An idiosyncratic review of BJC2015.
I thoroughly enjoyed the British Juggling Convention this year. Being familiar with the site was good as it required no time to work out where to go or where to find things. Having the traders move to the previous years workshop area didn't seem to be a problem. Whenever I went to see the traders they appeared quite busy and the space they moved from became the games playing area and I spent rather a lot of time there. I learnt to play a few games that were new to me and had an enjoyable time doing that with the people who were my playing partners. My younger son spent much more time in the games area and appears to be developing my lack of juggling at a juggling convention habits. I also did quite a bit of juggling and learnt a new trick which I won't be able to practice at Milton Keynes club due to not being able to throw quads or higher there. Tracey and I also got much closer to getting our 8 club passing and have a few more ideas for back to back tricks.
I ran three workshops and the two walking globe ones were well attended. However the workshop I enjoyed most was the 'walk of death' workshop which only had 4 attendees but it was the quality of the people that counted. It seemed to me that there were less workshops this year than last year which may have been because it was a bit harder to add workshops onto the pin boards rather than the dry wipe boards of last year or it just might be a misrememberance as I was so heavily involved with workshops last year. I didn't attend any other workshops than my own and this was a lot to do with the lack of really different workshops (this has been more and more true as I go to more and more BJCs and so isn't something that can be blamed on anything other than my overexposure to juggling conventions). I did get a private cyr wheel lesson which was great and demonstrated to me why I am a juggler and not an athletic type but I will persist and hope to become at least barely competent by next year.
The shows were shows. Very few acts stood out for me at the gala show the best of which was the lady with balls and a table (cue some informed juggler to name her). She demonstrated skill and personality, the latter of which seems to be rarer and rarer each year. This year the stand out show for me was Circus Geeks. There were so many bits of this that struck a chord that I won't attempt to describe the routines but if you get the chance then watch the show. Other acts that stood out were Tom Derrick's ball routine, Thomas Bounce was very slick and Jon Peat and Lewis Kennedy were extremely energetic and fun. I missed the open stage and the international show but I gather acts happened in both of them and people enjoyed them. I was involved in the Youth Circus show and therefore missed the business meeting. This is the cause of one of my big gripes. Youth circus is a big passion for me and the 5 Ring show was well received so why was the Youth show not only timetabled for 1pm on the Wednesday but also at the same time as the business meeting. It was extremely disrespectful to the acts who put in quite a bit of time creating shows for about 50 people to see. Last year the show had well over 100 in the audience and was great.
My only other gripe was the non-removeable wrist band. When it fell apart the second time I put it around my keys but was then forced to have it around my wrist by a security guard. I hated it every time I juggled. Yes Milton Keynes Juggling Convention uses wrist bands but we don't force you to wear them on your wrist.
I've missed out BYJOTY. Eddy Bacon was great and deserved to win but I didn't vote for him as I could tell he had most of the votes before I voted. I booked one of the other acts for MKJC and had already booked another. The 11 year old King-Sheard did a much better job of putting an act together than many of them but then I'm not a fan of someone doing a ton of difficult tricks without some sort of story to go with it.
Nigel
Mike Moore - - Parent #
I've always hated wristbands on while juggling. I tend to put them on my ankle or shoe, which typically fulfills the "clearly visible" criteria set by most security guards.
Don't worry, in 2016 you'll be allowed to attach it to your wrist, ankle, wherever. As it's visible and it's not possible to take off and give to another person).
you were allowed to have the wristband on your ankle this year so not sure why you didn't...
hey ho, what is done is done and we can't change it now so no point in complaining, thats my motto.
I didn't think of ankles at the time. Then I accidentally dipped the thing in my custard.
Since this is the worst complaint I can possibly bring to mind about the whole event, I think you guys did OK :-)
Oh no I have a more important complaint, no complimentary taxi service back to my house so I could enjoy the super tasty beers that were on, or the company of my crazy marvellous juggly family until a more ridiculous hour of the next morning.
A lot of folk at Darton had their pass around their ankle, I initially had mine around my wrist but the metal clasp made juggling uncomfortable so I put it in my pocket. I was only challenged once by security and I just told them my pass was in my tent (but they didn't tell me I had to fetch it) - I guess you just need an honest face.
jamesfrancis - - Parent #
I had mine on my belt at BJC this year. Obviously this could be interchangeable with someone else, but then does this really matter? As long as only one person is on site at once, a full person has paid...
EJC often uses elastic wristbands and I know a couple of times they have had issues (Toulouse) with people not paying at all or outstaying a day pass, but with decent security it should be manageable.
The Darton security were excellent this year though and challenged me every time I came in or out so I don't think it really mattered that I could remove the band.
As long as only one person is on site at once, a full person has paid...
Facepalm.
jamesfrancis - - Parent #
Care to elaborate?
Seriously?
Exasperation that this opinion exists & that there are people who don't see this as ethically & morally wrong.
jamesfrancis - - Parent #
Better answer. At least one that allowed me to see the context of your objection.
Maybe I should clarify, because I probably didn't go very far out of my way to try and make my point. This was not an endorsement of a scheme to make money out of an event or community that I very much support. It was meant in that if I have purchased a ticket that allows one person entry to a 5 day event but I can only make three of those days, should I be allowed to donate my 2 days that I couldn't attend (preferably with BJC approval) to another person who might in the same way that someone might sell a full ticket that they bought but then could no longer use. If the second person would otherwise not attend then it is win-win. BJC gets a full ticket and benefits from the profits of 5 days beer consumption rather than 3. Now obviously for all sorts of ticketing and liability reasons it might not be sensible, and it would likely not be a route one would want to pursue because there is plenty of money to be made out of the one day tickets, but I hope I have managed to now phrase this in a more ethically respectable light.
Anyway this thread seems to have gone a bit off track from what was for me an excellent BJC. Unfortunately I could only attend from late Sunday to Wed and missed all of the shows. I did however buy a full week pass which I resisted the urge to cheat the system with by partaking in any of the above mentioned shenanigans.
My experience of this phenomenon is mostly from talking to Dave Law about having to deal with people openly deciding who goes to what workshops but otherwise using all the other facilities on one ticket or people thinking they don't need a ticket so long as they don't attend the public show at Crawley. I do agree that the situation you describe does not fiddle the event out of revenue so it is ethically more respectable, but it still feels morally wrong to me though.
jamesfrancis - - Parent #
I imagine that would be an issue for Crawley. Toulouse EJC last year also had a lot of similar problems with people buying day tickets and just staying inside the site (the only security was on the exits) for most of the convention. Neither of those scenarios are remotely acceptable.
Morals aside, with my example the issue becomes that you are using tickets in a way other than how the organisers intended and I have plenty enough respect for any organising team not to cross those lines.
From the point of both an attendee and an organiser this is a bit of a pain. As an attendee you just want to get value for money and in the case of many jugglers want as cheaper bargain as possible. As an organiser we are trying to fund the convention, in the case of a BJC usually to break even, so it's advantageous for people to not do as James suggests.
That being said, we do try to provide a middle ground with having weekend/day tickets available as well. I'm not a fan of long conventions personal reasons, but also because it's more difficult to ensure a fair length to ticket price ratio (plus options).
jamesfrancis - - Parent #
Clarification: James did not suggest people should do this and explicitly stated he wouldn't
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