I wrote this post right after the British Juggling Convention and the British Unicycle Convention. I saved it for now so my experiences would be in chronological order.
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I am strained and drained. I just spent 2 weeks at the British Juggling Convention and British Unicycling Convention in Nottingham and Billingham, respectively. The festivals were held back-to-back and in a convenient route back to Edinburgh; what a perfect match!
The trip back to England began horribly because I had arranged to take a bus from Galway to Dublin (about a 3 hour journey) at 2 am in order to catch an 8 am flight, so that I could have a full first day at the BJC. About 15 minutes past the pick-up time, all the travelers at the bus stop began to get worried. Soon it was half past 2, 3 o’clock, half past 3……where was the bus!!?? At this point, people started grouping together and hiring taxis to take them to the airport; at 300 euros a pop! I decided it would be cheaper to book a flight the next day, instead of splitting a 300 euro tab. Luckily, it’s easy to buy cheap flights off of Ryan-Air, so I ended up paying an extra 10 euros for another flight. The bus company refunded me for my missed flight, refunded me for the missed bus, and gave me a free ticket for another bus journey. It was a tiring hassle, but it didn’t end up as the worst thing in the world. And what happened to the bus? The driver never woke up for his shift!
My unexpected last day in Galway was much better anyway than my intended last day. The sun was beaming, I spent lots of time loafing around the waterfront with jugglers (the remaining few who were not at the BJC, haha), and I had a proper huge dinner with Kate, Brad, Simon, and Ben.
The British Juggling Convention was amazing and huge! It was the largest festival I’ve been to yet, and it has only built up my expectations for the EJC in Greece. The BJC ran from Wednesday to Sunday, and it was held in a Sports Complex in Nottingham, which is in middlish-east (?) England. There was on-site camping, on-site food, a huge tent for bands, dancing,and entertainment, the WJF was holding their open exhibiton in another hall, and the first ever British balloon Modeling Convention was held in another hall. There must have been 7 or 8 vendors including Henry’s. Check this out – Henry’s offer a lifetime warranty and if you bring them your battered and beaten clubs they will repair them for free! My clubs were in an awful sad state when I left Calfiornia, and they only suffered more from traveling. The top had busted off of one, the knobs were bent on two, and a staple was protruding from the third. Now, they are nicely patched up.
As far as shows go, I watched the BYJOTY, Public Show, an hour or so of Renegade, and a trapeze street show. Unfortunately I didn’t hit up the WJF – I did see the competitiors practicing in the gym anyway. It all looks a bit too mechanical after a while, and I think I had my fill of it in Humboldt 2 years ago. haha. A small dose goes a long way! I regret not watching a bit of it though….more to come. BYOTY was great, all in all, but it just carried on for a long time with a “best trick” competitioin afterwards and it wasn’t clear if they were going to announce the winners after it, whcih is the only reason i stuck around. So, I wasted about 1 1/2 hours watching lots of failed extreme tricks by kids. For the first time in my life I actually saw a trapeze show that made me gasp, gape, and wonder how the athletes could pull off their stunts. Most trapeze acts I have seen are very flawless, polished, and graceful, but this show, by Swamp Circus, featured clowns on trapeze! The gimmick was a sleazy carnival-type barker trying to sell an “Elixer of Life” to the audience, and he demonstrates how it can keep you young and beautiful. Then, out comes a very classy lady and she does a standard trapeze act. Next, the announcer demonstrates how the elixir can go horribly wrong if you take the improper dosage. Then, out comes 2 frazzled and bedraggled girls who stumble about and run into one another. Then they do a pairs trapeze act that is flawless, but rough at the same time! I really admire how they can maintain their haphazard attitude but still do hard physical stunts.
On Saturday, the convention moved locations and buses took us all to the city centre. We were dropped off at the castle, built up on a hill in the middle of town, and were allowed to roam the grounds and juggle all over the place! Then there was a huge parade from the castle to the main plaza, where the street shows and BJC games were held. The convention was turned into a public spectator event, which I thought was really neat because it actually made people aware that there was a juggling festival in town. There were so many unicyclists and jugglers roaming about the plaza; it was fantastic bringing the un-real attitude of the festival to the humdrum real world. Some of the games I had never seen before included random prop endurance, unicycle gladiators (just pushing and shoving, no foam noodles), and one-footed jumping gladiators, I played the last two and didn’t get very far. The one-footed jumping was almost like a mosh pit, yikes!
The public show was amazing and my favorite acts included an Austrian girl who did entire body contact juggling, and GET THE SHOE. This is by far the best club passing act I have ever seen. It started off with one juggler demanding of the other “Give me your shoe” and the other juggler replies with “Get it yourself!” Then, the entire routine is a martial arts/ fighting club passing routine that was flawless – it was amazing! The team was from Germany. Thomas Dietz was in the show, and he came out in a tutu and spun poi – very badly. It was a major disappointment after looking forward to a juggling routine.
At the BUC, I met a bunch of unicylists who were hosting the British Unicycle Convention the next weekend in a town not far from Edinburgh. So, I stayed with a mad girl named Maddy, who I usually hang out with at the conventions, because she only lived about an hour from the BUC location. Thank you Maddy! And thank you to Roger and Miark from unicycle.com for all the rides I needed!
The BUC was amazing! It was such an eye-opener for all the new things going on in unicycling. There were lots of street and trials uniyclists doing insane things that I have only seen in videos! I am DEFINATELY getting some new unicycles when I get back to California.
Now, if you think a juggling festival is messy, just wait until you go to a unicycle convention……..no contest! Imagine all those juggling clubs converted into uniycles that take up much more space and have those pesky cranks sticking up into the air…….all disposed of in a small school – gym and hallways – yup, I tripped a lot.
And at the BUC, I found all the jugglers anyway and did more juggling than unicycling…what can I say – I’m better at juggling!
