Reports from World Juggling Day 2001

The 200 of us here at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, are at the dark, cold, burned out stage of our season we call "toast." So to lighten the mood a little we celebrated World Juggling Day at this month's "All Hands Meeting." While one guy read of the "Top 12 Signs You Know You're Toast," an accompanist rolled a snare drum and crashed a cymbal, and another guy dressed in a "giant slice of burnt toast" costume juggled throughout the reading! It was enjoyable for all!

(From G.W. Krauss)

The mild, sunny winters that we enjoy in Brisbane set the perfect temperature for juggling in the park. People started to arrive a little before 10 a.m. and kept arriving until after 1 p.m. Picnic blankets were spread on the grass and many things were thrown around. In all there were about 25 people juggling (or learning to juggle), including a few passersby who were coaxed into a free lesson. The day was a huge success!

(From Wayne van Wijk)

WJD in Cuiaba was a total success. Organizers Ferdinand and Heidemarie Huber, joined local artists, friends, and kids from the Leite de Pedras Circus School where Ferdinand teaches juggling, at the entry of City Park (Parque da Mae Bonifacia) to teach juggling and perform for a steady stream of about 500 people from 6 a.m. until noon. The day was sunny and hot, about 36 degrees celsius.

I made 10 World Juggling Day t-shirts for the jugglers, and we had two banners above us. Ferdinand did many five minute shows, and caught the attention of many passersby. We had music from an old ghetto-blaster, and a friend saved everybody by bringing cookies and water along!

There was tremendous coverage by the local and national press: Folha do Estado had it on the front page with picture, and another whole page with two articles and three pictures, A Gazeta also had it on the front page with picture, and another big picture and article on another page. TV Globo carried three interviews on different days, and a live transmission from the park. We paid nothing for the great press we had, and normally you have to buy the article in a newspaper and often have to pay for TV spots.

We're ready for next year!

(From Heidi Huber)

At the Edmonton WJD event we had about 35 people, including 10 from our club, 10 who could juggle but are not in a club, and about 15 people who came to learn how to juggle. We went from 2-6 p.m. and we had great fun juggling, unicycling, teaching people to juggle, and having a barbecue. We're looking forward to next year!

(From Chris Taylor)

Being The Nice And Accurate Report Of The Somewhat Failed World Juggling Day 2001 Festivities In Kingston, Ontario, Canada

So here I am, ten o'clock on the morning of World Juggling Day, sitting in the emergency room of Kingston General Hospital wondering whether anyone made it to the children's festival parade. The parade I was supposed to be walking in on my stilts. The stilts that snapped under me the night before, causing a sudden fall to the pavement. The fall I broke with the arm that now seems to be broken itself. I'd sue someone except that (a) I'm Canadian and (b) I made the damned things myself.

At two-thirty I finally leave the hospital. It is a break, the doctor tells me, but not a bad one. Two weeks in a cast should sort it out. Two weeks? I was supposed to be juggling today! Well, she says, you're fortunate it's your left arm anyhow. Fortunate? I'm left handed. Oh.

Karen is shuttling kids to birthday parties so I can either wait half an hour for a taxi or walk home in about the same time. I elect to walk, which turns out to be a mistake --- the mild jarring translates into fairly intense pain after just a few minutes. Too late to stop now.

Almost home I meet up with Kim and Janis. Yes, they were in the parade and stayed at the children's festival to juggle for a few hours. Then they cycled home to ditch their costumes and get back downtown for the Gay Pride celebrations. What's up for our World Juggling Day meet in the park at five? Don't worry, I tell them, it's still on. I may not be able to juggle much but I'll be there.

At four-thirty I realize that the medication is helping but not enough. And it's making me drowsy. There's no way I'm leaving the house. I can't find Janis's cell phone number anywhere so I ask Karen to drive to the park and let them know.

At quarter past five no one else has shown up and Kim and Janis decide that they're too tired, it's too windy, they've already juggled enough for one day and besides, it's Janis's birthday. They head for the liquor store to pick up a little something so they can ride home and celebrate properly. On the way they meet Andrew, who's heading for the park with his props. What's up? he asks. Kim and Janis explain. They go their separate ways. Kim and Janis get home, collapse on the couch and fall asleep, their liquor unopened.

