumpkins ([sic] look them up if you dare). He kept the pace high & the sophistication low.

Right at the start Amy discovered that I was a salsa dancer, she suggested I should do some dancing on stage with her friend who was also a dancer. Her friend was already stripped to his boxers after he fell in the nearby pond & didn't currently have any dry clothes to wear. Our extensive preparation consisted of deciding that I would lead, establishing that we could do a basic & a cross body, choosing a track (Bailando by Enrique Iglesias) & ensuring the sound desk could source it. Which took all of 5 minutes before we were on stage. I don't think any of my instructors would be proud of what we did, but I thought we did well to overcome many issues, the surface was not conducive to spinning & my partner did exceptionally well to follow along as well as he did which is exceptionally difficult to be a follow when you have been trained as a lead. It was the first time I threw in a handstand mid-dance & also the first time I've lead a body roll while holding my partner's nipples (at least I think that was a first, I'll have to check with Kate). The audience obviously felt we looked good together & demanded a kiss (Clunge demanded tongues) which we were happy to oblige. He broke off the kiss first, story of my life.

Traditionally Renegade performers have been rewarded with a drink of some kind for getting up on stage. This evening the drink was administered in the form of A Screamer™. The recipient lies on his or her back & screams while having drink poured into their mouth. It's a bit like being waterboarded with alcohol. I didn't really know when to stop screaming so ended up with a soaked t-shirt which was pleasant to suck on for the rest of the evening.

I think we set the tone for the evening. Jack followed on after us, first he demonstrated a gull wing catch (bend over forwards catch the ball with your arm outstretched straight up in the air) from a 3 ball cascade. He then tried to perform a 2 ball gull wing squeeze catch. Clunge employed his main tactic for keeping acts short by insisting that Jack removed an item of clothing for each failed attempt. It wasn't long before he was naked.

Keeping up the level of skin on display were two young ladies, one with orange hair & hats (Georgie?), the other with green hair & hoops. They faced off against each other trying to one up each others' tricks & removing clothing on each drop. Both were so fantastically fast & highly skilled at their chosen props that I was genuinely more interested in their juggling than in their very beautiful bodies. I think the one with orange hair understandably enjoyed showing off her body. If you know you're going to get involved in a game of strip something most people generally layer up but she only started with 3 items of clothing on.

Ieuan came on to do his health & safety bit by checking the available ceiling clearance. This might have been a ruse to do the extending the tape measure as far as possible without it buckling trick. He was able to get from the stage to the top of the aerial rig quite easily. He then came up to the top of the bleachers & attempted to get to the ceiling. However, from where we were sitting at the back we could see Katie Struthers in the main hall getting much closer to the ceiling from the floor.

Logy showed off his epic beard & showcased a very nice two hat multiplex under the leg catching one hat on the foot & the other in his mouth. He then tried to tried to frisbee the hat in his mouth to a heel catch which thanks to the remove clothing on failure rule resulted in him stripping to his boxers. Amy was loving the amount of men on display this evening.

The two chaps who had been wowing everyone with their trials unicycling earlier in the week came on to 'express themselves using rice cakes'. They pulled up a couple of chairs, made themselves comfortable then casually began eating from a packet of rice cakes. Then the heavy metal kicked in, they jumped up & started ferociously ramming the cakes into each others mouths & throwing them everywhere. It was beautiful. This was followed by the Kärcher industrial vacuum cleaner act to clean up the stage. I believe the performer was a Kärcher KM 70/20 C that displayed phenomenal suction power. It was suggested the machine should be given A Screamer™ but we were not sure if it could handle liquids.

Christian Hauschild from Germany came on & did consecutive pull downs with 3 to 7 rings, a solid run of 3 club alberts, then 3 club 6-way. Not once did he look like any of these hard tricks were in any way taxing for him.

Matt Green who seemingly didn't stop smiling for the entire festival did some hoop diving & some malteser tricks including balancing one on his foot, throwing it up in the air behind him while launching himself into a forward roll then catching it in his mouth first time.

Russell & a partner set a new Renegade world record for rolling a malteser down the length of a tape measure into the mouth, beating the previous record of seven metres by a full metre. Particular impressive because of the need to twist the tape at the half way point when the malteser reached a buckled section.

Dee picked up a lighter from the floor in the most awkward way. She placed it in front of her feet then while keeping her feet flat on the floor throughout she used her right hand to reach round in front of her, behind her legs on her left hand side, then out the front on her right hand side. I tried it with her later in the week & could only get as far as touching the back of my right leg. Edwin picked up a fag paper from the floor using his mouth while standing on one leg, impressive on its own but it is worth mentioning that he is a 6ft plus giant.

We got to see more impressive hat tricks & skin from Paddy & Harry. There was a rousing interlude for the Macarana which was fun to see my dance partner consistently turn the opposite direction of everyone else on stage. Kudos to the guy performing it while bouncing on a unicycle too. There was much more silliness throughout the evening. The acts just kept coming, there was never a dull moment.

The evening finished off with a rousing rendition of Fagin's Reviewing the Situation from Oliver Twist the musical sang by Clunge & Paddy backed by a stage full of dancers. It was a fantastic night. Well done to all involved.

Monday, 10th April

I was still full from the Chinese buffet the night before so I only had a large breakfast at the cafe this morning. I then went to the hall for a juggle where I chatted to Tom for a bit & supported Helen round the hall during her first attempt on some freeliners. My handstands felt pretty good. I then tried my hand at five clubs. The last time I was juggling I was able to hit 200+ catches consistently, but today I could barely manage a qualify. It is not like riding a bike. I stuck at it & got up to 40ish catches which was a little upsetting. My three club drills went pretty smoothly though.

The security guards were starting to loosen up a bit. I caught the excited cheer from Arron when he achieved his first qualifying run of three balls. One of the other guards was spending his down time on the knife throwing range where he appeared to be a natural. I saw him drilling a quick draw throw, drawing the knife from a sheath & consistently hitting the target dead centre with a horizontal knife.

I watched the lovely Tor practicing her belly dancing in the hall. She has the most amazing poise, & that's before she starts dancing. I managed to grab her for a nice chat later on in the day, it is so sweet that she still remembers me as 'the Ceilidh man' from when we first met at BJC 2013!

I popped along to the BJC business meeting to see what was going on. It seemed a bit odd having the meeting so early in the festival because you obviously can't talk about the pros & cons of all the things that haven't happened yet. As it transpired this turned out to be a good thing because we would need a second meeting. Rosie enthusiastically presented her case for a BJC in Cumbria it was a great case however, she did buckle a bit under questioning. Spyro Mike also presented a bid for Canterbury which was perhaps less exciting but a much more solid case & had clearly already done a lot of the necessary work. I was particularly annoyed by the guy who repeated the question about Mike's previous experience which had already been answered, I don't know if he wasn't listening or just didn't like the answer his response to Mike of, "Well that's a start" was rude, aggressive, unfair & unnecessary. I agree that Mike hasn't been involved in a large amount of BJCs before, but his experience, tech knowledge & contacts gained from working in the theatre, the quality of his presentation & the work he has put in sourcing a venue & working out the details is ample evidence that he is pretty switched on. Thankfully others, Ron & Jane especially, managed to cut through the crap & ask the right questions. The session was in danger of overrunning into the tech set up for the next show so the meeting was adjourned to be followed with a second meeting later in the festival.

That next show was the...

Open Stage Show (1)

Mark Watson was on fine form as our host. He was charming, entertaining & very funny. I particularly enjoyed the way he murdered his balloon animal dogs.

The first act were Felix, Christian & Theo as the 2.5 Germans. One juggled balls, one juggled clubs, the other juggled rings with some interesting ways of swapping props between the three of them. I thought the three person feed with all the props looked particularly nice. Leanne & Esther presented a pleasing club balancing act, balancing props on their face, shoulders, elbows etc. & swapping them between each other. My favourite trick was the chin to chin transfer. Rob Woolley made pretty patterns with one set of three connected rings in each hand, then with four unconnected large rings. Excellent isolation work, & top marks for thinking of those sitting in the side bleachers too! He finished with a nice run of five big rings.

Matt Green did a fun ball juggling act. He started with three balls & a box up on a table, then got rid of the box & laid down to include his legs in the pattern, rolling the balls down his shins & flicking them back into the pattern & catching balls on the soles of his feet. There was some great interplay been Matt & Mark who grumpily came on to pick up his props when ever Matt dropped. Off the table Matt performed a nice 1-up forward roll from & back to five ball splits & finished with a seven ball cascade & half shower.

Closing the show was Lisa Ellipse performing with up to five hoops. It was a very well thought out act with lots of interesting constructions. A lot of hoop acts I have seen have made it all too obvious that they are constructing a globe or some other shape, Lisa was more like a magician, her constructions seemed to appear out of nowhere. Lovely stuff.

After we were kicked out of the show area the hall was very busy with little room to play. I did some more handstand practice & some three ball jamming. I chatted to Amy & Nicola for a while, then visited the TWJC bar for a pint & a bit more writing, then I went back to the cafe where I chatted to Sonja from Germany about her EJA history project & the book that is going to be produced. Kevin is looking into finding out some contacts for you Sonja & we'll be in touch as soon as we have something! Helen & I also consoled each other at length about the state of the UK.

Tuesday, 11th April

We had our usual trip out for breakfast, then back to site for a shower which turned out to be stone cold leading to my second screamer of the convention. I popped into the main hall to peruse the workshop timetable. Tuesday was going to be a busy day. I did hear some people complaining that only showing one day at a time made it harder to plan ahead, but as someone who doesn't really do much off site I found planning things one day at a time more manageable.

I spent some time juggling in the hall. Seven balls was ok, best effort was 36 catches, four clubs was initially very tiring as I was so out of practice. It took me a while to remember how to throw efficiently. Five clubs was much better, I managed to get up to a much more respectable 126 catches.

In the afternoon I made the trek over to the school hall for...

Fight Night Combat Qualification

Aside from Jon Peat who was running the tournament I was the first one there. It was nice to have such a wide open space all to ourselves for qualifying. Usually there is at least one collision as two players in separate matches attack at the same time & end up smashing into each other. There's no way that would happen with this much space.

