Good Weather Blesses European Festival With Fun

BY JOHN NATIONS

 

This past August 11-17, the most fun to be had anywhere in Europe was undoubtedly way up north in the homeland of ABBA and Volvo. The 1995 European juggling Convention was held in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. Unofficial counts tallied about 1,000 jugglers in attendance from as far away as America and Japan. They brought with them the usual roar of friendly, funny, and fascinating energy that comes from unabashed enthusiasm for juggling.

 

A campground and outdoor sports complex called Skatos was the site, and from day one its gently sloping grassy field was dotted with circus tents housing vendors, a beer bar, picnic tables and a grass-floor open stage. jugglers camped in another field nearby, or slept in roomy cabins bordering the juggling area. A gymnasium was available for indoor juggling, but since it was a 15-minute walk from the camping areas most jugglers just passed clubs, piled themselves into acrobatic pyramids, or socialized right in front of the sleeping cabins.

 

Ignoring the changeable nature of Scandinavian weather, the sun shone and the winds were calm throughout the week. Members of Snobollen, the juggling club that organized the festival, were very pleased with temperatures so mild that jugglers wore short sleeves.

 

Speaking of juggling, there was lots of it! Ruth Carlberg of Germany was running three club reverse backcrosses with fluid ease, reporting a best of more than 100 catches. Her twin sister Esther was tossing five clubs in beautiful doubles and triples, and passing nine. Big Gray, a tall English juggler with bright red and green hair, was attempting a six-beanbag Mills Mess. Gregor Knuck gave a three club demo/workshop, showing an endless series of creative starts, stops and body moves he invented. Hannes Molkenthin from Hanover, Germany, was bouncing and cascading his seven green silicone balls for long runs.

 

Peter Weiss got a spontaneous round of applause from hundreds of jugglers when he struck up a melody on the accordion - playing it while rocking on a unicycle and balancing a broom on his foot! His big smile and humble attitude made him a popular convention star, and his willingness to play requests for jugglers embodied the helpful, interactive spirit of the European juggling community.

 

In the same summer that the lJA festival in Las Vegas was visited by more than a dozen European jugglers, several American faces peppered the Gothenburg crowd. Bruce Sarafian of Florida was frequently surrounded by amazed spectators as he showed tricks with seven beanbags, numbers showers, and his Guinness-record 11 beanbag flash. Allen Knutson joined Bruce for some numbers ball passing. Boppo led a siteswap workshop and got lots of applause for his ability to calmly call out the numbers for whatever intricate series he was performing. Greg Kennedy put two diabolos through complex maneuvers, both low on the string and all around the body. Charlie Peachock from Ohio had just recuperated from a broken arm that preempted his trip to the Vegas convention. He showed how well he had recovered by performing highly technical club juggling and a routine with illuminated balls for the nightly open stage audience.

 

Every night's open stage under a small big top was jam-packed with overflow crowds. Good-natured heckling provided lots of comedy, with performers trying to improvise answers to the week's running gag, "Does it bounce?!" More than one humorous rendition of ABBAS "Dancing Queen" turned into a raucous sing-along, and one act even brought out big cue cards sporting the song's lyrics.

 

English was the unofficial language of the convention, since everybody seemed to know at least a fair amount.

 

During the week of the festival the city of Gothenburg also hosted the World Championships of Athletics, an Olympic­style event that filled the city streets with visitors. The jugglers put on a show for thousands in a Sunday-night parade through town that ended with a huge fire spectacle on a concert stage, animated by more than 200 torch swingers and jugglers. Local newspapers ran pictures and interviews of jugglers throughout the week.

 

The Public Show on Thursday night featured two-man high club passing by Les Six Boulettes, comedy acrobatics by Les Acrostiches, and a unicycling duo from Switzerland. Peter Weiss led audience volunteers in a comic cowbell symphony, signaling different notes by bouncing a ball on his head, feet and knees. Dobbs Bruger of Holland closed the show with an innovative combination of juggling and percussion. He bounce. juggled balls off different parts of a multitiered synthesizer to create electronic rhythms, gradually increasing speed until the crowd cheered. The festival wrapped up the next day, with jugglers exchanging addresses and hugs, snapping photos and promising to rendezvous in Grenoble, France, for the big one next summer.