Reports from World Juggling Day 2002 There were 102 events listed and 472 jugglers registered from 37 countries .

Maffra Secondary College celebrated World Juggling Day a bit early, on June 12. Four students gave a demonstration to an audience of about 30 in the playground at lunchtime, and then helped others have a go. Everyone had a great time and we now have a few more kids interested in the Lunchtime Juggling Club!

On the actual day, my husband was unexpectedly in the hospital. So instead of busking in the mall like we had planned, I did some juggling to cheer up some of the other patients in his ward!

This year we had really a great time. We met at SESC Arsenal and juggled a lot. There were two jugglers from other cities: one Argentine juggler who sells self-made devil sticks to tourists here in Chapada, and another boy from Mato Grosso who is learning to juggle with lot of enthusiasm. We got emails from other states of Brazil, and it’s good to hear that others in our country care about juggling.

Two school classes and lots of curious family members were at the Arsenal event. The local press wrote a nice article about us and juggling, and we had a lot of fun.

On July 9th and 10th Ferdinand presented a big juggle theatre show in the Arsenal theatre. It was sponsored by the Brazilian government, so admission to both shows was free.

Our club here in Vancouver is very new. We had only met once before WJD! Nevertheless, we met in the evening and had a wonderful little juggle fest with the usual balls and clubs... followed by shakes and burgers.OK, we didn't actually juggle those.

We were fortunate to be graced with the presence of Todd Strong, who may be one of the few jugglers who actually juggled in two countries on WJD. He had participated in the USA earlier in the day before coming "up north" to join us.

Well, WJD must have set a tone, because last night when the club met again we had doubled our numbers, and even had two visitors from the "other side of the pond" -- James and Anna from the UK. Unicycles showed up, many clubs were passed, there were rings and bounce balls. WJD seems to have got the new Vancouver Juggling club off on the right foot... or should that be "the right toss!?"

Five of us gathered to juggle in Calgary on World Juggling Day. I only got around to organizing it the night before, otherwise I suppose I should have been able to get more people out. Nobody took any photos.

We had a small group of four people out for WJD in Yellowknife, and juggled balls, clubs, & flaming torches. We also did some passing, bounce juggling, devil sticks, & juggling on a unicycle. We had the event between 11 p.m. and 12 midnight, since we are quite far north and sunset was at 11:34 p.m. There was fun had by all, and the event was still a success.

Our original plans for a World Juggling Day goofing off and teaching juggling in Centennial Park were washed out by the day-long downpour. Fortunately, we had a plan B, and unlike last year it didn't involve broken arms.

The Queen's/Kingston Jugglers spent the afternoon of WJD in the Queen’s University Biosciences Atrium, which is a gorgeous space with 15 metre ceilings, great light, and what are likely the most expensive live indoor trees on campus.

Considering the weather, we had a pretty good turnout: Kim, Janis, Ryan, Kristyn, Craig, Kenn, one of Kenn’s friends, and me (Greg). There was a lot of club passing, some cigar box work, informal three-ball trick demos (suddenly everyone wants to learn chops), and a bit of five-ball stuff. Kim managed a personal best of forty-two catches with five balls; I finally managed to crack the three-hundred catch mark.

By six o'clock everyone was starving, so those of us without other commitments headed to the Kingston Brewing Company for a bit of supper and a few cold ones. One unexpected bonus was First Capital Ale, a limited edition brew based on a two-century-old recipe, crafted in celebration of Kingston’s status as the first capital of Canada (since moved to Ottawa, if you care). Yummy. And the food was great too.

We rounded out the evening at my place with a few juggling videos --- a bit of Jason Garfield and some Radical Club News. Then it was off to bed with dreams of a sunny World Juggling Day for next year.

Postscript: And, keeping with club tradition, Kim won a set of five Todd Smith beanbags in the official World Juggling Day prize raffle. Thanks, Todd!

Sorry to report that we were rained out here in Ottawa. In fact it rained hard all weekend and we did not hold an indoor event, since our regular indoor meetings for the Nanaimo Park Jugglers are held Sundays anyway. We’ll try again next year.

So sad. It was indeed a sad day. Not only did the continuous rain force us to cancel our show. We had looked forward to juggle many different objects, including three footballs as a tribute to Denmark’s match against England in the World Cup. Because of the canceled show we managed to watch the match — and what a pity: Denmark lost 3-0.