In the end 17 people turned up to try their luck. This was fewer than the number who competed last year in Perth, but this allowed everyone to play everyone rather than split into two groups which resulted in us playing more matches. I had a terrible start, I didn't win a point for the first three matches & I managed to hit myself in the left eye which left a nice purple welt for the rest of the festival. I can't remember who it was but someone hit one of my clubs & followed through to hit me square in the mouth giving me a huge blood blister on the inside of my upper lip that was very painful at the time. Ieuan managed to create a Philips screw head shaped imprint on Josh Turner's face. At one point Callum & I were playing separate matches, we attacked our opponents at the same time & managed to smash into each other sending us both sprawling on the floor.

It was great fun, with lots of good sportsmanship all round. I ended up winning 9 out of my 16 matches. For the most part I either won 3-0 or lost 3-0 there weren't many in betweens. The tournament itself was to be at 11:30pm in the main hall.

I then sat in on another meeting about the BJC online presence while feeling a little concussed. I have to apologise for my lack of progress on https://britishjugglingconvention.co.uk/ but hopefully this year should be a bit better year for me & I will be able to devote some more time to it. There was lots of good discussion but we got bogged down in the details a bit too much. I came out more optimistic than I was when I went in that we will be able to produce a useful resource for future organisers & attendees though. I'm looking forward to working with everyone who expressed interest in helping.

What was next? Oh yes...

British Young Juggler of the Year

This year the range of performances included aerial acts so it became BYCPOTY (which I was pronouncing 'by-cup-o-tea'). Our judges this year were Mike Armstrong, Rosie Kelly & Jon Peat. We had 10 acts in the show & I had a busy night so my notes for this bit are sadly woefully lacking but this is what I could remember the next day.

Hosting the show was Nat Lunatrick, one of the instructors from Five Ring Circus, before the show started he amusingly took a call from a telemarketer who had called an audience member at a very inopportune moment. To give her what's due that telemarketer was going to get through her script no matter what we threw at her.

First on stage was Tom who did some ball juggling & tennis racket balancing. He didn't have a costume, the routine just seemed to be a list of tricks & was very droppy. The second act was an emo staff spinning act. She had an excellent costume & make up, she performed appropriate tricks choreographed to well chosen music & she remained in character from start to finish. Very well done, that is what BYJOTY is about.

Next was Max Preece with a high skill technical diabolo routine with 1-3 diabolos. It was a very long time before there was a drop in this act. He had no costume but he showed great stage confidence, smiling & presenting himself well through out. He looked like he enjoyed being on stage & was happy to perform for us which carried over into the audience. I would still class his routine with my well worn phrase: a generic diabolo act, but the difficulty level was exceptionally high earning him a standing ovation from many in the audience.

This was followed by our first aerial act of the evening, a young lady on silks. It was a well choreographed routine featuring some high strength moves & some very daring drops. Next up was a group circus theatre piece based on the Mad Hatters tea part from Alice in Wonderland featuring a few tricks with a wide variety of props, I'm not a fan of this type of act.

Next up was the same Georgie we saw a great deal of on the Renegade stage on Monday night with her hats. It was a bonkers routine with lots of hats being whipped on & off her head, elbows, shoulders at breakneck speed while spinning like a whirling dervish. It was pleasingly difficult to follow her patterns. It was pretty droppy, but if the judges were allowed to award points for partying hard the night before she would have walked away with a gold award.

We then had a moon trapeze act. Again, nice costume, well choreographed, very well performed. Her long hair looked very beautiful hanging free during her artful poses but it did seem to get in her face on a few occasions. I've always thought aerialists tied up their hair for safety reasons but a quick image search shows plenty of counter-examples. Sticking with the safety aspect I was confused by the removal of the safety mat part way through her routine, after which she generally performed higher up on the apparatus. Was that a mistake by the stage hands?

After that was a young chap with a nice three ball routine, lots of interesting moves but far too many drops. Felix Sürbe then over shadowed him a bit with a flashy club routine including lots of his signature club to club balance tricks. The routine had too many drops especially on the four-up 360°, very nice six club fountain finish though. For the final act we had two ladies taking turns on a cloud swing. The blonde girl in particular performed a proper scary drop to a one foot hang that put my heart in my mouth. Unfortunately the act's ending fell flat due to technical reasons. The girl with dark hair was going to sing the final verse of the song. From what I could hear she had a great voice but it was far too quiet & was barely audible over the music she was singing along to & the background noise of the main hall in the distance. This should not have been done without a microphone.

I was initially reticent about adding aerial acts to the competition but in the end I felt they were a positive addition to the show adding a lot more variety than we are used to seeing. I also loved watching the camaraderie among the Five Ring Circus students especially. Given the explosion in popularity of aerial disciplines in the circus skill community I think it is important to provide an outlet for budding talent to keep the kids interested & keep the BJC relevant to young people.

While the votes were tallied & the judges went away to deliberate the awards Nat handled the best trick competition. He did very well to keep it interesting at the end by making the performers swap props & do tricks out of their comfort zone.

When the judges returned Max Preece & the emo staff spinner both deservedly won silver awards, Max picked up the Judges Choice award & also the audience vote to be crowned British Young Juggler of the Year 2017.

It was then back to camp for more food & a bit of a wind down before...

Fight Night Combat Tournament

I was pleased & surprised to learn I had qualified 7th.

A square arena had been built in the main hall. For added atmosphere the arena was being pumped full of smoke from a dry ice machine which looked great, but did make breathing difficult for the competitors! Our master of ceremonies was Gold Martin sporting a wonderful jacket adorned with the logos cut from past BJC t-shirts. The event started with all of the competitors being introduced to the audience while we ran round the arena high fiving the front row. It was ridiculous & I loved it!

As usual I didn't qualify high enough to get a bye into the quarter finals so I was drawn to fight Callum who beat me 3-0 in qualifying. For the tournament he had broken out a garish orange sweatband round his forehead & a shocking pair of tortoise-shell tights. I readjusted his head band for him which may have covered his eyes a little but sadly he felt it was more comfortable around his forehead. After my complaint that the tunes from last year were too quiet & a little subdued I was very pleased with the upbeat sounds provided by Jon's laptop. I was very excited to dance & fight along to the sounds of Barbie Girl by Aqua, to be honest I forgot where I was for a while & thought it was the disco night. We had a very long physical battle, I think we were the only pair to play across three songs? Eventually though Callum won 5-2, he played much better than me & deserved the win.

Tor invited me to join her in the audience so I spent the rest of the evening enjoying the action & bopping along to the tunes with her & Helena. During Britney Spear's Hit me baby one more time Tor complimented my excellent Britney pout. I wasn't pouting, that was just my fat lip.

Ashley did very well to beat fifth seed Tom Whitfield then was doing amazingly well to be 4-1 up against Cameron Ford. However, Cameron then managed to claw back the fight & win 5-4, I know how that feels, he did the same thing to me in Perth last year! Cameron then pulled off a surprising upset against number one seed Brook Roberts in a match that featured some truly filthy language from both players for those into lip reading.

The final came down to Cameron vs Matty Schneider which proved to be a hard fought scrappy affair with both players being forced out of the arena on occasions. The final score which shows Matty won 5-2 does not reflect how close the fight was.

Many thanks to Jon Peat for running another great tournament, well done to all competitors especially Matty for the win. Full results are up on the BJC 2017 Fight Night Combat tournament page.

Wednesday, 12th April

We arrived at our cafe to find Adam finally did take me up on my recommendation & was there before us. While chatting I asked what he did for a living & he did the usual thing of, "it's a bit boring really but..." before giving us a thoroughly interesting insight into the world of archaeology.

At 12pm I attended the CPR workshop being run by the wonderful Dr. Helen which was one of several sessions that happened over the course of the festival. I worked out it has been over 20 years since I last learnt CPR so I was well overdue a refresher course. The resuscitation dummies have come a long way since I first used one. The session was very informative, & the chest compression exercises turned out to be good practice for packing everything back into my bag at the end of the festival. Helen answered all questions clearly in an easy to understand manner. Helen is looking to offer this course at other conventions in the UK, if you get the chance I highly recommend you sign up. A lot of our conventions are in fields a long way from help, you never know if you will be the first on scene. CPR is not difficult. The difference in being effective in an emergency is knowing what to do when the time comes.

Helen & I then joined Ron & Bryan to learn how to play Tzolk'in, a board game based on the Mayan civilisation & calendar. The game board features a large cog representing time that in turn moves five smaller cogs. Players choose to place their workers on the smaller cogs for varying costs & remove them to gain rewards by harvesting crops or extracting resources, or complete actions such as building temples or performing sacrifices to the gods whose names we couldn't pronounce so for ease of communication we renamed them Rod, Jane & Freddie. I managed to shaft all three of my opponents pretty early on by advancing the calendar an extra day triggering the 'feed your workers' stage a round early, this combined with my strategy of monopolising the human sacrifices which gained me a huge amount of favour with Rod, Jane & Freddie I managed to pull off a pretty convincing win. I really liked the game, the mechanics are simple but there are a lot of options to choose from. We played for almost three hours but it really didn't seem like it. Thank you all for your company.

I made a quick dash to camp for some food then made it back in time for the...

Open Stage Show (2)

Tom Callum Baker opened with a sexy hoop juggling routine, he had excellent stage presence & a smooth style. He finished balancing a globe of hoops on his forehead while spinning another four (almost) around his arms. Next a chap in a monkey costume performed with three & four cigar boxes & a lot of bananas. It was a fun routine & despite the comic character featured a lot of high skill. The chap with the most dapper facial hair performed a slow & graceful club juggling & manipulation act that was well choreographed to appropriate music. It was too droppy to really flow, but good enough to make me want to see it again when it is a bit more polished. Dave Stone performed a fun three ball contact & toss juggling routine to Bear Necessities from the Jungle Book. Ace juggling, wonderful stage presence & a great connection with the audience. I'd be quite happy to just watch Dave smile at the audience for five minutes. Finishing off was Paddy McCrea with some more of his high end hat juggling. He had lots of energy & pulled off all the tricks.

