EJC 2009 Day 1

I’m at the EJC 2009 in Vitoria, Basque Country, Spain. So far so good! I plan to make a post, with photos, every day, sharing what I’ve been up to.

Today Pola, Emile and I arrived at 4pm. We parked the van in a good spot and looked around the convention site. It’s not all that big, but everything seems to be in place and working smoothly. I’ll post some photos of the site itself later in the week. After shopping (the super market was being briskly emptied by hoards of jugglers) and eating, Pola and I cycled into the city center.

The location for the opening show, and later in the week the games and other shows, is awesome. It’s a huge square/amphitheater with steps and seating on every side, and a temporary stage at one end.

The opening show began, and I quickly decided it wasn’t worth seeing. I needed some new trainers anyway, so spent the time shoe shopping. I returned after the end of the show, and Pola said I’d only missed one good act, but I’ve seen the guys practicing in the gym at conventions before, and they have a cool video (the guys who do massive random multiplexes with clubs… someone leave their names in the comments).

The stage was too far away for good photos, so here are some shots of the audience:

Emile, our traveling companion for a few days.

A girl with a cool hair clip.

A line of audience members.

Someone was handing out free newspapers about juggling and the EJC. It was all in spanish, but looked quite interesting.

More audience.

When I got back from shopping, a large group had formed to play combat.

I borrowed some clubs and joined in. I love this game! At the end I won 7 games in a row. Pola asked if I was almost done, so I said “I’ll finish in two games!” I won the next game, and for my final game, everyone else ganged up on me to make sure I lost.

Back at the convention site we celebrated Annette’s birthday.

After checking out the 24 hour gym, Emile and I stayed for two acts of the first open stage show.

I was hungry so left for some more food. Emile said the last two acts were worth seeing; Priam, who I guessed was performing because I recognized his music (I’ve seen his act many times) and group highly inspired by the Gandini Juggling Project. They apparently did one super-cool trick that made the entire show worth seeing all the way through. I hope to see it one day.

Then sat in the info tent and used the free wifi to upload photos and write a blog post.