Well, it wasn't a total loss. At least I won five beanbags from that nice Todd Smith fellow in the official World Juggling Day prize draw. Maybe next year will work out a little better.

(From Greg Phillips)

World Juggling Day is an "up" thing. It's a "people" thing. I spent it in Beijing, visiting my friend Peter Ralph. We held our World Jugging Day event in Tienanmen Square, where it nearly became a getting-arrested thing!

Peter, who's from the Berkeley Juggling Club, is living there and I was in town seeing the sights.

Picture two young Americans juggling by the Monument to the People's Heroes in the middle of Tienanmen Square. I was bounce juggling while Peter did funky creative Peter stuff. In the background you can see the gateway to the Forbidden City and the big portrait of Chairman Mao.

In the People's Republic of Berkeley it would take much more than two hicks juggling to attract attention. People in Berkeley don't blink at anything short of a major earthquake or a Republican. But I guess this kind of thing is rare in Beijing. The acrobats are a little pricey for the common folk and for reasons we were about to learn, there aren't many buskers. People started to gather around us and take pictures, and that's when the trouble started.

A busload of cops drove up, right across the square, and started to question us. Peter's Chinese is good , so he explained about the harmony and joy that is World Juggling Day while our onlookers, ummmm, looked on. The cops were not amused, and ordered us to disperse immediately. We had a quick conference and decided that when the authorities tell you to disperse from Tienanmen Square, it's healthier (albeit less heroic) to obey.

After some further negotiations, the cops said they could not allow any assembly in the square itself, but we could juggle just across the street in front of the People's Revolutionary History Musuem. This worked out pretty well, because it was still a very public place right next to the monument.

We started passing clubs. We only had five, so Peter improvised a sixth one out of an old dowel. In the background was the Maosoleum where the Chairman himself lies in waxy state.

At this point, our photographer, Mary Crabb, decided it was safe to be seen with us, so she joined us juggling while Peter and I did a three club walkaround. We started to gather a new crowd of supporters, but the soldiers marching around refused to turn their heads to look. I did my little Vegas-style 5-club finish for the crowd, but sadly, no women threw their underwear at me. Guess I need more rhinestones. Or maybe I need to get that Qian fellow to teach me to juggle.

Then we got down to business teaching people how to juggle. Several people began to get the hang of the cascade and we were able to "Siamese juggle" with them. (I hope that term is still p.c. It means that you stand side-by-side and one person acts as the right hand while the other person acts as the left.)

But apparently this level of interaction was again too much for the police. Another officer came over and ordered us very brusquely to leave. We tried to explain that the other busload of cops given us permission, but I guess he thought we were pulling rank on him, and got even angrier. On the suggestion of our new Chinese friends, we moved off behind some trees and out of sight of the cop.

There we continued our lessons, and several people actually learned to juggle. Our greatest success was a guy who said he'd always been interested in juggling but had never learned how. He learned a three ball cascade in ten minutes, and in another five he was doing a three ball walkaround with Peter!

So that was World Juggling Day in Beijing.

(From Will Murray, photos by Mary Crabb and Pam Stello)

Two friends and I were hired to do a small show at garden-party in Middelfart on the afternoon of World Juggling Day. But I began the day in Odense, where I attended a gymnastics meeting in with some friends in a juggling club that is an affiliate of our national gymnastics organisation.

Both of these events went well. I suppose we had about 100 people watching our fire show in Middelfart, and I can't tell how many people who saw the guys in Odense.

It was a nice afternoon of juggling. I hope you had time to enjoy it yourself!

(From Martin Bo Hermansen)

Well, it went... small.

There was torrential rain an hour before we were due to start. It drove off the masses, so it ended up with just the two of us practicing club passing and assorted tricks in the drizzle... 30 minutes after we finished the sun emerged for the first time.

The reception, however, was heartwarming. It turns out I had picked a spot about 100 meters from the annual Children's Carnival. So we cheered up a lot of kids, out enjoying (or otherwise) the weather.

Not quite what I'd planned, but still a fun afternoon.

(From Tom Garnett)

Hawkshead Hall Farm, one of the Lake District's quieter and less developed camp sites, hosted this years WJD party in the lakes again.

