Four hundred this time! The 7th European Juggler's Week in Frankfurt, W. Germany was the biggest yet. It proved that the only way to go is up for juggling on the east side of the Atlantic.

 

More important than the number of participants was a feeling of permanence and stability, that the second week of September will always be a time for jugglers throughout Europe to put aside other things to be together.

 

The signs of the annual migration were perceptible to others on the same voyage club handles poking out of the top of a back pack (regular people wonder why anyone would want to carry around three squash rackets), a bowler hat on somebody definitely not an accountant or Englishman, a truck illegally parked on a sidewalk with a note on the windshield asking "Where is everybody?"

 

That loose beginning changed quickly by 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12 as the convention officially began. People streamed into the Volksbildungsheim in the center of Frankfurt to register. The space was provided by the City of Frankfurt, which gave admirable support to the convention in many aspects. The room designated for the welcome party could barely hold all the arrivals.

 

Some people began juggling immediately, but for the most part people stood around with their mouths open wondering where everyone had come from. For those wh o juggled alone or who were at their first convention, the shock was intense. Who do you watch first? How did he do that one? Where did that come from?