It was then off to the squash courts for the second meeting about the future BJC, much action behind the scenes resulted in Rosie changing her bid for an Easter BJC to a separate summer event that is more like a spin-off of the BJC. This left Canterbury as the only bid for 2018 which the meeting attendees voted to accept.

La Lido show

Err... ok. I'm just going to describe what I remember.

La Lido was a very surreal show performed by a diverse international cast. It opened with a man in a suit performing a disjointed monologue, this gave way to a lonely man preparing for his birthday in a way reminiscent of David Walliams' character Vulva from Spaced. He uncovered what appeared to be a dead transvestite behind a curtain who he proceeded to throw around the stage resulting in some great rag doll acrobatics. Then a brash photographer turned up snapping pictures of the odd couple, then lots of other people turned up squealing & screaming oh my god for about five minutes.

People then drifted off leaving a woman in a red mackintosh walking round stage among two guys. She dropped juggling balls like laying eggs, the guys then repeatedly picked them up & placed them in the pit of her knee while she walked. This developed into a very highly skilled hand balancing routine on canes involving balancing balls on the soles of her feet. We then had a guy on a moon trapeze who was very athletic. He swung himself round the bottom of the circle so that he'd pass through the hoop backwards in an impressive stylised way.

Three guys in running gear with a single juggling club each performed an amusing training themed skit. Nice moments included a long run of half flips from & to a club on club balance & a long range high pass across the stage also caught in a club on club balance. The silly medal ceremony on the cardboard podium that couldn't support their weight made me chuckle.

The best bit of the show for me was the chef & her cyr wheel, there was a little bit of traditional spinning but I mostly enjoyed how she released the wheel to roll around the stage so that it wove in between some carefully place eggs without crushing them. An egg was placed on the end of a spoon or fork, the cyr wheel was then rolled to hit the spoon which catapulted the egg into the air to be caught in the mixing bowl. Good use of the whisk in lieu of a drum roll for atmosphere!

After that a Jesus-like figure in a loin cloth went through an impressive marathon tumbling session flipping in circles around the stage while another performer told a story about a Jesus-like character that was biblical in tone but did not match what I was taught about Christianity.

We headed back to the TWJC bar for more beer & more dissecting of the show. It left a lot of people bewildered, myself included. You couldn't lay into the show though because there was a lot of good content both in terms of high skill & original thought. Some people tried to extract a coherent theme or story that was being told but I'm not convinced there was one.

I then made it back to the main hall expecting the disco but got another Renegade instead.

Hannah, Jack & Sparkle were gaffer taped together as part of a forfeit for various infractions of the don't-put-the-object-down game I first experienced at Crawley last year, this time involving a toy watering can in place of Bungle's plunger.

I enjoyed a very amusing chat with Tom & Lizzy who taught me some of their favourite sign language.

One of the first acts was performed by two of the guards from Trident Security, they thanked us for an enjoyable week & then demonstrated some of the skills they learnt. Arron in particular had picked up a great deal & showed off three balls, three clubs, club & ball mixed object juggling & balanced a chair on his chin which he transferred to his hand then in turn transferred it to his foot. I think this is the most a BJC security guard has ever picked up during the festival. Needless to say we went wild.

Logy did some whip cracking, cutting some spaghetti first held in his free hand behind his back, then held on top of his head, then held by the compère at his crotch from behind. While they were getting into this position they looked pretty intimate so I donated the bottle of lube that I had acquired (circumstances probably best left unexplained) earlier in the evening from the Southend lot to the cause.

The big trials unicycle guy jumped over his friend who lay spread-eagled on the floor. He then dropped the saddle to the front & rode the unicycle like an ultimate wheel ramming the saddle into his poor helper's crotch. Ed Cliffe & his friend built interesting constructions with cigar boxes & a contact ball which they balanced on juggling clubs, their hands & their faces. Tor & Helena performed their lovely partner poi routine on a dangerous spaghetti & lube covered floor. The deep intertwining & constantly changing patterns gave me the complexity I enjoy. I also love how smiley & theatrical their faces are when they perform.

The lube went on to feature a few more times throughout the evening. Most notably for the lube combat tournament which saw Jack, Rob & Callum compete at three club combat after covering their hands with lube, & the compère helpfully applied lube to the floor they were playing on. It was fun to watch three competent club jugglers struggle to control a simple cascade & in the case of Callum slip arse over tit during an attack.

Thursday, 13th April

Nooo! Time to go home. How does it go so quickly?

We had our final fry up & thanked the cafe staff for getting us through the week. I took my tent down then joined the volunteer effort in taking the fence down around the camp site, collecting up the fuck off tape & litter picking. I'd like to say thank you to my fence panel carrying partner Lloyd in particular, who worked very hard throughout the morning. I felt that the amount of rubbish to be collected was pretty minimal this year so well done people for keeping the site tidy. It really does make a big difference to the final clean up operation. We said our goodbyes & left the BJC about half an hour after the official finish at midday.

I had a wonderful BJC. It was so nice to get back into my community after such a long time, thank you to all my friends old & new for welcoming me back, I really needed that. Thank you especially to main organisers Stephen Whitehead & Ben Nichol for putting on a remarkably smooth running BJC.

#bjc2017 #conventionreview

Rosie - - Parent

great to read

thank you for the kind words

^Tom_ - - Parent

I'll chime in:

Shows -- many!:
British: We dropped our clubs whilst passing some manipulation pattern (3V I think, although I'm not 100% sure which it was at the time) upon hearing Brook & Becky's music, so we ran over to see their act from the side. I'd never seen it before, although I knew the gist from seeing a video. Nice act. Other than that, no idea, although I heard that one of Tiff's songs was very amusing.
Open (1): No idea
Open (2): No idea
Glow: No idea
Clubby-Man's show: No idea
La Lido: No idea, actually fancied watching it, but the hall was nice and empty and there was a chance to do some serious passing which I couldn't (sorry everyone) pass up.
Fight Night: Too loud, otherwise no idea.
BYJoTY: No idea. Looked pretty full, and I thought I'd use the emptyish hall.
Renegade: Surprisingly enough I caught some of the aforementioned Renegade. I watched the malteser rolling which was funny if a bit on the long side. I also say the silly malteser tricks with Greeny (sporting a rather questionable 'tache), Emma, & Isac. Greeny's trademark forward roll malteser catch was particularly surprising.

Old Skool: Too quiet. I caught most of it this year. N & N dominated, particularly N. R & G were much more amusing, but we didn't hear much from them as once N started, it seemed unlikely that he would end until the topic had been pretty much burned. The question about Circomedia could (in my opinion) clearly never have gone well. It was obviously asked by someone who had a strong vested opinion already, and they were asking a crowd who may have an opinion (or in the case of Jay, for example, experience), but somehow either out of date, or just the experience of the common person. N's comment about the problem with the circus-act-market in the UK not being the same as that of, for example, Germany may have been valid, but it was painfully laboured and mixed in with a lot of prejudice which was obviously not well received by the questioner and the circomedia crowd.

Gala: To keep it brief(ish) (and with a deliberate disregard for names and correct running order):
Rosie: Very much a mixed bag. Some bits were excellent, some bits dragged on too long, didn't work, would have lost any members of the public, or ended up feeling a bit like a rant. One particular highlight was the duck thing (although I must admit I feared she might have won the Matt Hall award for that stunt), one lowlight was the rant about the jugglingrock facebook group.
S-guy: I really struggled with his act. I found it somehow irrationally amusing whenever he went for the swastika* trick, and I wonder how many otherwise good photographs he has to reject for political reasons. Far too long with the miscellaneous twirling stuff, and only long, long after my attention span had ellapsed did the multi-planar stuff with twists start which at least had some novelty. (* I guess he prefers "aeroplane propellers").
Kathrin: I'll start off by saying that I'm much too good friends with Kathrin to give an unbiased assessment. But I'll say this: I'd heard about this new act before, and was naturally nervious on her behalf about whether it would be a success at the BJC gala. In the end I was relieved as I thought it was a solid performance of a nice act, and that it neither felt out of place, nor was it anywhere near to the award of "worst gala show act 2017" in my book.
Anni: I saw this act in Lublin 2012 and thought it was lovely. I was talking to Anni after the show and said that I'd forgotten the nice rope-and-club stuff after the unknotting. Turns out that it's a more recent addition, which I thought really tied the two elements of the act together beautifully. Lovely act.
Hatty-men: I'd seen this once before where it had been much better. It was just too droppy for me this year, which made it tricky to really enjoy it.
Hoopy-girl: I actually kind of liked the bit where she smashed the hoop around her body. It somehow made the act a bit more serious. Kind of how the fish thing that the Circus Geeks did raised the stakes. The finger walking of a balanced hoop was a crazy trick.
Suited-clubby-man: Lots of high energy club manipulation with a couple of throws and catches. Left me a bit cold. The speed and intensity was very high, but the precision and/or engagement was a bit low. I have no idea how the full length show was, maybe the act was better as part of a larger piece.
Cyr-girl: Lovely act, although I did have a couple of small issues. Firstly the lighting was a bit annoying, secondly there was a moment in the middle(ish) of the act where the wheel was spiralling lower and lower on the right of the stage whilst she stood on the left. Then she started breakdancing (for the 2nd time), and I thought that if she mirrored the wheel and finished as it fell then it would have been really beautiful. Unfortunately she abruptly stopped, walked over to the wheel and interrupted its spiralling, and proceeded with the final part of the act. That segment just seemed wrongly thought out to me and somehow wasted. Otherwise a fantastic and beautiful act (including all of the bits that it was accused of lacking elsewhere).
Mr-Kraftwerk: Stunning. The minimalistic control of the diabolo and the disjointed movements were excellent. I liked the squareness of the motions, and very, very tighly controlled and choreographed act ticked all the boxes.
An entirely whelming show. No complaints.