The Durham City Jugglers provided their matching marquees in case of inclement weather, and an odd assortment of furniture arrived with the 40+ jugglers who traveled up to five hours to be there.

It was definitely a first-ever event for one youngster, who was only seven weeks old!

Friday evening was chilled out, with very little actual juggling. But much fun was had! New events this year included injecting cookies with tequila and whisky, and then eating the cookie!

Saturday was slightly different. Juggling equipment began to appear, and some fiendish passing patterns emerged from the hands of Mandy, Jaims Luke and Hairy. Luke spend time working on ten balls, and I failed miserably at seven club ultimates with Mandy.

But one thing that succeeded was our three car cascade! And you can see the video.

Saturday night was a lot more subdued than Friday. It started with a mass communal barbecue, and continued into the night with cake and beer.

Sunday was a day for food, chilling out, and saying goodbye to many friends, some of whom I may not see for six months or more.

(From Mini Mansell)

Our plans were scuppered by a local school, which was holding a circus-themed party. I offered to appear, but was turned down at the very last minute, which left little time to organise an alternative event.

Add to that the fact that it poured torrential rain all day. Palace guards were marching in two inches of water on Horseguards Parade all day long.

So WJD for me was spent alone, indoors. But I did juggle!

(From Alan S)

I had the good fortune to be running a circus skills workshop for the Pre-school Learning Alliance at Hillsborough Park in Sheffield on World Juggling Day. The skies were very dark all afternoon, but the rain only put in a brief appearance.

There was a good turnout, given the weather, and I got to juggle on my tightrope for the first time this year. Hundreds of people dropped in to the workshop, though I doubt that any of them realized they were contributing to WJD. I even managed to hobnob with the Mayor and Mayoress of Sheffield, and get myself filmed by the TV crew from Record Breakers! But I didn't manage to meet Home Secretary, David Blunkett, who dropped in for all of three or four minutes!

(From Jay Linn)

There was no "happening" here for World Juggling Day. I just had a longer than usual walk juggling my three balls. I'm just an amateur who can hardly do any fine tricks, but I find juggling a very enjoyable way to relax. And I love to watch masters performing their skills on the rare occasions I have that opportunity. I was happy to participate! I want in my humble way to be a supporter!

(From Antero Paavola)

There weren't a lot of people for World Juggling Day here. I only sent the message out the day before! But, I juggled with a friend and it was great!

(From Eric Le Gall)

"Rainmakers" was our appropriate name on World Juggling Day! Soeren and I began with street shows in the morning to publicize the important day, and we had 60 people juggling balls and clubs before too long.

Then Soeren and Marta and I went to a school for handicapped people and presented a benefit of our "Rainmaker" show.

After that about 30 other jugglers joined us for juggling games on the Alauenpark public green. The high point was playing the Quidditch game we have adopted for juggling from the Harry Potter books. It is very funny!

Then came the rain, and we were quickly wet and cold. But we went back on the street to present a few public performances, and at 10 p.m. Marta, Soeren, Kelvin and I did a big fire show.

It was three a.m. before I got in bed! A sleepy end to World Juggling Day!

(From Peter Theeg)

I had a rather lonely, but sunny, WJD celebration on a beach in Hong Kong. I brought my acrylic contact juggling ball for just this eventuality, and mucked around with it on the beach for a while. But no one came up and asked me how to do it. (Maybe because I'm not particularly good at it myself!)

It may have been one of the smaller WJD events, but I'm thinking it might have been one of the most exotic… Juggling on a tropical beach while watching dragon-boat practice in the ocean!

(From Helen S)

We began World Juggling Day at 2 p.m. on Hlavne namestie (the central square) with a short introduction, and juggled there for an hour. At 4 p.m. we conducted a small parade across the old town, and finished a half-hour later with a short show on the stage. Throughout the day we were teaching people to juggle with balls, clubs, devilsticks and other props. There is no juggling tradition here in Slovakia, so we had just around 25 jugglers participate. But I hope our numbers will rise!

(From Palo Blaho)

As usual, we celebrated World Juggling Day by spending the afternoon juggling together on the beach, and then had a picnic and some more juggling. This year only nine people attended. Too bad. The weather was very warm and sunny, and we had a lot of fun teaching some passersby and trying out some nine-person, 27-ball, passing patterns.

