Threads tagged #leicesterlestival

JonPeat - 2016-05-03 14:28:25 UTC #

Lestival IX Convention Review (UK)

Saturday the 30th April saw the return of the Leicester juggling convention held at Brockington College, Enderby. Here follows my account of the day!

I think it is remarked every year how great the venue is. It is still great! Large and light atrium, comfortable games / chill out area, large ‘pit’ area which doubles as the show venue, the café and seating area where you can watch the main juggling space. It is basically perfect for the convention and I think possibly the best one day convention site on the UK circuit!

The workshop board was full of workshops when we arrived but we added another workshop area backstage so that I could do my ring juggling workshop.
I spent an hour or so doing some club juggling and breaking off regularly to chat with various people as they arrived. It was nice to see a good crowd of people who I had missed at BJC so hadn’t perhaps seen since York juggling convention at the start of the year.
Me and Jenni headed over to the Lazy Juggler stand to sample their wares, came away with our own copy of Dual which we have become a bit obsessed with!
Oddballs were also trading and had a huge stall set up in the atrium. They had masses of stuff! I found myself wondering if it was worth it for them and hoped that they managed to shift a lot of stock.

Workshop time. My workshop was entitled Ring juggling - technique, tips and tricks. I was slightly put out when only two people had arrived so I asked Jay to make an announcement, following the announcement that number then jumped to about 12 which was way better! I guess most people don’t bother checking the workshop board which is a pity when there were so many on offer…
I think the workshop went quite well and we covered a huge amount of stuff. I am slightly worried that we covered too much and people might have been overwhelmed, but I think everyone got something from it. We actually overran by half an hour because we kept uncovering more tricks which people wanted to learn.

I left the workshop starving hungry and headed to the café with Jenni and had a very tasty (and affordable!) baguette. There was just time to sit for half an hour and enjoy my food and chat to the Northwich jugglers before I had to rush off for the combat tournament qualifications.

About 14 people took part; mostly the usual crowd and we managed to race through the qualifications in an hour and get the semi-finals done. I only lost one match during qualifications and that was against Brook so I was quite happy with that. I seeded third behind Danny Cooper and Brook because I gave too many points away in my matches. That seemed a bit of a theme of the day for me… Anyway, the final and third place matches were to be held at the end of the games to make a bit more of a spectacle of the tournament.

So, immediately following the qualifications was the Games. All the classic games took part; I elected to avoid the ones where I normally get badly injured such as hopping gladiators and the knights, damsels and cavaliers game. We did enjoy sitting and watching the action unfold. I was very disappointed with my 5 club endurance run which ended after about 15 throws, I realised I hadn’t actually properly juggled so far during the convention. A well-deserved win from David Haslam (BYJOTY 2016) though, such a clean pattern. My balance endurance ended by me attempting to recover the balance and ploughing into Bungle where we stood and hugged for quite a time (longer than was strictly necessary, but it was funny!).
No 5 ball endurance which was a shame as the 5 clubs and 7 balls feels a bit elitist. 7 Ball endurance went better than expected; I finished in the top 5 although it was a bit sloppy.

Then it was combat time and the third place match between Danny and Cameron.
There were some nice fights and exchanges as well as some long points, Danny secured the third place finish in the end. Me and Brook faced off for the final match. I dropped too many silly points and lost to Brooks consistent playing style. There is no shame losing to Brook, but I would very much like to beat him, it seems like ages since I won a game against him!
I think it worked quite well holding the finals during the games, I hope the audience enjoyed it. The venue really made this work as the pit area is lower and surrounded by steps which can be sat on (bit like an amphitheatre) and I think this really helped, I am not sure how well it work at other conventions where the games are just held in the sports hall…
Free for all gladiators then took place which was again lots of fun.

Following the gladiators I hooked up with Ed and we worked on our 9 club ultimate’s and achieved some quite long runs. I felt that my throws were letting the pattern down a bit. I should really have warmed up more before trying big patterns.

Me and Jenni then tagged on the back of the Cambridge posse and we all went to the Toby Carvery which is a short walk away. Not surprisingly half the convention seemed to be there. There was a long wait for the roast potatoes and some amusing stories told.

Back at the venue me and Mark started some ring passing and quickly got up to 11. My problem is throwing them too short or narrow which them forced Mark to start dropping them too long. Even so, we did manage some good runs.

Showtime!
Tiff compered the show and did a good job especially at shooting down hecklers (or rather, Rob and Simion)
Lisa Ellipse kicked off the show with a moody Hula Hoop routine. I thought it was nice and I liked some of the clever shapes which are being made these days although it was bordering on having too much spinning on the spot.
Tom Bennet-Davis performed his first stage routine and showed some good skills with diabolo. I particularly liked his confidence on stage and enjoyed his one liners.
David Haslam performed his BYJOTY winning routine from this years BJC. It wasn’t the near dropless performance from the BJC but it was a very strong technical routine. I missed it at BJC (had to leave site and come back on the Sunday) so I was really pleased to see it!

I spent the interval doing some more ring passing with Mark before it was raffle time. My Dad won a set of 5 Oddball bouncers. I won a crate of mini beers, but as I don’t drink I neglected to go and get my prize. To my utter delight and disbelief I won the BJC full ticket!!! I am especially delighted as Jay had to pay for it out of his own pocket and moaned at me, haha (sorry Jay)!!

Max Hodgkinson opened the second half with a diabolo routine. The significance of the hat was lost on me.
Ed performed with his contact cigar box routine which was a bit too droppy on this occasion.
Pass Go (AKA James and Elanor) gave a fantastic club passing routine. This was a snazzy upgraded version of the one they performed at Bath convention a couple of years ago. Super slick and also very snazzy costumes. I wasn’t blown away by the passing patterns but I loved the transitions and some of the short sections between passing bouts. Nice routine.
Greeny closed the show with a cheeky clowning / odd character routine. I was delighted that he maintained the character throughout the entire routine whereas a lot of snap out of character if there is a drop or when it’s time for the bow. Pretty good routine, especially when the other acts came out and got involved.

It was a strong convention show overall. I have a major gripe with performers for not bowing properly at the end of their individual routines. Most simply nodded at the audience and perhaps dipped slightly before running off the stage. Let’s have some good bows please; it is part of the routine and should be rehearsed as such!

After the show there was just enough time for a spot more passing before we were all kicked out and sent home.


Where did the day go? For me the day passed in a blur and it was over before I was ready. I would have liked to have done more solo juggling, but the day was just over too soon.
Lestival was once again a great convention, thank you to the organising team. I’m pleased to hear that the organisers are keen to run another so I look forward to seeing you all again next year!

Cheers, Jon

#conventionreview