Guelph Juggling Festival is back for its third annual event that encourages jugglers and non-jugglers across the province and country to participate in a weekend of performances and workshops for free at the University of Guelph.
It started as an informal event prior to 2016 where jugglers around the country would convene and now has been gathering momentum over the years by drawing attention from the community members in the area.
The event features toss jugglers, hoop artists, aerial artists and is organized by Mike Moore and Emily Carlson among other community members passionate about juggling.
“Having these festivals is kind of a family reunion,” said Carlson who says it's common to see familiar faces in regional festivals.
The event will be held from May 17 to 19 on the Victoria Day long weekend and will hold different events on each day of the festival.
On Friday, participants will engage in free juggling and proceed to paint the infamous U of G cannon.
“We are going to claim the cannon on Friday and paint it with a juggling theme,” said Carlson.
Saturday will feature a free family-friendly public show by local artists at 10 a.m. in the University Centre proceeded by a public workshop for anyone interested in learning how to juggle.
The event will also hold advance workshops to illustrate the method of making props for juggling as well as stretching workshops for acrobatics and games geared towards jugglers.
“We are trying to get more people to come. Last year a majority of the turnout were people who were already jugglers or already kind of knew each other,” said Carlson.
“We want it to really grow into a community event.”
The only paid show of the festival is on Saturday evening at the War Memorial Hall at the cost of $20. It will feature performances by several professional artists including former Cirque de Soleil performer Thom Wall and his wife and international award-winning American acrobat Chloe Somers who is popular for her act of walking on bottle tops in high heels.
Sunday’s event will include joggling- a combination of joggling and juggling where participants have a choice to compete in a 2.5 km or 5km run for prizes sponsored by Pure Circus and the Student Club at the University.
“They can also just run alongside the jugglers if they don't want to juggle,” said Carlson.
“The first year had a turnout about 50 people. Last year we had our first juggling show and that drew 100 people. This year, we’re hoping to have more than that,” said Carlson.