(From Dani Bardes)

I organized our World Juggling Day event at a local park next to the river in Bangkok. The weather was very good, and we continued from 1 p.m. until 9 p.m. I set up a sound system and tents, and provided free water for visitors. To attract people of all ages, I recruited a children's entertainer to do face painting and balloon animals, and that was very popular. I also organized juggling lessons and demonstrations.

As the light faded I arranged about 30 people in a fire show, which included poi, staffs, clubs, and devil sticks. It also involved about 10 children under 10 years old from the Thai youth circus, and featured a number of people juggling torches. There was a crowd of about 500 people, and they seemed to enjoy it a great deal. We also had a clown do some magic and fire breathing.

The entire day was a very big success and ran very smoothly, much to my relief ! I look forward to organizing the next event.

(From Oud Sakpong)

In spite of a very low turnout by the Damento Jugglers, we got about 25 people (about half of whom had some knowledge of juggling) to throw up at the Davis Farmer's Market for World Juggling Day.

The only unfortunate thing was finding ourselves near a kid who had learned to juggle from a video and was busking. I usually prefer not to steal thunder, but we proceeded nearby and he seemed to do alright anyway. I think he will show up at our weekly meeting this summer!

(From Jeff Newmiller)

We were at Lake Tahoe for a unicycle ride. I was juggling five and asked John Foss if he wanted to steal them. He said he didn't think he could, but nailed it first try. The cabin we stayed in had about 18-foot ceilings, so we had lots of fun juggling.

(From Nathan Hoover)

(Photo from Pinky Aiello)

WJD was much like any other Saturday here in Palo Alto. We all gathered at our usual stomping grounds, the Klutz Store near Stanford University. There were about ten people there for most of the afternoon, including a rare appearance from Bill Coad--the multiplex man himself.

We had our usual "Five at Five" five ball endurance contest. Each person throws a dime on the table, and whoever juggles five the longest gets the bounty. The gods favored me that day, so I raked in about fifty cents! Congratulations to all on another fine event the world over!

(From Matthew Hall)

I ended up doing a job at Jack London Square in Oakland on World Juggling Day. Joining me were children from Prescott Elementary, a school that teaches kids how to juggle, walk stilts, clown, etc. My four young charges and I spread the news about WJD and taught a few folks how to get a cascade going. We were a big hit and took lots of photos with tourists.

(From Woody LaBounty)

I set up around 9 a.m. in Kennedy Park and warmed up as the weather did. Most of the day I spent teaching the cascade to kids from 3-13 (and the occasional 30-something kid) I had more than 30 students, several of whom were actually doing a nice cascade by the time I left around 4:30 p.m.

There was even one bright and bold lad of around nine or ten who got far enough that I consented to teach him clubs. Though he only got as far as two clubs in a shaky manner, I am sure he will continue learning!

I was contacted the week before by the Castro Valley juggling group, and I was pleased that one of their members, Louis, showed up in the early afternoon. Passing with Louis was great, since I hadn't passed clubs but once in the last five years or so. Many people gathered around us when we brought out the torches, of course! We even had 5 brave students stand in the middle!

All in all, it was a good day!

(From Koyaanis P. Qatsi)

Denver's Jugglers with an Altitude held their WJD celebration at Washington Park. Total attendance was 19 people, including seven people from the club and 12 new people. Eight of those 12 actually learned to juggle, and the other four knew how to juggle already. We taught them how to juggle clubs, ball tricks, steals, club passing, and how to do steals from people who are passing clubs.

(From Greg Ostravich)

While in Athens, I forced some professional Russian circus performers to pass clubs with me in honor of World Juggling Day. I say "forced" because as working professionals, they hardly ever practice anymore, and almost never juggle just for fun. They spent the time barking at me about my faulty technique, but I admit, I was grateful for the practice and the (correct) criticism. Now I'm home, but I'll be practicing passing "Russian" before I see them again!

(From Viveca Gardner)

We had a winner in Coeur d' Alene! We started at 6 p.m. at a beautiful location by Lake Coeur d' Alene. We juggled and offered lessons, and had about a half-dozen school children catch on for the first time. About 8 p.m. the wind died and we got out the torches. The fire drew dozens of more people, and a dozen more people took a lesson. It was a good start on a local tradition!

