Now that I've recovered from a great weekend, I have time to report my version of the Dayton Festival.
The festival began with open juggling on Friday in the smaller multipurpose room at the beautiful Kettering Recreation Complex. There were about 60 people juggling Friday night, and it was a nice warm up for the big Saturday to come.
240 people were in attendance Saturday to make it the biggest Dayton fest ever. And it wasn't just quantity, but quality. The public show included Jay Gilligan and David Cane, Scott Sorenson, Casey Boemer, Charlie and Mark Peachock, Steve and Michelle Mills, Morty Hanson, a great unicyclist whose name I don't remember, Mike Hout (set new Internet bowling ball juggling record), and Fritz Grobe. With that kind of all star cast, it's no wonder that there was such a good turnout. Other famous faces included Ben Schoenberg selling great props and Fergie, who came solely to juggle.
Saturday morning was filled with open juggling and joggling on the indoor track. The games began at 1:30 and lasted until the raffle at 4:30. Competitions and winners that I remember are:
9 Clubs: Mark and Charlie Peachock, 52 catches
8 Clubs: Peter Kaseman and Rob Vancko, 330 catches
7 Clubs: Scott Sorenson and Scott McFarlan...a long time
11 Balls: Scott and David Cane, 64 catches
10 Rings: Jay Gilligan and David Cane, 86 catches
12 Rings: Jay Gilligan and David Cane, 24 catches
7 Balls: Morty Hanson, 34 seconds
6 Balls: Rob Vancko, 38 seconds
5 Balls: Fergie, time NA
5 Clubs: [Okay, I forgot...]
4 Clubs: Chris LaReau, time NA
The juggling on one foot competition was won after 15 minutes, and Mark Peachock won all the coin juggling competitions, going home with tons of change. Charlie Peachock gave a three club workshop, Fritz showed some great diabolo stuff, Scott Sorenson demonstrated runs of 20 catches with 6 clubs, and was attempting that elusive 11 ring flash!
And then there was the show...
Charlie Peachock was the first performer and his routine included 3- and 5-high pirouettes with 5 balls, 3-up pirouette with 5 clubs, a series of five 5-club backcrosses, tons of tricks with 3 clubs and a nice ring routine.
Casey Boemer had a well polished act which included up to 4 clubs, 5 balls and 5 rings, with pull downs, pirouettes, and lots of nice multiplex tricks. He also did a short routine with shaker cups.
Steve Mills did a great comedy routine with his daughter Michelle (8 years old) which ended with Michelle's 3 ring pull down.
Jay Gilligan and David Cane did a new number with balls, including very innovative toss and bounce passing. Jay also did an impressive 6 bounce to 6 cross (in the air) transition.
Morty Hanson combined dance with contact juggling then used up to 5 balls, showing some neat site swaps with 5.
Jay Gilligan, Fritz Grobe and Morty Hanson did a serious number, with 5 rings each.
Abby Cernkovich, the current women's national unicycling champion (at 12 years of age) did a wonderful routine, beginning with a frog mount directly to a walk the wheel. She idled while on the side on the uni, touched the seat to the ground and continued riding, rode forwards and backwards on one foot, and did tricks on a 6 foot unicycle.
Ben Schoenberg performed a great act consisting of an original, site-swaps-for-the-masses in which he compared juggling to music, then using these really cool brightly colored little soccer balls, he made it all come to life. This is a first, tentative step into an area that has tremendous, Moschen-esque artistic promise. Next, Ben juggled beanbags to music using two squash racquets which sometimes caught the bags, and sometimes were props themselves, finding their way into a four item fountain and, for the big finale, a cascade of three beanbags and both squash racquets. The highlight of this routine came when Ben performed a racquet version of Mill's Mess - all catches and throws made with the squash racquets - much to the delight of Steve Mills who bellowed loudly in approval.
Mike Hout did an act with his son. Mike did tricks with bowling balls, eventually breaking the internet endurance record! His son also did some work with scarves, flashing up to 8 of them.
Mark and Charlie Peachock did a great two man passing routine with ultimate chops, 7 back to back, tricks with 8, and finally passed 9 clubs with a clean finish.
For the finale, Jay Gilligan and David Cane performed their winning teams routine from Burlington. I hadn't seen it yet and was very impressed. They do all kinds of ring and club passing side to side, front to side, and other variations. If you haven't seen it, get the video.
All in all the fest was a great weekend of high quality fun. I would like to thank everyone involved for the great job they did organizing the weekend. If you are within driving distance, this is a fest you won't want to miss.