1997 IJA Festival, Pittsburgh

Over 1200 jugglers from around the world gathered August 2-6 At Robert Morris College for the 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of the International Jugglers Association.

This photo gallery was contributed by Joyce Howard, of Marietta, Georgia.


The large gym was the place for juggling, buying props, learning new tricks and general fun. Juggling props and other objects of all kinds were juggled, thrown, and manipulated throughout the festival.

On Saturday night, board chairman Perry Rubenfeld presented awards to the founding fathers of the IJA - Bernie Joyce, Eddie Johnson, Roger Montandon, and Art Jennings.

There were many impromtu shows by long-time crowd favorites such as Waldo and Arsene.

The numbers juggling competition took place in the gym on Tuesday. Here Todd Blair of Flight Patterns competes with rings.

There were many famous jugglers here from around the world. From Germany, Russia and the US, here are Neil Stammer, Katja Ignatov, Ernst Montego, Sergei Ignatov, Karl-Heinz Ziethen, Karen Gersch, and Paul Bachman.

This year's festival had many more families and children than in past years. Here youngsters Ben Finnigan and Chad Patz juggle clubs.

There was even a "kiddie corral" sponsored by the Flamingo Club.

The Deluxe Vaudeville Orchestra from Atlanta featured Roger French, Philip Solomon, Toni Shifalo, Bruce Plott and Andy Ford providing live music for the midnight Renegade shows and the competitions Tuesday night.

A favorite activity in the gym was club passing. Steve Howard and Dwayne Alvis from Atlanta practiced a basic 6-club passing pattern.

Other groups tried elaborate patterns and feeds such as this Y formation with Melonhead, Dan Howard, Mike Newton, and Geoffrey Way.

Martin Frost, Melonhead, Jek Kelly, Dan Howard, and Steve Hirtle had fun with a 5-man star pattern with left and right-handed passing.

A Nikon Coolpix 300 digital camera was used to shoot all the pictures on this page, except the last. It does a nice job when there's plenty of light, but the flash is only good for about 10 feet.


1997 IJA Festival, Pittsburgh / Juggling Information Service / jis@juggling.org
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