My (late) Milton Keynes Review 2015.
It has been a really hectic week for me and I have only just got round to writing my review!
My highlights:
I hadn't used my juggling rings for a long time and it was good to find out that (after a bit of a warm up) I didn't seem to have lost any ability, and I managed some good long runs of various tricks.
Mine and Jenni’s fish and chip lunch halfway through the day from the local village, which we ate in the canteen on site, was very nice.
Brook asked me to take his place in a Chopabout pattern with Doreen and Mandy while he pre-regged people for the BJC. I really enjoyed the passing and knowing what I was doing in the pattern for a change. Later on Me and Cameron and Brook tried to make Chopabout work with an extra club, it proved to be difficult to work out but I enjoyed the passing all the same.
There were a good range of workshops taking place throughout the day and the games were well attended and were good fun to watch. There was a lot of 3 cub gladiators after the games which I enjoyed very much and I did manage to play slightly better than earlier in the day but still rather poorly overall.
I had a really good 5clubs session just before the games where all of my tricks were feeling so much smoother and nicer than normal. Wish I could tap into that every day, but that is part of the fun of it all!
I very much enjoyed premièring my new 3 club routine. I felt it went very well. I recall the first half or so going very smoothly and then a few silly drops took place. I had to redo the final combination which upset me as I would have liked to have nailed it on the music cut off, but I feel the routine went well overall. Thank you to Jenni for saving the day when one of my clubs fell off the stage. I think we lost all of about 5 seconds which would have been a lot longer if we had not made laid our contingency plans in advance. Thank you to everyone who gave me positive feedback about the routine, I am glad you both enjoyed it. ;-)
Lows:
It is always really cold in the main hall at Milton Keynes because the entrance to the convention is through the fire doors of the main hall. It normally improves in the early afternoon (as more and more warm bodies turn up), but that means that half the day is spent rubbing your hands together.
I wonder if it would be an idea to have the entrance to the convention through a door in the main building and people could then walk along the corridor to the main juggling hall, rather than coming directly in from outside which necessitates having the doors wide open. Just my thoughts.
The show preparation. There wasn't a stage manager present and consequently nobody seemed to know what was going on half the time. I think this came across during the show. There were also a lot of technical problems this year such as microphone failings and problems with some of the acts music. I would also insist on having a proper rehearsal of the curtain call.
Overall I had a really great time at Milton Keynes Juggling Convention this year. It remains a really strong convention, always well attended (the show venue was full and more benches had to be added at the back of the hall!) and well enjoyed by everyone. Thank you to Nigel and his team for organising the event, I look forward to seeing you there next year!
Jon
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Post by JonPeat
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