Site: Main hall felt much smaller than 6 years ago (or should that be the 7th anniversary of BJC Nottingham 2011?). The cafe took out the right hand side of the hall, the traders (again) took the left hand side. The registration/office tents the back edge. The balloons part of the back edge.
6 years ago, we sat against the wall on the right, now there were people sitting in the middle, and very little space for people to leave bags, which mostly ended up somewhere in the middle, effectively reducing the juggling space very much (people leave much more space from the cafe then they would have done from the wall, and people sitting in the middle have a larger "exclusion zone" around them when in the middle than when against a wall (a. space left from more angles, b. lower sitting density, c. people facing the other direction are more susceptible) whenever there wasn't a show on, the hall was simply too busy.

Food+Drink: I had one portion of curry+rice from Veggies, 1 double veggies burger, 1 portion of curry+rice from the site canteen, and 1 samosa from veggies + various other sources of non-bought-on-site food.
The site canteen's portion was the smallest, and it was also the most expensive piece. Quality was fine, but so was veggie's equivalent.
I didn't drink anything from the bar, it seemed overpriced and not the right selection. I don't mind sticking money into a juggler bar. This year I stayed 99% dry (and hungry).

Tenting: New tent, large, heavy. Combined with public transport meant that I didn't take a large amount of bedding. I was too cold, but at least it was dry, and I shall endeavour to be better prepared next time I go camping on my own.

No'in'ham: Early bus happened to the town for some reason, and we went straight to pizza for lunch.
Pizza: Mod pizza in the city centre was a bit "pop-up"y, and the constant shouting of "Pizza for X" could get on my nerves a little bit, but the pizzas were excellent, fully customizable, and reasonably priced.
Games: No idea. I got a free ice cream after the pizza, and then we went to the games, but were careful not to see any of them. Nice to see Alby.

Kururin[3]: Having seen them discussed online before the convention, it was nice to play with them throughout the week. Other than the typical rolling between fingers, we also went for "stonking"[4], in particular aiming for the maximum number of rolls, and the minimum distance to the edge of the table. I think Avril had me beat.
I now have my very own kururin to play with at home.


BJC "Business" meeting(s):
Rosie's plan sounded very shiny, and was very popular, although I was convinced that Mike's plan was more solid. Mike had much better answers to the questions posed, but Rosie seems to have a knack of positive spin/answering a different question to what was being asked.
As the end of the (original) meeting came, I was afraid that the result was going to be bullied towards Appleby 2018, Canterbury 2019, despite many misgivings I had with such an outcome.
Under the circumstances, the postponement was absolutely the correct decision, and (I reckon), allowed for the Rumsfeld analysis for Appleby to take place.
By the time that the second meeting came around on Wednesday, Rosie's plan had transformed, leaving a single BJC 2018 option for Canterbury, which may have disappointed some people, but seemed like a satisfactory outcome to me.

Comments for the future:
1) Please stop pulling numbers out of nowhere. "The main hall is about 2/3 of the size of the hall here, and with the other halls it's at least as big" or similar is not really accurate, and people are invariably overly optimistic about hall sizes. Tools exist[1] to give a much better idea.
The area of the Appleby sports centre building is about 1300 m^2. How this is split between the different halls is not easy to say, but maybe 2:1 is how I'd guess from satellite pictures.
The main hall in Canterbury is 1100 m^2.
Excluding the dogleg stage area, Harvey Hadden sports centre is probably about 1800 m^2. The dogleg stage area is another 600 m^2.
2) Please try to keep meeting sections* succinct. I know it's rare for multiple proposals, and I'm indebted to all idiots willing to organize a BJC, but I'm not convinced that you can say much more in 30 minutes than you can say in 10 minutes. Notes will help. Don't spend 5 minutes explaining that you won't be speaking for very long. Questions can also be answered accurately and succinctly.
3) The feedback section of the BJC meeting (thankfully very short this year) could be more usefully replaced by a comments box either before, during, or after the meeting. If before, then they could be collated during/at the beginning, and read out rapid-fire. Overly specific points are really not necessary to report. Written comments are also easier to make sure that they are archived, as it's more difficult to write up a rambling point into the minutes.
(* bids for example, but this applies to pretty much all items -- reports from past BJC, future EJC/BJCs, etc).


Overall a thoroughly enjoyable BJC. I'd say there were too many shows, but at least it cleared out the main hall.
This short comment[2] has turned somewhat long. Happy Easter!

Finally, my highlight of the convention was the floodlight in the corner of the hall.

^_

[1] - https://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-area-calculator-tool.htm
[2] - I should say that I may well be focussing largely on the negative. That's in part because it started as a comment, and was never intended to reach the proportions that we have here. I have no real complaints about the BJC, but that doesn't stop me having my opinions.
[3] - From the Japanese words Kuru, meaning stick, and urin, meaning falling.
[4] - I think it was Mark T who decided that we needed some technical terminology. "Stonker" (noun): a kururin roll which comes to rest on its end. "Flopper" (noun): a kururin roll which, either due to too much force or other reasons, slips and slams down onto its belly.

unigamer - - Parent

I thought it was time to get into the convention review game, so here goes my first one.

Preamble
This was my fourth BJC, my first being the BJC 2014 at Darton College and I haven’t experienced much of the convention scene. What’s new to me has probably been seen a thousand times by the regulars.

Registration
I arrived at about 5:30pm having walked from Nottingham Station. At the halfway point I stopped at Lidl to top up the supplies so I was ready to get rid of my bags. Registration was quick and there was no queue for the pre-registered line. I was handed the tshirt I bought in advance and a recycling bag and a standard rubbish bag (which I promptly forgot which was which). Other people from Glasgow Juggling Club were already practicing in the main hall so I hurried off to get my tent set up and join them.

Campsite
The huge camping space was great, the lack of appropriately placed gates was a bit annoying but nothing the organisers could do anything about and some extra exercise is no bad thing! The lack of any kind of scullery is a bit awkward for people like me who prepare almost all their own food but don’t have a huge tent with everything including the kitchen sink. I can’t see an easy solution to this and I think when you have a venue like Darton College with a proper place to wash dishes you just need to be extra thankful.

Workshops
I usually attend quite a lot of workshops because a lot of it is still new to me and it’s nice to try something you’d never get the opportunity to do elsewhere. In no particular order here are the ones I can remember attending:

  • “How to run a workshop, workshop” - Jon Peat. He had prepared a few notes but the workshop took the form of a discussion and was definitely full of useful hints. Much of it was common sense, but workshop organisers (including myself in previous years) fail to do the basics well. My personal bugbear is when the difficulty level is not clear. For instance, I can do some basic passing stuff and enjoy learning more but I don’t want to go to a passing workshop were I let down my partner(s), nor do I want to miss one that I could do.
  • “Low Numbers Ball Passing; The Chipmunk Series” - Katie Struthers & Ieuan Evans. Four balls between two people should be an easy way to start the first full day? Well, the warm-up patterns were, the later stuff not so much. A brilliant workshop though, well prepared and demonstrated. If I saw a workshop by Katie and Ieuan on the timetable I’d attend almost regardless of what is was after that one.
  • “Tips on how to make a good juggling video” - Rosie Kelly. This wasn’t quite what I was expecting, I thought it might be a more technical discussion about what angles work, crazy techniques etc but it was more about the general ideas of cinematography. A good workshop though and I’ll refer to my notes from it in the future. Perhaps in future years have a creator talk about one of their videos? I believe Lewis Kennedy was the principal editor of “Corrections” which is the latest major video I can think of that was uploaded, it would have been nice to have him at that workshop.
  • “How to be a stage manager” - (???). Run by the stage manager for most of the past four years of shows. It was an interesting insight and gave me an appreciation to the difficulty of hosting a show. I just turn up and expect to be entertained!
  • “Prechac passing” - Pan. I first attended this workshop in 2015 and the crowd was much more interested and already into the mathematics behind siteswap than those of this year so it was quite different. However, he did a great job of introducing Prechac and his knowledge and enthusiasm to share his passion is excellent. I hope he runs this one every year!
  • “Lasso” - Peter Lister. He runs this every year I think. I really enjoy it and as mentioned below, I now own my own!
  • “Cushion spinning” - Thomas Bounce. He’s just lovely and one of the most approachable people I have met. Not enough people attended his workshop (there were maybe 6 of us) but it was a lovely atmosphere and there is talk of a world record attempt next year (he currently holds the record for longest spin). I saw him with Matthew Tiffany and Will (Scottish juggler based in Edinburgh) practicing in the main hall so maybe he has some competition!
  • “Improving Juggling Technique Through Functional Neurology” - Jame McCambridge. Wow, this was a strange one. It introduced me to the arthrokinetic effect (I am not even going to try and explain that here) and started with him demonstrating how you can compress someone’s ankle and reduce their strength. OK, there is no way I can begin to describe it all here but I don’t think it’s pseudoscience and Jame approaches the subject with a good, sceptical mind. If he runs this again or you meet him then it’s definitely worth taking the opportunity to speak to him. It was at this workshop I joked to Jon Peat that I was stalking him because we seem to share a similar taste in workshops.
  • “4 to 5 bal juggling” - Paul Donegan. Some interesting tricks and I put a name to a face that I have seen at every convention I’ve been to so far.
  • “Aerial Silks” - CJ Carnell. I have no grace whatsoever when I am upside down. During one of the drops I somehow managed to grab hold halfway round and stop my progress. It’s on video somewhere. I am not linking to it here.



Quiz
Held on the first evening and organised by Allen Goldie this was a great start to the convention. He maintained good humour throughout, despite the PA system conspiring against him. We also found out who put the rama lama in the ding a dong. I am terrible at pub quizzes but Jim from our club is a local quiz master so we managed second almost entirely thanks to his efforts.

Purchases
I bought two lassos from Oddballs, it’s about time a juggling supplier started selling them in the UK! I also got some saddle advice from Roger a unicycle.uk.com, although I didn’t actually buy anything I will probably make use of the 10% discount.

