EJC 2015 Review
Last week saw the 38th annual EJC in Bruneck, Italy (or Austria depending on whom you spoke to) and it was super mega awesome.
Despite only having a year to prepare following a number of unsuccessful German attempts to organise elsewhere and despite looking originally like a smaller budget EJC, over 4,000 people turned up and it had everything you generally expect of an EJC and more.
Turning up on Saturday just before the rain deluge started I managed to register in under 2 minutes and I am told the queue was only 40 minutes even on opening. The new pre-reg system seemed to work a treat and bodes well for years to come. Apparently people still attempted to arrive the night before opening but were made to camp in the car park outside. I like this a lot since I know it has caused a lot of organisers trouble in the past when the site is not fully operational yet.
The site itself was great. 3 gyms with plenty of room, an artificial football pitch with sprinkler (cue hilarious mid afternoon soakings for the sweaty masses), an excellent well priced canteen on site, good sized big top for shows, nice chill out bar area nearby, 5 minute walk to good size supermarket, clean showers and toilets-a-plenty, well organised volunteer tent and workshop boards and both a fruit stall and a bread stall on site. Set against a mountainous backdrop in a quaint mid-sized town the setting was spectacular; an excellent base for hiking or just strolling between café’s for those with a less juggling bent.
After the rain of the first day the mud cleared up fairly quickly and most of the midweek saw spectacular sunshine and sunburnt jugglers. I fell afoul of this fairly early on as my 1 hour badge control in the shade somehow turned into 2.5 hours parking management in the sun. Typically the aforementioned extreme heat meant that days were spent hanging out in the shade playing games or just chatting which suited me just fine. Pre-empting the absence of a certain lazy juggler who apparently had better things to do, I came prepared. Condottiere (we were in Italy after all) and Hanabi seemed to be the games of choice, although I did have fun with a few games of lost cities and Hey that’s my fish!
Mornings typically started with coffee from Bob’s followed by my daily Louise Kennedy passing session. If anyone can find a better wake up recipe than caffeine and an infectious hyperactive scot intent on learning ever pattern ever created then I don’t want to hear about it. Great fun and great company. Evenings usually involved passing on the artificial grass followed by fun in the bar tent. The bands and DJ weren’t that great but that doesn’t ever seem to stop jugglers from having fun.
Only ran one passing workshop this year (my lowest for about 5 years) as I seem to have run out of stuff I haven’t taught before and feel less inclined to repeat old workshops than I used to. It seemed to go well though and there were plenty of zappers by the end and people asking more about the theory which I was very happy with. Really missed Aidan’s enthusiasm for teaching this year though and fresh ideas for patterns. Felt strange for him not to be around for maybe the first time.
Arriving with a knee injury and a neck injury I had to skip mid-week hiking trips to the mountain summit and also managed to pick up a back injury mid-week preventing me from juggling at all for the last few days. Going to really have to pick up yoga or something less hippy-like to get in better shape.
EJA business meeting saw a new president and the vote for 2017 EJC. Two bids were submitted for the first time in a few years and the fight was on between Lublin (Poland) and the Azores (middle of the Atlantic). In the end a rather controversial decision was reached whereby if people voted for Lublin 2017 we would then vote whether we wanted to go to the Azores in 2018 (despite this not originally being up for grabs). Having been prompted which way to vote the voting public then complied so the Azores (my slight preference) missed out on 2017 but will be given 2018 if no other team steps forward in the next 2 months. Not sure this is really right as I know there was at least one team thinking of proposing for 2018 next year who now wont have the chance, and the team from the Azores had a strong preference for 2017 having obtained government support for the past few years to bid. That being said both bids were great and I am glad there will definitely be an EJC in both years. Lublin 2012 was great and they seem to have their financial problems of that year well resolved whilst the Azores looks completely different from past years and should be sweet if they can get enough numbers transported to the Island to make numbers.
Other good memories included:
• Fresh bread with salami or Parma ham
• Beer in the UFO bar
• Meals with friends in town followed by Ice cream
• Passing sessions with the Dutch
• Gossiping with Jolien
• Club Pyjama's - 2000 covers placed on clubs overnight - best advertising for a convention ever
• Almost everything going to plan for the organisers and them seemingly having a great time
• The gala show – one of the best I have ever seen
Less good memories included:
• Spiders, spiders and more spiders – how did they get inside my tent!
• My 10 minutes spent watching renegade
• An incident during the parade involving a juggler falling from height
• My 9:30 am wake up alarm when the heat inside the tent became unbearable
• A certain juggler friend spending most of the week in hospital
• Hippies and the French (apart from the nice ones)
• Rather too much flesh on show during a bubble bath party – had to scrub my eyes pretty hard to erase that memory
• Having to respond to work emails
Overall this was one of my favourite EJCs ever of the 11 consecutive EJCs I have attended. Top marks to the orgs and volunteers! Especially given the short timeframe.
EJC 2016 in Almere, The Netherlands, has a lot to do to top this one!
by jamesfrancis, 2015-08-10 21:30:31