I hope that many others enjoyed the WJD 2002 a lot, 'cause we sure Didn’t. It’ll be a lot better next year! We're already booked to do the same show (perhaps without the footballs)...

Despite forecasts of rain, it was a beautifully sunny day in East Finchley. The only negative points were a gusty wind, and the World Cup second round game between England and Denmark, which was scheduled to coincide with our start time.

I sacrificed watching the second half of the game (we were winning 3-0!) and set off for Cherry Tree Wood in good time for the appointed 2p.m. start. I needn’t have bothered. For the first 20 minutes or so after arriving, it was just me and the squirrels, listening to the match on the radio. Eventually, people started to arrive from both Jackson’s Lane and All Saints (the day being the first joint event we’ve held). In total, just over a dozen people participated throughout the day.

Apart from a couple of curious toddlers, and a family of my acquaintance, the general public left us well alone, although the presence of a large group of yobs playing football close by, fresh from watching the game on TV, may have been a factor in this.

David from JL amused us all with his bag of toys, and introduced us all to the delights of toothbrush spinning. Diabolos were spun, flower sticks were twirled, and clubs and balls thrown. There was much general gossip and chit-chat too!

Due to other commitments, I left around 4 p.m., leaving several brave souls to continue into the evening. Here’s to next year!

The idea was simple for our first World Juggling Day. Just tell as many people as possible to meet each other in the Park. About 200 people showed up, including kids, the youth circus Rotterdam, amateur and professional jugglers from all over the Netherlands juggled together and had fun. Sunshine, jambe's and a lot of clubs, balls, diabolos, made the Park in Rotterdam the most colorful and happy place to be.

We met at 14.42 in Alauenpark, and I was happy about the nice weather. I had built some stuff for the games (Quidditch). About 20 other people joined in for a lot of juggling, until the rain came. Some went home or to the cafe, but several of us took shelter under the trees. Once the rain passed we juggled again. I passed eight clubs with Tim. Mathias and I rode unicycles over some slippery hills and greens. Mr. Big (Thomas) came with Geroga from Australia and did some street performing nearby.

In the evening the rain came again, but we juggled fire anyway. I passed with Alena from Berlin, who got pretty wide-eyed trying to catch the slippery chops!

Then I went with Micha and Ralf to Italines restaurant for some very good pasta and wine. It was a nice, arduous day!

This years WJD event in Bratislava started on June 8 at 15.00 (because there were problems booking the Main Square stage on June 15). Everything started with open juggling warm-up, then we opened the stage for everyone who wanted to show us something interesting. We ended up with a parade of about 20 people through the Old Town of Bratislava.

Not much to report, just gathering about 14 people juggling in the park. It was combined with info on the upcoming EJC2002 and some 3-ball teaching.

We had a great WJD at Parque Rodo in Ramirez Beach. Over 200 jugglers attended from different places of the country. The event was organized by the local juggling shop El Arlequin malabares and Padawan Producciones. We set up a stand in the park with juggling props and general information, magazines, drinks, cakes and music all day in a family atmosphere.

Workshops began at noon, followed by several games, gladiators and volley clubs. After the sunset we played with fire, had an UV performance and dance with a reggae band that blew our minds and started the night action. Let's do it again next year!

We had 13 people at the peak. Very little actual juggling, but a lot of people crowding in to see videos of Anthony Gatto, Jason Garfield, and some rare juggle footage of old! A great time was of course had by all. Even non-jugglers were completely consumed at times...

We went to a nice park in Half Moon Bay to juggle for the kids (and parents in tow). However due to two groups planning large parties, most people were scared out of the park. However a couple of dozen people saw my kids and I juggle for an hour and a half. It was a beautiful sunny day, and it was fun.

(From the Klutz web site)

As company founder and Chief Juggler John Cassidy explains, "Here at Klutz, we feel strongly that juggling should not be a mere spectator sport. World Juggling Day is a great opportunity for everyone to learn to be just a little bit amazing."