Food
I am a total cheapskate and only ate out twice, once at the local chip shop (excellent, huge portions) and Wok ‘n Go in Nottingham (just OK). I highly recommend bringing a sandwich toastie/panini maker suitable for a gas stove (https://www.amazon.co.uk/RidgeMonkey-Toaster-Silver-FREE-Utensil/dp/B01N4Q6149) Seriously, buy some bread and fillings and keep them in a cool bag. You’ll be eating like a king for the rest of the convention!

Gala Show
I’m not going to through all the acts, other reviews have done this already. Overall I really enjoyed it but it wasn’t my favourite Gala show that I have seen. Rosie’s humour didn’t crossover mine for a lot of her gags, the duck/children just wasn’t funny to me (but others loved it, so each to their own!), however her sarcastic pre-show announcements were excellent and primed the audience well before she even stepped on the stage. Iain from GJC injured his hand trying to catch a long range club as we returned to the hall. There was some impressive swelling. The convention organisers and Harvey Hadden staff managed the situation well.

BYJOTY
I thought the technical level wasn’t quite as high as previous years but I enjoyed every act. I’m not sure about aerial acts being included because they are so hard to compare to the props traditionally permitted and I think that will have some behind the scenes discussion. I particularly admire those who haven’t performed before, the first act wasn’t a high level of technical ability and he was quite droppy but he still got up there and gave it a go when I wouldn’t dream of stepping on the stage! I just wish he didn’t have his mouth full for most of the act, I don’t like watching people eat!

British Show
One of the best I have seen. It was lovely to see a member of GJC on the stage. Louis Duncan did an excellent 3 ball act and I can’t believe that’s the first time I have seen him perform after watching him practice for the past few years. Matthew Tiffany is possibly one of my favourite characters on stage (and off of course) so it was a joy to have him compere. The British Show really was excellent and the perfect way to kick of the convention.

Le Lido
I hated the introduction, it was a rambling disjointed spoken word thing made from quotes which for me epitomised pretentious artistic stuff. It just doesn’t do anything for me. I get that other people enjoy it so I’ll live with it. However, once the show got going it was generally pretty good. Highlights included the 3 clubs with 3 guys and the cyr wheel vs eggs. I didn’t appreciate the loud volume of the “Oh my God” song. I covered my ears for the entire thing because my I care about my hearing and music that loud just hurts. The ending with the dancing Jesus man was… different. Probably not my cup of tea but better than the introduction. This show was definitely one of the most polarising acts I have seen but that is not a bad thing, art should push the boundaries... and if people don't like it then they are within their rights to bash it!

The Games
I spent most of them juggling with Pan but managed to watch Kev win the balloon gladiators. I was relieved he did because his foe at the end evaded all contact and didn’t look seem to pop anyone else’s balloon throughout which I thought was contrary to the spirit of the game.
I did get a timelapse of the entire games which can be seen here: https://youtu.be/Rmzl3e3zJ0Y

Balloon Tent
The huge spinning balloon chain rotating above the blower was cool. It was even cooler when two people passed through it. Perfect convention antics. I also thought the octopus that was made for the birthday which had props in his hands was adorable.

Pool Party
It ended too soon. So much fun.

Kururin
I had chatted to Duncan about Kururins before the convention and gave him two of the tools I have made to assist in the making of them (https://jonathanjamieson.com/projects/kururin/). I didn’t get to play with the ones I have made as much as I’d like but I think Duncan did a better job introducing the wider juggling community to them.
https://youtu.be/Bg32MfekYR0

Scottish Juggling Convention
I missed the Glow Show to attend a get-together to discuss reviving the Scottish Juggling Convention. Ron did a brilliant job with the 2016 BJC and I think the time is right to bring back the SJC. Watch this space.

Likes

  • The octopus this year is my favourite convention logo ever.
  • I only heard a whip being cracked once in the main hall, apparently there was a space dedicated to them at the school and they must have only been used there.
  • Organisation. I didn’t notice any issues at all so that’s testament to the great work being done by the organisers. Well done!!
  • Weather. The first convention I’ve been to which had proper shorts and tshirt weather.
  • Everything. I just love the BJC. There really is too much to list here. I feat that those who have been to hundreds of conventions lose sight of just how good they are and how lucky we are to have such a nice community.



Dislikes

  • It’s anecdotal but I think there were more thefts this year than usual. Some of it is probably carelessly taking stuff such as the missing Ugly after the big toss up but Callum’s phone was almost certainly deliberately stolen. Just not cool.
  • Rubbish. I wish people would just tidy up after themselves.
  • I slept very well and the campsite was well away from the sound systems but occasionally I was awoken at ungodly hours by people with the most inane chat. Seriously, it’s 3:30am, unless it’s important or actually interesting it can wait till the (proper) morning) when you’re in a camping area.

ropingfool - - Parent

The lasso workshop - yes, that's me.

I went to my first lasso workshop at Birmingham BJC 1993, led (if I remember correctly) by Ed Meredith and by the end of the hour I had failed to get damn loop going. No reflection on the leader - the other 9 participants all worked it out. He was selling ropes, so I bought one and practised at home. Next year at BJC '94 (Manchester) I rather expected another lasso workshop. When I discovered there wasn't, I offered to lead a beginners session. After a few minutes, someone discovered a couple of 6 foot high foam rubber cacti somewhere in the hall and "decorated" my workshop with them - if there are any photos out there, I'd love to see one.

I've done (at least) one workshop at every BJC ever since then. I'm not particularly good - I'm lazy and I don't practice, but I can generally get a squash-courtful of beginners started in an hour. One of these days I'll actually put some hours in and get a reasonable trick solid.

All the best,
Peter (who finally signed up to jugglingedge today)

Orinoco - - Parent

Welcome aboard Peter, glad you could join us. That's quite a service you've put in on the workshop front. Thank you very much for your efforts.

The Void - - Parent

Is that a record-length review from you, Orin?
Thanks to you, ^Tom and Unigamer for your in-depth reviews. I enjoyed reading them.

I'm afraid I won't be joining you, but here's my H:
Dr Alice's comment just before BYJOTY that ended "...so one drop should do it". (No, I don't think I'll quote her in full here, thanks. She can elucidate further if she likes. ^_^ )

Orinoco - - Parent

I believe it is, by quite a large margin too. I'm going to have to start being more concise & less rambly1.

I would also like to echo the thanks to ^Tom & Unigamer, it's always interesting to get a different perspective on the same event.


1 Hahahahahaha! Had you all going there didn't I?!

JonPeat - - Parent

Yay, I really enjoyed reading everyone's different accounts of the week (especially the long rambling ones..! ;-))

I have finished writing my own extensive review (takes ages with only one hand!) and it should appear online within the next few days. I have allowed myself to read your reviews now my own is complete, it has been difficult holding back. :-)

Keep the reviews coming!
Cheers Jon

(did anyone get excited thinking that this might have been my review post..? Sorry...)

unigamer - - Parent

I just read your BJC review on the IJA magazine. I'm not sure how much of a stickler you are for spelling but it is "Louis Duncan" for the 3 ball guy in the British show. The proof reading in my review could have been better (and I will improve it for the version on my website) but I hold your reviews to a higher standard since they are the ones I see and read most often :)

I agree that the neuro workshop should have been better described, it wasn't what I was expecting either. Not sure he belittled stretching, I think it was more of a let's look at something that probably should be investigated more.

Your take on Le Lido is definitely closest to my opinion from the reviews I've read.

JonPeat - - Parent

I am a stickler for speeling and I do get my reviews proof read before posting.

I logged to change spelling but it had already been edited... Someone else has the power and already did it. :-)

Fair comment on the neuro workshop. Standing in solidarity for the Le Lido show.

Keep the reviews coming!
Cheers, Jon

JonPeat - - Parent

Never fear, the review post is here: https://www.juggle.org/british-juggling-convention-2017-review/

Enjoy, Cheers Jon

#bjc2017 #conventionreview

Al_Bee - - Parent

Cheers Jon. I always enjoy your reviews. V interested to hear your opinions re stretching. I'm very much in the "stretching doesn't really do a lot in the vast majority of cases" camp. Would love to hear more about the cognitive juggling workshop too - love picking through stuff like that. Cheers again.

The Void - - Parent

The Box Monkey was "Lukey".
Having the words "proportionally" and "portion" so close together in a sentence was a bit of a curveball. After some consideration, I have decided that it is acceptable.
Sorry about the lack of handout at the kendama workshop. I would make an excuse that I wasn't planning on running it, but then I've never given handouts anyway. To mitigate myself, for a decade I've been running a website and forum with loads of info. Head to https://kendama.co.uk/first10.html for basic descriptions of the tricks I taught in the workshop. But watch the linked videos for much detail. Feel free to stick your head in at https://kendama.co.uk/forum/index.php?action=forum too (beginners are welcome), or prod me for refreshers/further tips at Lestival. And if none of that is satisfactory, you can wield your falchion at me. Or scimitar, or seax....
Thanks for the review!

Austin - - Parent

Great review, I hate to be annoying but you mispelt Christian Hauschild every time. It's Christian not Cristian.

Orinoco - - Parent

Thanks Jon & well done. & I thought I was obsessed with food!

I'd already heard poor reports about the on site cafe on the first day so never used them. I did hear a rumour that they were told by the organisers that there would be 500+ hungry jugglers looking for food, but they didn't believe them! If you had walked round the corner from Asda for 20 seconds you would have found the cafe TWJC monopolised for the week. Great food, great price, very efficient & very friendly staff. You would not have gone anywhere else.

I'm glad your hand injury didn't stop you from enjoying the convention. You had an appointment to see if you could have the cast off today right? How did that go?

John R - - Parent

Jon was out of the cast on Wednesday but only ran three balls for a short while - the arm still has to recover lots of muscle mass and tendon flexibility by the look of it. He seemed very happy to have it off though!

First time I've ever been able to run higher numbers than Jon, I think...

magicalmarkwatson - - Parent

Just getting sorted after an amazing time at BJC! Thanks to the organisers and everyone involved in making it a fantastic convention once again!

I really enjoyed compering the Monday Night Open Stage, and have received kind comments from various people. If anyone else has feedback, good or bad, I'd love to hear it!

