The two superstars of traditional ball, club and ring juggling highlighted the festival for most of the 1,100 who attended. They each endured large crowds of onlookers as they practiced, signed countless autographs and posed graciously for photographs with lots of unknown faces for whom the particular picture will become a treasure. They watched as Ignatov effortlessly flipped five club back crosses, and as Gatto performed monumental tricks with unerring and almost inhuman accuracy, such as spinning one ring around an ankle, bouncing a ball on his head and juggling seven rings.

Their presence at the end of the first half and second half of the Cascade show highlighted a good week for the IJA. Other stars in that night of live variety entertainment included a fly-casting expert, The Swordsmen (Doug Mumaw and David Woolley) with their comic medieval fencing, Sandy Brown as the Juggling Housewife, Roger Reed's diabolo interludes, David Deeble's short skits, local comedy juggler Dale Jones, the Flaming Idiots, Doubble Troubble and the antics of show producers Benny and Denise Reehl.

A lot of other factors combined for a good festival - nice air-con­ditioned facilities, an affable out­door Club Renegade, the successful resurrection of Combat, good food in the dining center and the presence of the lovely Trixie Larue.

There was also just enough controversy to make it interesting - an overflow gym opened too late in the week for many folks' liking and a new championships award system for senior individual and teams competitions that riled a large segment of the festival crowd into utter indignation. The crowd didn't disagree that Doubble Troubble and Andrew Head deserved the top rankings of the night, just that the top ranking wasn't high enough and that not enough competitors received medals.

There was only one IJA record broken during the competitions, as Anthony Gatto won all three individual numbers events and upped the ante in the "balls" category to 60 catches with nine. The winner of the mile joggle, Troy Fitzgerald, ran a 5:05, the fastest time since Kirk Swenson set the current 4:43 record in 1986. Fitzgerald, a Jayhawk Juggler and cross-country runner at Pratt Community College, said he's hoping to break Swenson's record next year in Montreal.

As a crowning touch to remind everyone of just what a juggling family the IJA represents, Carol Mills went into labor five weeks early and had to leave the festival floor for two days to give birth to her second child, a boy named Anthony Mills. His happy father admitted that the name choice was influenced by a certain celebrity in St. Louis. 'We were searching for names, and Anthony was a natural," said Steve Mills. Ironically, the doctor who conducted the emergency delivery was also an IJA member, Peter Van Deerlin.

A big turnout of jugglers and public for the festival and shows also buoyed the spirits of IJA administrators, who were worried about finances after losing money last year in Los Angeles. The St. Louis festival apparently earned about a $40,000 profit, relieving the IJA's financial stress.

The move for affiliates to sponsor festival events picked up steam this year at Games Day. Several groups followed the precedent set by the Baltimore club's Three Ball Open, resulting in the Akron High Five cascade endurance contest and Safety In Numbers (Los Angeles) Four Ball Frenzy. Commercial enterprises also entered the sponsorship arena. Two Ply Press and Rava Products sponsored the cigar box event, Brian Dube sponsored a diabolo event, and Renegade Juggling sponsored a three club event.