Still juggling after 25 years, Klutz celebrates its silver anniversary this summer. To commemorate this milestone, Klutz is taking part in World Juggling Day 2002. According to Cassidy, "We started Klutz a quarter century ago by selling Juggling for the Complete Klutz from our bicycles and backpacks, so of course we‘re thrilled to be a part of World Juggling Day celebration today. You’d be amazed at the number of people who write us and say they learned how to juggle from our book. Some of them have even gone on to be professional circus performers!"

Klutz was founded in 1977 when John Cassidy and two of his friends from Stanford University began selling juggling lessons on the sidewalks of Palo Alto. Cassidy, the English major in the group, wrote the goof-proof instructions, had it staple bound into a book, and attached a trio of no-bounce balls to it. Cassidy’s innovative hands-on learning concept created a new category of activity books designed to be experienced, not just read.

On June 15th, Jugglers for the Dead met at 8 a.m. in the cemetery. We had all of our regular members there except Ms. Ash, who was off celebrating her graduation from high school. Eric, you were there in spirit; and we ate a donut for you. We also had L.K. Cooper (brought bagels), her friend (who did a very credible three ball cascade), and brother (who helped out but did not juggle). Jake T. Forbes drove up from Los Angeles to juggle with us. Jake for a real-life job translates Japanese-English into real English idiom for manga (Japanese comic books). Cool job if you can get it. Jake just got his push into club juggling with the gift of a set of "radical ducks" clubs from Susie Metzler, our equipment manager.

Susie overdid herself. She made up special WJD 2002 labels and affixed them to water bottles. She also gave vinyl bean bag sets to everyone who did not own one. And she provided the door prize (won by Emily) of a set of beanbags with a world globe design imprinted. And best of all, she taught someone to juggle.

Got to tell you how we were kind of set up. A guy in his thirties stopped his car by the cemetery and walked in. He asked us what we were doing and was told we were juggling for WJD. Susie asked him if he juggled, he said no, but wanted to learn. Susie showed him the basic three ball. He first started throwing from the hand with only one ball, so we knew he was learning. Within a few minutes after Susie showed him with the other hand he qualified three. I mean it was no more than 10 minutes and he was doing three. Furthermore, I saw him do two in one hand and then toss right into three. Okay, I admit it, I was getting a tad nervous. Then he picked up the poi. After looking silly with them (about the same 10 minutes), he suddenly was doing the weave and doing it well. I was next in line. He picked up some sticks we had out and asked what we did with them. I taught him a nice two count pattern of stick to stick dancing with a stick in each hand. We danced for awhile that way and I stopped. He asked if I knew any other patterns. I said that I did but they did not interlock as pretty as that. He seemed disappointed. I asked him if HE knew any others. He answered, "Yeah, I know them all." I recovered my jaw and asked him what he meant and just what did he do for a living. He then told me he teaches Philippino stick fighting. No sh!t. He truly had never juggled before, but had all that other stuff going for him. I learned a few more patterns from him. Cool. We invited Robin to come back anytime.

Thanks to William Robinson’s book, Absence Unexpected, A Juggling Mystery, we tried to do Jacob’s Ladder using rope and six people. We tried it twice. It takes more work than we had done. Mike really tried to direct those pinkies and index fingers. The middle finger folks were a bit nasty; who would have guessed? More practice might help. But hey, Bill, we actually attempted it! BTW, thanks for being so gracious at the Book Fair in SLO. And we agree with Eric that if you read Juggle magazine, you probably will like your book.

All in all, we juggled from 8-11 a.m. Great time. At the end of the time, a guy came up and asked us what we were doing. I told him. He told me that he had no objection to us juggling in the cemetery (dawned on me that he must be a proprietor), but he said the Dube knives and the sticks were out of place there. Even though they were not dangerous (okay, not to my thinking), he did not want folks to worry about coming into the cemetery. It also was a little disrespectful to them and maybe the dead. We agreed to not do the knives or sticks anymore. Was nice that he gave us tacit permission to still juggle there.

May the centrifugal force be with you always.

We had a great time at our event. There were only a few of us, but between us we managed to juggle, balls, clubs, diablo, devil sticks, watermelon, (cubed not whole) and a bull whip. Quite a day actually. We even brought two new people into the tribe of juggling. We even got a call from France from another World Juggling Day party! I think because of WJD we are all juggling across oceans on the same 24 hour day together. That's what made it great for me.

