Club Volcano Festival Heats Up Hawaii

by Graham Ellis  

 

Club Volcano Festival could be the most unconventional juggler's convention ever. Everything changes from year to year. Time, space and activities have all been transformed over the last four years to reflect our creativity and Madame Pele's natural acts!

 

Our jungle home, Belly Acres, saw plenty of juggling beginning in mid­October when the first crew members started drifting ashore. In January, as the festival came closer, waves of jugglers from England , Denmark , Germany , Holland , France and Japan came aboard.

 

Everyone brought a skill that we put to service of the festival: graphic artist, set builder, carpenter, kitchen co-ordinator, costume maker, bookeeper and even a ship's captain. They all found time to juggle, too! Meals developed into feasts for

10, 22, 26 and finally 33 pre-festival juggling pirates.

 

 

The activity peaked the week before the festival as about 20 of us pooled our nautical skills to build the "S.S. Irrelevant" in time to launch her for the Mardi Gras celebration in Hilo town. Shiver me timbers! Our motley crew of renegade jugglers, prankish pirates and mischievous mutineers brought havoc, plundered nonsense and stopped at nothing in the pursuit of frivolity and laughter. The locals will long remember the wild antics, firey spirits and hornpipe jigs of the Sailing Circus. We also ran off with first prize as the best team entry in the parade!

 

Then came the festival. While Madame Pele spewed lava for the 68th consecutive month, jugglers and performing artists from far and wide convened at Kalani Honua retreat center for a week of fine food, friends and memories. Molten lava spilled into the sea, sending up huge clouds of white steam as clouds of clubs and balls rose into the air above Kalani Honua.