My Learn to Juggle 5 Balls workshop seemed to really help a lot of people. If you missed/lost your handout from the workshop, you can download a copy here: https://www.dropbox.com/…/LEARN%20TO%20JUGGLE%205%20BALLS%2… Be sure to let me know how you're progressing with 5 balls, I love to hear success stories!

Finally, forgive the self promotion, but if anyone wants updates on my performances then feel free to like my new Facebook page... https://www.facebook.com/ManOfMischief

Orinoco -

Crawley Circus Festival 2016

You are probably reading this for one of three reasons:

You read all my stuff (love you!).

You've seen a picture of me half naked facing off against Hannah & want to know what that's all about (hi Kim).

You heard about Saturday night & want to know what happened (that'll be at the end).

Here we go then:


I arrived on site at 6.30pm. My arrival coincided with SJC, Dave & Carolyn & others simultaneously passing the TWJC encampment which pretty much wiped out my stock of chocolate brownies so sorry to those who turned up later! I erected my tent in a brief dry spell & settled in to watch the debacle that is the TWJC pizza run, which aside from having to phone through & ask for the same half price offer available on their non-functioning website went surprisingly well. That's two years running that we've achieved the level of 'not farcical'. Everyone usually buys the largest pizza available where ever we end up buying from with the plan to save a slice or two for breakfast the next day. Papa John's XXL pizzas proved bigger than expected for pretty much everyone.

The ready availability of some of Paul's lovely home brewed porter & wines coupled with some people's inability to pace themselves led to a pretty early night for most of the TWJC camp, so I joined the huge SJC contingent who were very big on a game called Psycho. It's a large group game where one person plays a psychiatrist who gets to ask questions to the rest of the group. If you are asked a question you have to answer it as if you were someone else in the group determined by some formula or trigger (eg. answer the question as the person to your left, or answwer as the person with their legs crossed) pre-agreed by the group while the psychiatrist was absent. The psychiatrist has to work out what the formula or trigger is. If a patient answers incorrectly someone (usually the subject being impersonated) calls 'psycho' & all the patients shuffle themselves around. It was a lot of fun to play & reminded me a lot of Spyfall that we enjoyed playing at Bungay. As the psychiatrist you can work out the pattern by asking questions like 'what are you wearing?' but the game is a lot more fun if everyone knows each other well & you ask about personal smutty details.

Later on numbers dwindled to just Hannah, Jack, Bungle, Glyn, Ieuan & myself so we ended up playing would you rather? Which saw some alarming pragmatism as we each determined the least worst option.

After I could take no more I wandered back to my tent in the light of a beautiful full moon leaving Jack wishing he hadn't drank so much Red Bull. I checked my phone when I got back to my tent which reported the time was 4am. I promised myself I'd call it a night earlier the next day.

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, then I woke up a moment later & it was 9am. I finished off my pizza for breakfast then spent most of the morning chatting to people. I was tricked into doing a little juggling by hippy Kevin who I only seem to see at Crawley & always asks me to show him some new three ball tricks. After years of this he surprised me when he handed me his 3 clubs. My dancing is obviously doing me some good because I pulled off a very respectable 3 up pirouette first time despite hardly juggling anything this year. Henry Weston caused me to miss the obligatory stealing workshop in the afternoon. Our Kevin enjoyed Jon Udry's workshop on performance & Archie made good progress after attending the 5 ball workshop. The afternoon passed quickly because somehow it was time for...

The Kettle of Fish Show

Our compère for the night was Jon Udry who did a great job with lots of silly skits in between acts, juggling with 5 helium balloons being my favourite. He also did well to handle the heckling kids in the front of the audience. It's great to see just how far he has come in the few years since I first saw him perform in BYJOTY. His confidence is now getting close to his considerable ability.

Simone Riccio opened the show with a German wheel routine then followed it up later in the show with a diabolo spot. Both were nice turns that were well executed with no mistakes that I could see, although neither act offered me anything I haven't seen before I enjoyed Simone's pleasant personality which showed through his style & the way he engaged the audience.

Just when I thought I was becoming desensitised to contortionists Claudia Hughes took things up a level. This act featured the Marinelli Bend where the performer places her chin on the floor, rolls her body up over the top of her head & *kneels* either side of her head. That move & the poses while supporting her whole body with her mouth really made me feel queasy as a good contortionist should. It was a wonderful act, she made the grotesque look beautiful.

Regular favourite Rod Laver showed us his new routine involving trickshots with playing cards. Having recently worked on the UFO floating card trick myself I can appreciate tha skill required to flick a playing card consistently. Most tricks were a series of rapid fire throws but unfortunately I'd estimate the drop rate was around 40% to 50% which meant I just couldn't get into it. I think Rod struggled with the lighting which he has said has never been a problem with his style of ping pong ball juggling. The dropless sequence of behind the back throws then behind the neck throws into the hat looked fantastic & I hope show the promise of where the act will be in the future. Rod returned later in the show with his trademark ping pong balls which I have seen dozens of times, & hope to see dozens more. Still top notch skills & I still laugh at all the gurning.

Ian Marchant performed an act consisting of a lot of his signature pieces including the golf club trick performed with walking sticks while spinning 4 rings on his arms, flipping 5 spoons into 5 tumblers on a tray & pulling a table cloth from underneath a teapot & vase of flowers on a table balanced on his chin. Most of us had seen this earlier in the year at the BJC in Perth, but Ian is one of those performers I'm happy to watch again & again.

One of the most talked about acts of the night were the acrobalance duo whose name I sadly didn't catch. It started off with the lady being awkwardly manipulated by the man to the sound of some 50s pop song about running to your man when he comes home that was so excruciatingly sexist I was desperate for it to stop. So I was very pleased when the music was cut short, the lady walked to the front of the stage & began a short monologue of statements about not having to conform to society's stereotypes while peeling away the layers of her clingfilm dress, & removing her high heels while holding a handstand. Removing a wig while saying, "I like having practical hair" was a powerful surprise that I had no good reason to be surprised at. It didn't sound forced or scripted, threatening or self righteous. It sounded genuine, honest & personal, a perfect example of how to challenge preconceptions. After this the man also shared his thoughts while stripping off his suit. This was followed by the real acrobalance act with genuine cooperation between the pair featuring lots of rock solid hand to hand moves with slick transitions.

Closing the show with a gorgeous visual feast were Feeding the Fish. Stunning 2 to 4 person club passing set pieces, including one with the performers gliding around on hoverboards while performing various running (gliding?) feeds which was new to me. Of course they finished with their stunning pixel poi which if you haven't seen yet then I pity your vaccuous life.

I think Feeding the Fish were most people's highlight purely because they are hard to beat the size & impact of what they do. But for me, my favourite performer of the night was the sensational Jess Love who first performed a storming hula hoop routine featuring some surprising moves such as a very slick backward roll into a handstand while spinning the hoop around her ankle, plus throwing the hoop up, diving into a handstand then trapping the hoop between the back of her neck & her ankles. Another point that stood out for me was when she went from spinning 5 hoops together around her waist into 5 split in stages from her ankles to her upstretched hand. Instead of letting the hoops fall or stopping them with her hands as is usual she manipulated them back to 5 together around the waist. This looked so much cleaner & controlled, a subtle touch that I think many would miss, but I appreciated the show of mastery. As if that wasn't enough she returned later in the show with an even more storming skipping/tap dancing routine. I know we've had issues with tap dancing acts at Crawley before but Jess was an unstoppable ball of energy bouncing all over the stage with moves such as an alternating cross skip with one hand hooked under her right leg from front to back, inside to outside. She threw in blasts of tap dancing without noticeably slowing her jump rope, let go of the rope with one hand but continued with some lasso style rope spinning & had the audacity to keep smiling through tough sequences of double (triple?) skipping which was quite frankly sickening. Wonderful stuff.

Renegade

After the gala show I successfully avoided the fire show while I had something to eat before working on finishing off my cider collection. I went for a walk & ended up going through the forest & over the playing fields to discover that there is a nightclub on the other side which I'm surprised we've never invaded in all the years of Crawley festivals, I didn't go in because the party goers seemed to be looking at my tramp-like appearance in disdain.

I wandered over to the Renegade tent just in time to catch Ieuan getting 4 volunteers to do the everyone lies back onto the lap of the person behind you thing, I was also asked to help with the harder high speed version by whipping out one of the 4 chairs when the stunt was performed to the high speed count of, "sit, lean, pull". For this year's how-can-Bungle-hurt-himself? act he set up a path of lego on the stage to walk across. Before making the walk he gaffer taped himself over the eyes. Ieuan ran on stage & slapped him in the face to prove its effectiveness which I thought was both very uneccessary & very funny. I think most people appreciated that walking on lego is worse than walking on hot coals so kudos for stopping mid-way to tell a joke. Glyn had to bow out of this year's zen wrestling title fight with Hannah due to injury so I was called upon to take his place. I ended up fighting topless because you know, cider. For those that don't know Hannah comes up to just above my shoulders in height but she is able to produce an incredible amount of power for one so small & is able to bend over backwards an unfeasibly long way without falling over which makes her a formidable opponent. We commenced battle, according to Kevin I managed to survive for 3 minutes or so successfully absorbing her thrusts but unable to push her off balance. As the crowd got restless Matt called out for us to stand closer so we edged to within a couple of inches of each other which is not a position I was familiar with & makes the game much harder to play. Hannah adapted quickly, I didn't. I think I was toppled by her second push. The number of times I have beaten Hannah is still a nice round number.

After renegade I participated in a number of kangaroo courts, which is a ritual performed by Southend Juggling Club for dealing with infractions to the various games they play. This year there had been three cases of people allowing the plunger to hit the ground (I know, but stick with me). The first to be tried was Jack. Despite being a jury member in one of these courts a few years ago I am still none the wiser about how they work so I was the ideal person to act as Jack's defence. In real courts the defendent has the option to defend themself, in a kangaroo court the defendent has the option to prosecute themself as well which Jack bizarrely chose to do. I thought I was doing pretty well particularly when I insisted that the entire jury experience sitting on Paul's lap to demonstrate that the key witness couldn't possibly have been concentrating on the event in question. However, the guilty verdict is always a predetermined one & as punishment Jack's bottle of wine was gaffer taped to the outside of his forearm meaning taking a swig was an uncomfortable contortion manoeuvre.