WJD in Atlantic Beach went great. We had many people show up throughout the afternoon who learned how to juggle, and some experienced jugglers as well. All of them were excited to hear that they were becoming a part of WJD history! My twin brother and I passed balls for a while, and we continued juggling on the beach until late afternoon. A reporter called me that night to ask me about WJD.

It rained, lightninged and thundered all day long here in sunny South Florida. In spite of that, three jugglers did show up at Kennedy Park, but had to give up and go home after about 45 minutes. The normally busy park was empty except for the jugglers.

We had planned to give free juggling demonstrations and lessons and give away rice-filled, balloon-covered tennis balls.

Next year we will have a foul weather contingency plan!

Twenty people participated in my juggling event at the hospital where I work, Tanner Medical Center. I gave away door prizes (juggling beanbags, scarves etc). Everyone had a great time. Thanks!

The Up for Grabs Juggling club decided that we did in fact need to have a WJD event this year, and admittedly hastily threw together something about two weeks before the day. We met for juggling and a picnic at the Naperville Riverwalk, a very popular park in Naperville, Il.

We met at 2 p.m, and juggled, ate and hung out until 7. We had a total of 15 people attend (9 jugglers). Highlights included a really nice run of eight people passing in a Virginia Reel pattern, some large feeds, Brian juggling two balls and his 20-month old son, and quite possibly the world’s shortest five ball endurance contest (going to AJ in a pitiful 35 seconds).

We had selected a fairly quiet corner of the park, great for juggling, good shade, but I think next year we need to be where there are more people.

The other item of interest is that we had made some WJD signs up by blowing up the logo to fill a 8 x 11 sheet of paper. Upon further inspection, we are convinced that the juggler on the right side of the logo is none other than former President John F. Kennedy. Who knew he was a juggler?!

Overall a great afternoon was had by all, and we hope to repeat next year.

It was a cold, rainy day in Woods Hole. The rain stopped about 2 p.m. and at 4 there were two of us passing clubs. We had a good time for about 45 minutes but only saw about three passer-bys who feigned disinterest. We were cold and called it quits.

Let’s have better weather next year!!

We had a small group of six jugglers go up to the community center and juggle outside by the playground. We offered to teach interested passers-by how to do the cascade.

The Ozark Mountain Jugglers sponsored a World Juggling Day event in Springfield. After completing a public workshop and demonstration for over fifty children and adults, members enjoyed swimming and juggling luminous props.

World Juggling Day 2002 was celebrated modestly in Santa Fe. I arrived with my wife and two young daughters at Patrick Smith Park, a location I selected for its shade trees and usually lush green grassy field. This year, due to the ongoing drought, the field was brown and dusty.

The day was hot and just a bit too windy for good club juggling. But no matter. We settled under a tree and I started to juggle. A couple with toddler in a backpack approached, curious. "You’re here for World Juggling Day, aren’t you?" I asked. The father surprised me with a nice three ball cascade, so we worked on a few tricks. "Haven't done this since college!" he announced. The mother tried it, too, and was glad to have an idea for a present for Father’s Day.

Next a family group of three adults and two six-year-old twin boys came by. Everyone tried it out and had a fun time. The boys were intrigued, and asked their parents for a set of beanbags. We agreed to meet again on WJD 2003 to see how they were doing!

At the beach it rained most of the day. The rain stopped at about 6 p.m. so I was able to get out there after that. Here are some photos. One is of me showing four-year-old Jennifer the basic pattern. We had a lot of fun. Can’t wait until next year!

The South traditionally has hot, sticky summers. But for the past several years the weather has abated on World Juggling Day and presented us with delightful conditions.

Joe Dean came over at 8 a.m. and helped me haul stuff up to the Village Green. We spread juggling and circus books all over two picnic tables, and set up a TV and video player for video viewing. I printed out the WJD web site list of events in case anyone was interested in checking out things worldwide. We also printed up name tags for our Lake Norman Juggler members that said, "I Juggle, Ask Me."

We had a water jug and cups to slake thirst, and bucket full of water-injected tennis balls to give away.

My basketball church-league teammate Brad Baldwin was our first visitor, wandering by about 8:30 with his wife pushing their new baby on an early morning excursion. As talented as he is with a basketball, it didn’t take Brad long to learn the cascade.

