This
year's festival t-shirt (shown to the right) was designed by Alan Alovus.
Here's the article published in JUGGLE magazine's
March/April 2005 issue:
Groundhog Day, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
February 4 – 6, 2005
By Viveca Gardiner
This year the Atlanta Jugglers Association organized its 27th annual
Groundhog Day Jugglers Festival, which might possibly be the American
juggling community’s ultimate hippie love fest.
Almost 200 jugglers convened in the festival’s new location at Cross Keys
High School. On Friday night, the basketball team had a game in the gym,
so juggling took place in the school cafeteria, where jugglers threw
between colorful banners and other paper chain decorations.
Saturday we moved to the gym, which had a fine wood floor, high ceilings,
ample light, and two prop vendors. A large open stage at one end was
filled with small numbers of acrobats working out on the gym mats and
large numbers of yo-yo players, as the convention was held in conjunction
with the Georgia State Yo-yo championships, which were held in the same
space the day before.
The convention’s biggest show is an afternoon competition, where jugglers
compete for three PHIL awards. Donated every year by Bill Giduz, the PHIL
is, fittingly, a groundhog. The competition is unusual in that it is
judged entirely by three of the 800 to 1,000 non-jugglers who attend the
show. Competitors have four minutes to do whatever they want (minus fire
this year for insurance reasons), although it is “strongly encouraged”
that they include some toss juggling. The three awards are unranked and
given various glowing titles.
As always, the Seed and Feed Marching Abominable band opened the show with
great pomp and colorful circumstance. The first juggler to appear was Book Kennison, who couldn’t quite manage three balls, so he stretched his
“arms” to reach them, a particularly comic image for those familiar with
Book’s trademark contortion juggling. This time, though, he pulled the
fake arms out of his sleeves, added one more, and juggled them in a
charmingly conceived and well-executed routine that interspersed juggling
with arm gags. Rick Purtee juggled three clubs just long enough to pass
the toss juggling requirement, and then performed a graceful routine with
one and two diabolos. John Satriano presented a smooth three-ball routine.
Between acts, host Rodger French gave away many raffle prizes.
Steve Langley, aka Alfredo Fettucini, showed his
performing experience with devilstick, tennis racquet manipulated a la
devilstick (tennis racquet stick? Devilracquet?), and one and two diabolos.
Peter Panic performed a rare silent act, demonstrating his stunning
proficiency with spinning, balancing, and juggling three to five large
balls. Even without speaking, Peter is hilarious. At the end of his
routine, he left a small child volunteer holding five balls piled so high
they completely obscured most of his body and all of his face. Matthias
Stanley combined juggling with eccentric dance. Appearing almost to be a
human marionette on unseen strings, he juggled balls and clubs, rode a
unicycle, and did a few acrobatic maneuvers. Jeff Lutkus’s competition act
was also his first time ever performing, so he had Anthony Shave read a
list of club tricks to remind him what he wanted to do. To close the show,
Sky King presented an energetic routine of club swinging and ball and club
juggling. The judges proclaimed Book “Most Fabulous”, Steve
“Most
Awesome”, and Peter “Most Flabbergasting”.
Saturday night, jugglers moved to the Little Five Points Community Center
parking lot for a Fire and Light Extravaganza. Jugglers swung and flung
plenty of glowing and flaming objects through the air. Afterwards, we
moved inside the Center’s Horizon Theater for the Late Night Cabaret.
Produced by Bruce Plott, the show included acrobatic dancing, belly
dancing, and yo-yo routines as well as contortion juggling, contortion,
and juggling by Book Kennison; one and two diabolo manipulation by Ted
Joblin; and comedy, juggling, and giraffe unicycling from Peter Panic.
Host Mike Garner presented acoustic folk music versions of rap classics as
well as an original song about the wonders of the thesaurus. Acts were
accompanied by The DeLuxe Vaudeville Orchestra, who also provided
occasional amusing background commentary.
There were a few impromptu workshops on Sunday, but mostly people just
wanted to juggle. The weather was beautiful and sunny, and a few people
set up slack ropes between the trees and juggled outside in the gorgeous
weather. Unfortunately, even the nicest juggling festivals eventually come
to an end. Visiting jugglers grabbed a last cup of mate, which seems to
flow whenever AJA members are present, or a last piece of pickled okra
(southern hospitality can sure be delicious), called out “see you in
Davenport,” and gradually headed home.
