Turkish Juggling Convention 2009 blog

Yay, I’m at the chillingest juggling convention ever. It’s like Bristol 9 dayer, but in Turkey, right next to the sea, so gets plus 100 awesome points due to hot weather and handy swimming.

I arrived yesterday, very tired due to lack of sleep and too much travelling. The site is the Sundance Nature Camp, and Deniz, an old juggling/acrobat friend of mine lives here year round, and organises the convention. I’ll be posting more general pictures of the site later, but here is my tent:

First thing I did, after borrowing a tent, was swim in the sea. I imagine I’m going to be doing this a lot. Then said hi to as many people as possible, and I remember none of their names. I walked in to town yesterday evening, and slept when I got back, so missed some bits of the evening. Then I juggled in the big top… well, it isn’t a big top really, it’s a big geodesic dome! Actually I think I drank tea in the chillout dome first, then juggled. Either way, I had a good evening, mainly messing around with 3 clubs, and doing an impromptu spinning ball stacking workshop.

Bed at about 3 am. Up at 11 am, and straight into the sea! Showers are solar heated, so are nice and hot at midday, so I took one directly after breakfast. I spent the next 3 hours laying on the beach, finishing the novel I’ve been reading, which I enjoyed a lot.

Next up I ate lunch, then I caught up with emails, played with Google Wave a bit, but couldn’t get the latter to work very well. Then Deniz walked by and told me that the games were about to start. I grabbed my camera, and a set of balls, and popped over to check them out.

The games were, to be honest, some of the worst organised I’ve ever seen, but in no way boring, and really a lot of fun. Instead of giving prizes on a game by game basis, each game was worth a voucher of 2 to 8 points, and the winning person/team got the voucher. At the end of the games, the juggler with the highest collection of points got the top prize. I’ll reveal the winner and the prize in a bit… first, some photos:


“Get into groups of… three!”


“Groups of…. five!”


Body surfing game.


“On your marks…”


“Go!”


Winners/cheaters.


Diabolo in the basin filled with water.


Club-man race lineup.


The race is run.


Three ball limbo.


Here’s a photo of the tossup.

And the winner of the games was… me! I won three games and got 18 points. Of course, as I was taking part, the games aren’t mentioned above. They were “3 ball yoga” (a bit like 3 ball simon says, but works better with mixed language groups), 5 ball endurance, and “blindfolder slow motion race” (the last person across the finish line won, but as I was blindfolded I didn’t actually see what happened in this one).

The prize is something I’ve wanted to do for the past two years, but haven’t got round to yet. Actually, I’ve wanted to do it for much longer, but only REALLY wanted to do it more lately, with a view to taking it up as a hobby. The prize is a tandem flight on a paraglider, from the top of the highest mountain nearby, and landing directly in the convention site. There is a cable car to the top of the mountain, and the entire festival is relocating there for an hour tomorrow, for games, photos and another big tossup. Everyone else will be coming back on buses, but me and the pilot will be arriving in style.

The pilot took a flight today, and landed right after the games ended, as we were playing 3 club combat.

After the games I went out to pick blackberries, but it was getting too dark to see. I took some photos, but the wide angle lens gets in the way and casts a shadow from the flash.

I’ve just eaten yet another huge meal from the cafe here, and am currently uploading photos. They are taking some time though, so I’ll leave my laptop here and come back later.

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One Response to Turkish Juggling Convention 2009 blog

  1. Matt Hall says:

    Luke, as with Israel, you inspire me to get to this festival. Your pictures and commentary are clean, crisp, with no fat or added preservatives. One day, I’m going to get to this festival!!!!! Thank you again for leading the way…

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