By 9:30 lots of folks started showing up. We tried to greet guests as they walked up, and assign them to club member for lessons if they wanted to learn. A lot of people already knew how to juggle. I’m always excited at how our WJD event attracts area jugglers we haven’t met before. We got a dozen new names for our weekly e-mail announcement list.

I estimate about 150 people dropped by between 9 and noon, when we shut down, packed up and went home. We got media coverage from one Charlotte TV station, the Charlotte Observer newspaper, and an alternative weekly called The Rhinoceros Times. The most exciting part of WJD actually happened later–our Lake Norman Juggler member Irl Bivens won the grand prize in the raffle! It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy! Irl, a math professor at Davidson College, has been a regular at meetings, along with his high-school son, Robert, ever since we started gathering several years ago. Irl got his seven Todd Smith clubs within 10 days, and has been getting a lot of good natured ribbing from everyone else ever since. Irl mostly works on his four ball juggle, and we’re not sure he’ll ever juggle seven, even with someone to help him!

Irl Bivens, a mathematics professor at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, USA, holds the seven Todd Smith Products clubs he received as grand prize winner in the World Juggling Day 2002 giveaway. Irl juggles every Sunday afternoon with the Lake Norman Jugglers.

This was our fourth annual WJD, and we had a good day. We have used WJD the past two years to get club jugglers together to learn to pass and to share passing. We ended up with a "city record" 39 clubs being juggled at the same time (13 club jugglers), and three more club jugglers came after that. So now we have a number to try to beat for next year!! Club gathering worked very well for the finish of the day.

We had nearly 50 jugglers there at one time or other enjoying the festivities. We were also thrilled to win a WJD prize, and plan on using our clubs for another upcoming club juggler.

We are looking forward to number five next year. I think we can build it around that number and have some fun with it. Plans are also under way to get some special discounts and gift certificates for lunch at a nearby restaurant for lunch. We hope that will be a great reward for those hard working jugglers! Peace.

It never rains in Portland (but watch for showers!), so the day was a bright and pleasant f.72.

An evolving dozen or so met and played at the Salmon Street fountain for a few hours, giving away many balls, teaching a good number of adults and children, and slapping stickers on all those who learned or proved they were worthy.

Met a nice man who went straight to some unused clubs and began with chest-high doubles. It was his day off from Dralion, which tents were two miles south of us. Not Victor Kee, just a passing passer and general gymnast. Sold us this great feathered cape and Chinese lion’s head and went on his way. The cape and head got wet in the fountain, so we left them in the nearest trash receptacle.

Daniel was our leader and guide, and led us through ball-filling and guided us to Kell’s afterwards for the required libations, fulfilling his obligations with substance, style, and panache.

Learned two new patterns with the skywriter, and enjoyed watching others try their hand. One was a dancer, and tried every Isadora Duncan move we could think of -- wonderfully camp and overblown, but That’s exactly what skywriter (60 feet of ribbon on the end of a 20 foot whippy pole) is good for.

I did sign up for an event on WJD, but I was a little late because a fishhook got caught in my arm that same day. Still, I was there at Chissom Park for about 3-4 hours juggling and unicycling. I did balls, clubs, torches, knives, a six foot unicycle, and passed with my brother.

Thanks to everyone who made the event at Ruston Way such a smashing success! Julie included… Even though you are away at your brother’s wedding, we appreciate your moral support. That goes for everyone else who wasn’t able to make it either.

We *finally* got rid of all those health department children’s anti-tobacco placemats (YAY!!! I can’t tell you how long those things were taking up space in my house). We gave away 42 bottles of pro-dental health and anti-tobacco bubbles from the health department.

Everyone who juggled with us got: one of JD’s silk screened canvas bags with our "Juggle THIS!" kid juggling unicycles logo; a magnet from JD’s store; a card from our club (also JD’s doing) listing the address, day and time we meet and my contact info; and a bottle of bubbles. Those who really got into it walked away with a set of three filled tennis balls.

Six Casperites braved the Wyoming heat. Club passing! Ball juggling! Knife juggling! Yeeh Hah!!!

We hope everyone had a great World Juggling Day 2002! Start making your plans now for next year's World Juggling Day on Saturday, June 14, 2003!