(From David Groth)

Good weather, good fun. Few people, just nine. Not enough press work. We'll start sooner next year!

(From Terry Kimpling)

I had a rather slow World Juggling Day, mostly alone. People walked by on their way to or from the beach. There were two who stopped to juggle for a while, and we passed a bit. They said they'd come to our regular weekly gathering.

(From David Landowne)

I juggled at the Warren Dunes Park on Lake Michigan. Because the sand was deep, I found it difficult to make small adjustments with my feet, and had a little bit of trouble juggling.

About a dozen people stopped by and tried to learn. There was one small kid who was *too* interested and kept asking if he could have some of my props. I did get a random guy to add a club into his already solid three club cascade.

(From Jason Quinn)

About 10 of us jugglers, diaboloists and top spinners participated in in the Zumbrota Covered Bridge Fest parade.

(From Dale Rueber)

The Ozark Mountain Jugglers celebrated World Juggling Day 2001 beginning at 8 p.m. We enjoyed tossing, passing, and dropping lighted props under clear skies. Jugglers and spectators had a great time. We decorated a cake with juggling props (clubs, balls, torches, chain saws, etc.) as the perfect snack for a perfect evening.

(From Jaye Butler)

WOW! WJD in Lincoln Nebraska was a blast! The Flatland Festival at the UNL Nebraska Union came off without a hitch. There were 60-80 jugglers at the big toss up, which happened next to the Claes Oldenberg sculpture "Torn Notebook" adjacent to the campus.

At 9 a.m. Saturday we arrived to open up the huge ballroom for the second day of the festival. When the doors opened, some students working at the Union peeked in. One said that next week he was in a play where he was supposed to juggle, but he actually hadn't learned yet. So, here I was on World Juggling Day appropriately teaching a new friend how to juggle!

He learned quickly, and then we chatted. He asked about the huge "I Think it Rolled Under the Couch" banner hanging on the wall, which featured a drawing of a couch. I tried to explain it, and noted our regret at being unable to obtain a couch for our juggling space. Most Flatland Festivals have a couch sitting around somewhere.

The student's eye's lit up! He exclaimed that they were moving a couch around the Union and couldn't find a place for it. So together we retrieved it and put it in the center of the ballroom!

The student had to get back to work, so we thanked each other several times, and then said good-bye. In mere minutes the couch was a permanent festival fixture, offering a leisure location for jugglers, and secretively offering concealment for escaping juggling props!

(From Jim Brennan)

To paraphrase the enduring, endearing, indominatable George Thoroughgood, "I juggle alone." Although I can't say that I really prefer it that way.

As promised, I went to Terhune Park in Matawan to juggle. Aside from my seven-year-old daughter, who has not shown a great deal of interest in juggling yet, it was just me and a few kids I entertained. The weather was not terribly inviting, being hot and humid with periodic drizzle.

Nonetheless I did manage to make a bit of progress on my three club back crosses, and on one-up two-up with triple spins. On a related note, I had my first and only successful free mount of my five-foot unicycle.

Sorry to say there are no photos of the Matawan juggling extravaganza.

I'm sure others have much more exciting reports, but I will always try to make sure Matawan maintains the spirit of jugglers everywhere.

(From Raphael Lasar)

Saturday, June 16, marked the Rochester Juggling Club's third annual WJD picnic. This one, as those before, was a big success.

We have an active juggling community here, with the Rochester Juggling Club, the Strong Jugglers from the University of Rochester, and the RIT Juggling Club from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

The first two years we held our picnic right on the shore of Lake Ontario and juggled on the beach. This year we decided to move to a new location in an attempt to increase our public exposure. After all, that's what WJD is all about.... bringing the joy of juggling to the public!

We set up in Ellison Park, not far from the road. As we hoped, we attracted some spectators. The club provided hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, salt potatoes, and beverages for all our members and friends, and members brought macaroni and tossed salads, cakes, brownies, potato chips, pretzels and much more to round out the menu.

The juggling began as soon as we arrived at 3 p.m., and continued almost non-stop until we left at around 9 p.m. We had about 25 - 30 people on hand for most of the evening, including friends of club members who stopped by to visit, and about ten children. It was truly a family event!