I joined the jury for Izzy's trial which was much shorter mostly due to the prosecution going as follows:

Judge Twig: Would the prosection please make their case.
Nathaniel: OBJECTION! The prosecutor is a vegetarian.
Judge Twig: Sustained. Would the prosecution please be seated.
Matt: WTF?!

Her punishment was to have her finger taped across her face in such a way that in order to drink she had to fill a bowl formed by the tape & let it drain into her mouth. Debbie was the final person to be tried & for her punishment she had to sit in a bucket of water, which we called the arse bucket challenge.


The bit you want to read about

The partying continued well into the morning. I noticed Izzy was on the floor in obvious pain holding her leg, being comforted by a few people. I didn't see what happened but she seemed to be in good hands. 5 minutes or so later she still wasn't up & Haydn appeared to be applying his first aiding skills so I wandered over to see what was going on. Apparently she had dislocated her knee while she was dancing causing her to crumple to the ground. It had happened before & she has a condition that makes it more complicated. She was certain it had popped back into place but she was still in an extraordinary amount of pain. I helped Haydn & Nathaniel lift her off of the floor onto a chair & get her leg up. I fetched my bottle of water for her to drink, gave my hand for crushing/gouging purposes & tried to gently restrain Izzy from hitting herself in frustration while Haydn applied an ice pack & sourced some ibuprofen. After another 10 minutes things weren't getting any better so it was suggested that we should call an ambulance, but Izzy was adamant that we shouldn't, she said it had happened before & there was nothing they could do, so reluctantly we waited a bit longer. Another 10 minutes or so & still the screams & tears. Debbie joined us & tried as best she could to encourage her to let us call an ambulance to no avail. At this point various cocktails of painkillers started turning up which was the turning point for me, thankfully there were several of us who clearly voiced this was getting out of hand. Debbie was the first to demand that we should ignore Izzy & call an ambulance, I buried Izzy's head in my arms before she could start protesting & gave Haydn the nod but he already had his phone out & was making the call.

It seemed a long wait but paramedics Heidi & Gemma turned up pretty quickly. They asked a few questions (When asked her age she replied, "twenty one & a bit", I loved that the 'bit' is still important!) & prodded about a bit. They gave us the options that Izzy could be taken to hospital to be checked out or they could only give her some paracetemol & leave her to it. Izzy did the very British thing of not wanting to be any trouble & insisted that there was nothing they'd be able to do. This is where Debbie really stepped up, she got in Izzy's face & stayed there, she did not stop talking until she convinced Izzy that going to hospital was the only option. I was in awe of the intense determination & care she showed. Izzy inevitably conceded & asked for someone to come with her who would boss her about & tell her what to do. That'll be Debbie then. At this point I think a lot of people shrunk away from going to hospital, it's a big responsibility but it was never any question that Debbie would go along. I said I'd come too, I just felt I needed to support Debbie because she seemed so focussed on Izzy that she wasn't going to look after herself, & I didn't want anyone to bear the burden alone. I had a bottle of water on me & I had cash for a taxi back. The only upside of holding a girl who has been crying & screaming in pain for the last half hour is that it sobers you up very quickly.

Heidi & Gemma loaded Izzy into the ambulance & gave her an initial examination while Debbie & I waited outside. We then got on board with Gemma driving & Heidi in the back with us. Heidi pulled out the nitrous oxide gas for Izzy to breathe & told us that she'd probably pass out which was fine. The gas took about 30 seconds to kick in, Izzy relaxed noticeably & lay back on the stretcher. Shortly after we started moving though the pain kicked in again. I provided the hand to dig her nails into, Debbie held her shoulders & kept up the encouragement while she took more of the gas, breathing much harder & deeper than before. I watched her face ease & her eyelids drop as she told us how wonderful everything was before she passed out. I'm not sure who was more relieved, her or me. I thought that would be it for the rest of the journey. She was out for less than a minute before she burst back to consciousness screaming, I had to stop her from hitting her leg with her flailing hand that I wasn't holding while Debbie retrieved the gas mouthpiece that she knocked aside & got it back to her mouth, again more deep breaths while Debbie kept up the reassuring chatter. Again she went back down on the bed. I glanced a question at Heidi who indicated that that was ok. & so it went for the whole journey, in & out of consciousness from pain to deliriousness. Keeping someone restrained gently is not a skill I've had much experience with but I learnt quickly. Halfway through the journey Izzy started retching, Heidi quickly retrieved a cardboard bowl from one of the ambulance's many cubby holes for me, Debbie supported her torso while I held the bowl while keeping my right arm between her arms & her legs braced for any flailing & held her hair out of her face with my left hand. The retching passed & we got Izzy back down again.

I'm very good at suppressing my emotions, but inside it was terrifying. I spent most of the journey worrying whether the next return to consciousness would see Izzy delirious or in pain. Unfortunately most of the time she was in pain. Being good at suppressing emotions I think I'm also pretty good at telling when other people are doing the same, I don't think Debbie was scared at all, she was too busy relentlessly working to keep Izzy calm. She rode the entire roller coaster. She played with Izzy during the delirious spells, then was right there with her taking the pain when it came back. At the height of the pain she was bold & aggressive with clear instructions. As the pain eased she'd subside too all the way down into a soothing hushed lullaby to send Izzy to sleep. When she was asleep she never took her eyes off her, ready to jump back in at a moments notice. I think Heidi was doing the same thing as me & letting Debbie do the comforting, meanwhile she got on with monitoring, filling out paperwork, handed us apparatus when we needed it, adjusted the bed when we needed her to. She joked with Debbie during the short periods when Izzy was unconscious. She obviously knew how important it is to take care of the carers. During one particularly soul wrenching scream, Gemma called from the front, "Everything ok back there?" & Heidi calmly replied, "Yep, keep going". I was glad of their calm professionalism, it gave me something to emulate.

I think we arrived at the hospital at about 5am, Heidi & Gemma wheeled Izzy into the corridoor & waited with us for triage. Debbie & I stood at Izzy's side & comforted her as best we could, the pain seemed much more bearable now that the motion had stopped. Izzy was clearly exhausted & her blood must have been full of the gas & air at this point. It was much easier for us to keep her calm. I found I could send her to sleep by stroking her hair which proved to be useful. After 5 minutes or so Izzy was then wheeled into triage & briefly looked over, this session included the inevitable exchange:

Doctor: What's your date of birth?
Izzy: something something 1994.
Me: 1994? I hate young people.
Heidi: So do I.

When the transfer was complete Heidi & Gemma wished Izzy well & we all thanked them for their help. Izzy was then wheeled into a holding bay where we waited to be seen. Debbie & I kept constant watch. There was no signal inside the building so Debbie disappeared for a bit to make calls & send text updates back to family & friends on site. Izzy was pretty spaced out & gave me a running commentary on how many noses I had at any given time. For a long while she'd ask where she was each time she woke up, so we made sure at least one of us were the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes to give her something familiar. A nurse came to take some blood. Another doctor came round & checked her leg, after a few exercises he seemed satisfied the knee had gone back into position but couldn't rule out a fracture so insisted on getting an x-ray. Izzy was taken away at around 7.20am according to the text I sent at the time. Debbie & I had a very welcome cup of tea for me & coffee for her before collapsing in the waiting area. We took turns to send commmuniqués back to site & just chatted while waiting for Izzy's return, which was only a few minutes. Then 40 minutes later the doctor returned to confirm that nothing was broken, he did a little more prodding & then said he was happy for us to go. We picked up some crutches which Izzy seemed determined to zoom about on at high speed to prove she was ok.

No one was awake to answer their phone on site so I ordered a taxi. The ride back to the theatre seemed to take forever, I couldn't believe we'd come all that way a few hours earlier, but of course we were somewhat more occupied on the journey there.

A lot of people have thanked me for going along, but honestly I didn't really do much. I provided a scratching post, lent a little muscle, provided Debbie & Izzy with water & paid for a taxi ride back to site. Debbie did the hard work, that's what heroism looks like. It was an honour to stand beside you Debbie.

#Crawley2016 #conventionreview

Orinoco - - Parent

Here's Bungle walking across the lego. Scream along if you like:

https://youtu.be/BLd-YGuzgQ0

Mike Moore - - Parent

I do read everything you write, and this post is a good example of why. Glad everything's okay with Izzy.

I can't believe people born in 1994 are already in their twenties. I mean, the math's there, but the intuition of time is not!

^Tom_ - - Parent

"the golf club trick performed with walking sticks while spinning 4 rings on his arms, flipping 5 spoons into 5 tumblers on a tray & pulling a table cloth from underneath a teapot & vase of flowers on a table balanced on his chin."

WOW - that's one hell of a combination trick!

Jokes aside, thanks for the excellent and concise* review.

*neither the pizza ordering time, nor a full list of pizza flavours (ordered, considered, or available) was provided. Without such details, I had to rely on my imagination.

Orinoco - - Parent

The pizza ordering commenced at just before 19:00. We decided on Papa John's this year thanks to an offer of 50% off if you ordered over £30 online. The shopping cart was down, but I phoned (at ~19:35 because they advised a 45-60 minute delivery time which prompted me to set an alarm on my phone for 20:05 to make sure I was round the front of the building 5 minutes before the earlier estimate) & asked nicely so they agreed to honour the offer over the phone. Pizzas available can be found here, we decided on the following:

4 * All the meats
1 * The Greek
1 * BBQ Chicken
1 * Garden Party
1 * Hawaiian (pineapple does not belong on a pizza)

Delivery arrived 20:10.

JonPeat - - Parent

Pinapple on a Pizza seems very reasonable to me.

Olives / Anchovies / Sweetcorn = Do not belong on a Pizza.

Little Paul - - Parent

Olives / Anchovies / Sweetcorn barely belong anywhere.