Some folks worked on three ball tricks, while others juggled four, five and even six and seven balls. Some worked with rings, knives, and, as darkness neared, torches. People exchanged tips and tricks, and offered advice to those who wanted help.

Our club seems to spend more time with club passing than anything else, and we had patterns that involved two jugglers, and some that involved five, six or more. People were throwing right handed doubles, left handed doubles, right and left handed triples, and even the occasional quad. There were pirouettes, back crosses, steals, run arounds, walk arounds and others.

Perhaps the biggest success story was TJ, a teenager from Erie, Penn. TJ discovered juggling on his own about a year ago, and is completely self-taught. TJ discovered our club via the Internet, and convinced his father to drive him three hours to our WJD celebration.

TJ amazed us all with his self-taught skills. He does three ball tricks (including Mills Mess), four ball tricks, a solid five ball pattern and, much to our surprise, a very respectable seven ball pattern! He had taught himself to handle three clubs relatively well, but had had no one to practice passing. After explaining the basics it took him all of 15 minutes to get the hang of it! Before the evening was over, he was throwing and catching some tricks.

That's what World Juggling Day is all about. Sharing our love of juggling with others. I hope everyone else had as much fun on this World Juggling Day as we did in Rochester. I guess it just doesn't get much better than that!

(From Don Berner)

World Juggling Day is as close to a birthday party as I have every year. My birthday is June 4, so I work on the World Juggling Day celebration as a party to myself!

We had our best turnout yet, with more than 60 people! Sixteen were club jugglers. Another two dozen were scarf and ball jugglers, dreaming of joining the club passing for next year!

We had lots of snacks and food furnished by the fellowship committee of St. Jacob Church. In addition, two members of the local magic club entertained the guests. A half-dozen members of the Miamisburg Art Guild came to sketch jugglers in action.

One guy demonstrated bowling ball joggling while running hurdles, and even cleared seven of them! A photographer from the local paper stopped by, and we can't wait to see the pictures in the paper!

(From Mike Hout)

We had a lovely WJD, gathering crowds large and small, counting and stickering 193 new and old jugglers, and giving away 300 juggling balls to learners. It was amazing how many children we found wearing World Wide Juggling Day bracelets. We were so pleased!

The Oregonian newspaper gave us a half a side-bar column in its Arts & Entertainment section, under the heading "Cheap Fun," so we got larger crowds than usual.

We were even approached by one young man who, without waiting for a pitch from us, grabbed three balls, immediately performed a cascade, and demanded his "I Have Been Counted" sticker. People also hailed us as we drove through downtown Portland in our "Swiss Army Jugglebus and troop carrier," which is a genuine Swiss Army troop transport vehicle. Civilians hailed us as we passed, juggling found objects and asking if they, too, could be counted. As we passed through the Gay Pride Festival, we proudly waved our rainbow skywriter and told many participants how jugglers reproduce themselves: by teaching others!

About 20 members of our club participated, with nine staying to the bitter end. (The bitter was nicely served at Kell's Pub, which was celebrating Bob Dylan for some reason, and people kept insisting on reciting to us something about Molly Bloom and balls, but not juggling per se.)

(From Eric Bagai, with photos by Brad Yazzalino)

We had a long but very rewarding World Juggling Day! It started with our group, The Rainbow's End Theatre Company, performing vaudeville skits at the Schyulkill County Cancer unit's 24-hour "Relay for Life." Two of our members did some joggling around the track, and stayed to teach people after the rest of had to leave. At one point they had about 30 people juggling! Not bad for a small coal region town!

Our second event was a surprise birthday party for a 10-year-old boy dying of cancer. We gave a short show, painted faces, did some games, and taught the kids how to use different juggling props. Approximately 50 kids and adults joined in the fun. Many were so involved with the juggling that they weren't even interested in the facepainting! Even the guest of honor, Jason, who was obviously weak from his illness, learned that even he could have fun with some of the easier equipment!

It was a very long, but rewarding day in all ways!! Hope everyone else had just as good a time as we did!

(From Kim Laird)

WJD in Reading was small. Partly because the weather was appalling, and partly because it was a "snatch a juggle at lunchtime" event. There were two of us!

But we had a pleasant half-hour with six clubs, doing a little passing with one, two and three count. We even managed to get outside briefly between downpours of very heavy rain. Fortunately the foyer at work has a fairly high ceiling, and was pretty empty, so we could play inside.

(From Sarah Miller)

Rick, Ethan, Kelly, and Ben juggled at the mall at Shelter Cove from to 2-4 p.m. on World Juggling Day. We brought all of our personal juggling equipment and our "JuggleSTUFF" equipment - 50 sets of Crystal Stix and 50 sets of beginner juggling balls.

More than 100 people stopped by to watch and take juggling lessons. Many tried for the first time, and several went from zero to juggling! Ethan, Kelly, and Ben showed off their skills with balls, clubs, knives, and Crystal Stix. Everyone had fun!

(From Rick Hubbard)

The Austin Jugglers hung out all afternoon on World Juggling Day at Barton Springs Pool - a thousand-foot long, spring-fed swimming pool.

I taught a ten-year old boy a three ball cascade in a little less than two minutes. The annoying little freak didn't have that tendency to try to shower like everyone else. I was so impressed I gave him three of my beanbags, and told him where the juggling club meets. I doubt I'll ever see him again - he was 10, after all - but that's gonna stick with me. I wonder what percentage of little kids are that precocious?

So far this year I've managed to teach the three ball cascade to two and a fraction people (I'm still working on the girlfriend). Not bad for a lazy hobbyist, I think.

I tried the three ball fountain for the first time, and qualified it. I tried a five ball cascade for the second or third time, and missed qualifying it by one or two catches a couple of times. I got two claps pretty consistently on three ball flashes, and I can flash (other definition) five balls about half the time.

Maybe I should only practice at festivals and special events. That seems to be when my breakthroughs happen....

(From Scott Kurland)

At 12:15 a.m., I decided that World Juggling Day had arrived, and it was time to juggle. I was at Sharky's Dart Pub and Juggling Emporium, where I run dart tournaments.

I broke out the clubs, and as luck would have it, a friend showed up just in time. We passed six and seven clubs, and got one of the girls who was watching to stand in the middle of the pattern. Another friend pulled out his digital video camera, so we've got a short clip or two. I managed to give a couple of lessons, and several folks who know how to do a cascade, but who usually don't juggle, joined in because it was World Juggling Day.

We had four folks who juggled, plus two more who took lessons. And we also had a lot of beer. They almost talked me into fire juggling outside, but I decided that I'd drunk too much to do that.

Side note : I told a lot of people "Happy World Juggling Day." For some reason, most of them seemed to think I was just making it up!

(From Stephen Whitis)

My activity went well. The turnout wasn't too big, but I think I sparked an interest in my younger brother. He hasn't been able to put my juggling balls down since World Juggling Day, and he's getting quite good! I don't know if any of the other people I helped are still doing it, but it sure was fun!

(From Billy Luke)

Juggle This!, the Tacoma area juggling club, met at the the Fircrest Recreation Center on World Juggling Day. We attracted about 12 aspiring jugglers, and one accomplished juggler and yoyoist. The recreation center was also hosting a yoyo meet at the same time, and the two beginners were the mother and sister of one of the northwest's best yoyoists.

Anyone who could juggle, tried to juggle, or could say the word "juggle" received a fanny pack and an anti-smoking placemat from our sponsors, Checkpoint Loans Pawnshop and the Pierce County Health Department.

(From J.D. Miller)

The weather in Menasha was great for juggling. A severe thunder storm ealier in the week didn't do any damage to the park where we juggled. However, many houses (including mine) weren't so lucky. Once the cleanup was done, about 25-30 people showed up to juggle. Some kids were too young to juggle, but they had a good time watching and trying their hand at plate spinning. A few kids were even able to get started on club juggling. The time flew by and so did the balls. See you in Madison!

(From Dan Kirk)

Since I dropped a 55-gallon garbage can full of concrete from the back of a pick-up truck, I was injured and unable to juggle on World Juggling Day at the marathon as I had planned. My left thumb is sprained, but getting better, so I should be juggling again soon. Hope everyone else's day went great!

(From Eric Vetter)

We had fun celebrating World Juggling Day. Here are a couple of photos of me with my twin daughters, Alli and Sarah. Also in the photo is our neighborhood friend, Annie.

(From Laurie Biskowitz)

Join us again next year for
World Juggling Day 2002
June 15, 2002.