You're wrong about pineapple though, it doesn't belong on a pizza.

Pineapple belongs on little cocktail sticks, with a nice strong cheddar, served on half a grapefruit covered in foil.

Topper - - Parent

Pineapple does belong on a pizza that's why I order it every year. It also is excellent cold for breakfast and is one of my 5 a day.

Danny Colyer - - Parent

Topper wrote:

"Pineapple does belong on a pizza that's why I order it every year. It also is excellent cold for breakfast"

Kev, you're a sick bunny.

FWIW my favourite pizza topping, which bizarrely I've never seen offered at any pizza restaurant, is black pudding.

The Void - - Parent

*Stands in solidarity with the pineapple-on-pizza contingent* #juicy

^Tom_ - - Parent

Thanks. Out of curiosity, which one was yours, and how was it?

Orinoco - - Parent

I had one of the All the meats. It was very good, the dough was sufficiently stodgy & very consistent, the toppings were plentiful & evenly distributed. My only complaint would be that it was very unevenly sliced, & it wasn't cut all the way through so there was a lot of tearing to do.

Little Paul - - Parent

Are you a six slicer or an eight slicer?

Orinoco - - Parent

When I make my own I'm a six slicer, but I only ever make mine 12" or so in diameter. The XL is listed as 16" on their website, so I would guess the XXL is 18" & I believe was cut into 10 slices, which I think would've been about right but because of the unevenness I can't be certain.

Little Paul - - Parent

An 18" pizza is approximately 20% bigger than a 16" - so would warrant a 20% increase in the number of slices.

So 10 slices seems about right

JonPeat - - Parent

The Unicycling Monkey Pizza Slicer would have been a welcome addition to your camping cook bag:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fred-PIZZA-PEDDLER-Pizza-Cutter/dp/B008XCZ232/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_img_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=DAEG2684CCQ7WC6AX1KR

On another note, I browsed the archives and found a post by you where you recommended the Kuhn Rikon Paring Knife for camping use.

I also endorse this knife. Super sharp and a very usefull sheath to prevent accidental amputation!

Orinoco - - Parent

I've never got on with pizza wheels. Instead of cutting I find the resistance caused by dragging the wheel over the pizza just makes the wheel turn. If I wasn't against kitchen utensils that are only useful for one type of food I'd get one of those curved knives that have a handle on each end that look like an inverse bat'leth that you use by rocking over the pizza.

peterbone - - Parent

Surely the wheel is supposed to turn. It prevent the cheese being dragged across the surface.

The Void - - Parent

Of course. I dunno, these modern god emperors, they're just clueless.

Orinoco - - Parent

Full sentence should've been, "makes the wheel turn without cutting the pizza." I can only see them working well on crispy bases, I like a soft doughy base.

Little Paul - - Parent

You need to press down harder.

Although I share your dislike for single use kitchen gadgets.

Gert big chef knife ftw

Orinoco - - Parent

Quick Izzy update. She's still on crutches but out of her splint & now strapped up with webbing & her leg now looks like a lattice pie. She had a good session with a physio yesterday & has a host of painful exercises to do to get her back to normal. She's definitely a lot happier than when I last saw her.

JonPeat -

Sheffield Circus Skills Convention 2016 (UK) – Review

Saturday 9th July saw the return of the Sheffield Circus Skills Convention, here follows my convention review and ramblings of the day.

I did expect to get thoroughly lost as we navigated the centre of Sheffield, but surprisingly we managed it without a problem.
We chose to arrive early in order to bag a parking space as judging by the maps provided before the event the parking looked a bit sparse. As it turned out this was not a problem as there were a number of car parks within a short walk of the venue. I got a spot on free on street parking on Brunswick St next to a fairly large university car park which attendees of the convention could use for free on the day. I would head there next time.

When we arrived the convention crew were in full swing getting things organised so we kept out of the way and chilled out in the lounge area (sofas and little tables) where Ron was to later have his Lazy Juggler games area.
The passes were very swanky, plastic tokens of many colours with SCSC cut out on them. I always like a good pass and these scored pretty highly!

I had never been to this venue and a Like it a lot! I did spend far too long counting the walls to make sure it was eight sided (it is!). The main convention space is a very large octagonal hall with a large stage set up against one wall. The lighting and sound in the hall is pretty good. Overhead lighting was a bit bright in places but there were plenty of gaps to juggle in. I need to find a good way of measuring the hall sizes for my reviews, but it was a great big hall! Nice and clean too. The angled walls made it difficult for me to orient myself to juggle, I am one who insists on juggling at right angles to the walls...

The workshop board was well populated with beginner workshops across a variety of disciplines and some other interesting looking workshops.

I spent the morning enjoying a good ball juggling session. Lots of my harder tricks were not feeling as hard as usual so I was very encouraged and made the most of the session. I broke off to speak to various people as they arrived including magical Mark who Me and Jenni then convinced to come out with us for lunch (11.30, we had got up early and were v hungry!). I was hankering for burritos so we headed out to the burrito place and found it to be closed on weekends! Very sad!
Mood improved when we found a fish and chip shop with some exciting meal deal combos listed on the window. Just a point of note, a ‘+’ in Sheffield actually means ‘Or’. I had to restrict my choice to mushy peas OR gravy OR curry sauce with my meal. Again sad times. Also strangely the server boasted when handing over the food that I had a chicken sausage rather than a pork sausage, “you won’t get them anywhere ese” I was told. This caused a lot of discussion amongst ourselves especially when I found it tasted identical to traditional fish and chip shop sausages. More questions than answers…

After lunch I sat and chatted with Brook and also Jenni’s brother and watched Mark and Callum playing 3 club gladiators. Mark retired and then Brook joined in, then I joined in and we played for a long time until we were all pretty shattered. I didn’t expect to play any gladiators at this convention but as it turned out I ended up playing more than at some conventions where there has been a tournament! Funny how things turn out.

We all sat outside and cooled off in the breeze and chatted before heading inside where the games had just started. We had missed 3 ball Simon says but saw a nice range of games and took part in a few. I royally sucked at hoop gladiators and laughed during the balance endurance which took me out. I won juggling limbo which was great fun, I normally make a simple drop early on and crash out of the running but I managed to hold my cool and keep it together and was awarded with a mini twix. To the victor the spoils!
Me and Brook did a tiny bit of one count passing between games until the gladiators started so we both joined in and played that for another hour or so…

The hall closed at 5pm for show tech running, although the other workshop rooms were open and free to use for more juggling. We elected to go out for some food. There are lots of places to get food within a short walk of the venue so we gathered up Mark and set off to a nice Indian restaurant a sort walk away which we had espied earlier. Turned out to be pretty good, although there were some unusual choices on the menu. I won the joke meal award again (chicken sausage fiasco) with my strange flaky bread served with my curry. Never mind.

We waved Mark off after our meal as he couldn’t stay for the show and we made our way back.
Lots of seating arranged in front of the stage, professional lighting and sound, pretty impressed.
While everyone was taking their seats Rachael sang us all a song whilst doing cup percussion as accompaniment, it sounded very nice and I would have liked to have heard more.
Miark sat with us and introduced us to a great variety of people who were sat around us who Miark hadn’t met before either. He was also invaluable in helping me with my notes on the show, so thank you Miark.

Ross did a good job of compering the show with lots of energy but someone needs to confiscate his joke book.
Shaun and Amanda opened the show with some nice club passing and some good club stealing all performed with smiles and little gags. It was slightly droppy which was a bit of a shame although they coped very well with the drops and performed well.
Jenny Collins performed a bicycle themed hoop routine with bicycle tyres. It was great fun, I really liked it. She broke on of my cardinal rules of performing which is that you should never perform to a Queen song as the music should never be better than your routine. HOWEVER, she did a great job and I need to rethink that rule of mine. I would have liked to have seen her performing in either full cycling attire or a Freddy Mercury eske outfit to bind the routine together, but even so it was good fun and well performed. Miark marked her down for not putting her cycle helmet back on when she cycled away from the stage, safety first!
We then had to turn in our seats to back of the room to watch Doris perform her unicycling routine but this time as a green alien! It was very entertaining and she hit all of the big tricks. It was a good ending having Ross as a Man in Black shoot her down with a ray gun. Good fun.
The interval was long and contained a really drawn out raffle (geddit?).
The second half opened with Tom Crosbie performing some Rubiks cube feats as well as performing some magic. I enjoyed his patter and presentation very much as well as the numbers trick he did, that was my favourite.
Thomas bounce performed a really nice bounce routine. I think I enjoyed it more than I did his routine from the BJC this year. Very solid and smooth skills, a pleasure to watch.
Cindy Steele performed a fantastic mix of robotic dance and contact ball manipulation. So smooth and amazing to watch. I always desperately want to see even more footwork though as I love watching the gliding across the stage along with the manipulations.
The finale act of the show was a poi juggling routine performed by Keith Marshal and Antonia. Having tried the poi juggling at Cumbria convention and seeing how hard it was I really enjoyed the routine and was very impressed. The music choice was right up my street as well and I especially enjoyed the fact that Keith sang along to most of it. Good routine!

After the show I chatted with Tomas Bounce for a long while discussing marble slabs and the perils of various venues, before collecting Jenni and piling into the car for the journey home.
Of course no convention would be complete without a necessary section of the motorway being closed forcing a long detour through Wakefield city centre…

I enjoyed SCSC much more than I thought I would. The venue was excellent, the hall was large and clean. The team seemed well organised and knew what they were doing. The games ran smoothly. The show was very good despite some last minute drop outs from the line-up.
My only real suggestion for next year would be having a ‘day only’ ticket in addition to the other ticket choices to allow for people who were unable to stay for the show. Saying that there were around 70 people through the door during the day with 100 or so turning up for the evening show.

This was a good convention, there is lots of room at this venue for even more people, you should come next time and see for yourselves.
Thank you to the organisers for putting on such a good event, I hope to see you again next year!
Cheers, Jon

(My goodness, what a long review, I hope you enjoyed it. If you did or didn’t then join the discussion. If you attended the event add you own review of the day too!)

#SCSC #conventionreview

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