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A guide to running national juggling conventions
a little apprehensive?
Well, the writers of this guide hope that this will ease your nerves, and perhaps give you the little push you need to take the plunge.
This guide is split into two main areas: -
- Initial planning. For those thinking about running a BJC, and just want some initial ideas to think about.
- Facts, figures, and issues. A more detailed look into a BJC, for those ready to go ahead with running one.
Initial Planning.
When in the initial stages of planning the convention, lots of things run through your head, about the things you might need to run the festival. It probably seems a daunting task, but there are two essential elements you need to run a BJC, everything else is variable.
These things are a strong team and a good site.
Your Team
The size of your team does not matter. What is important is that you communicate well, trust each other, and (this is important) have a leader. One person (or perhaps two people) who have the final say. Whilst you need a lot of input, loads of opinions and ideas, arguments can develop. Someone has to have the final say. How ever many are in your team, you need plenty of volunteers for the convention itself.
A good site
What do we mean by ‘good’? Well, this is debatable, and any site is better than no site, and no convention.
Juggling space is the most obvious necessity. This can be one huge hall, or a few smaller halls. There are advantages to both. With smaller rooms you can create a different atmosphere in each, yet with one large room, you get a feeling of the convention really uniting. It’s also good to have some squash courts, or smaller rooms, for workshops.
You need space to camp, a site large enough to pitch marquees and big tops. Somewhere to park living vehicles (preferably near the camping if possible) and cars.
A space for the traders. This can be outside in a marquee, in the same hall as the juggling, or in a separate room altogether. The traders do prefer to be as near the juggling space as possible, to maximise the number of visitors. It is also nice if non-convention goers can visit the traders.
Plenty of showers and toilets, including access to these at night, or lots of portaloos.
Its also handy to have a lockable office (and if an organiser sleeps in here, even better!)
The variables
This is everything else! The things that are still needed for a good BJC, but you can play about with and alter.
The Show.
Tradition states that BJC has a ‘public show’. The show venue is often tricky to procure. Some BJCs have one big venue – a 1000 seater theatre. Others have two (or even three) different shows. Three might be too much of a stretch on your artistes and crew, but two shows can be a good solution, if your venue seats less than 500. Your show could be in a theatre, a town hall, or even a marquee. The benefit with a marquee is you cut your travel costs, but by the time you hire in seating etc., it can be a costly business. Ultimately, this is for you to decide, and you can only do your best. The venue is variable, and so is the timing and day. The Saturday remains popular because by then, all of your convention-goers have arrived. Some people couldn’t arrive in time for a Friday night showing. Bear in mind that the venue doesn’t have to be in your town, you can bus people to another area.
Other shows
It has become popular to have other shows on the Friday night. This could be a Circus Space/ Circomedia show (it could even involve other circus schools). It could be a professional show by well-known groups (such as at the Bristol BJC). This is really just so your convention-goers have something to do on the Friday night, other than the traditional get-drunk-in-the-bar. Why not let them get drunk at a show instead?
Renegade.
You do need a renegade tent. Recent faves have been No Fit State, but don’t let that stop you shopping around amongst the other Big Top owners. You could even set up a stage in a marquee, but bear in mind that if a circus bring their tent, they will usually have and set up a stage for you. And, of course, there’s just something about a big top (the smell, perhaps?)
Parade.
Okay, some BJCs have a parade, others don’t. Extensive research amongst convention organisers (where extensive research = drunken conversations) says this is mainly due to the friendliness of your local council. If they want to support you (often in the form of giving you money for buses into town) then go ahead: a parade can be fun. If, on the other hand, your local council couldn’t give a toss, then a parade becomes less likely.
Buses.
These are far more expensive than you think. You’re going to want to minimise bus trips, but you may need them for the show and the parade/games. Another bus issue to think about is how you want them to arrive. Some BJCs have shuttle buses, others travel all in one go. If you do the trips all in one go, make sure you have enough room for the buses to move and turn around. The last thing you need is your last bus getting stuck in a turning circle, as witnessed (by thankfully not very many people) at Durham.
Bar and Catering
This is very important. Get it wrong and the jugglers will whine about this in the convention meeting. It may be that your venue has it’s own catering, usually a small café, and occasionally a bar. But you will need outside caterers, preferably people who are quite happy to keep serving into the wee hours. Juggling conventions sometimes have a specific veggie/vegan caterer, but if you can’t get one to attend, it really doesn’t matter. But your caterer should provide some veggie menus, as there does appear to be a higher percentage of non-meat-eaters present. That said, don’t forget your carnivores, as they make up a healthy percentage too.The bar is important too. For some reason, jugglers and drinking go together, and a bar serving a range of beers (and tequila) goes down a treat.
It’s best to have your bar inside a marquee, with plenty of seating around it.
You may want to charge your bar to attend, or get a kick back from them. They will make money (especially if they charge reasonable amounts for the beer).
Bands/Other entertainment
Some BJCs have bands playing on certain nights. This can be the hard-to-spell-but-always-fun ceilidh (Edinburgh), ska (Cardiff), or a fiddly-dee local band (Durham). Jugglers do like a dance about, and it gives a marquee the much-longed-for ‘atmosphere’. Although, if you can afford it, another quieter tent as well may be useful, for people who want to hear themselves think.
Traders.
The traders are generally a lovely bunch of people, and will be happy wherever you put them, but remember they are there to sell things. Therefore, they prefer to be somewhere that’s near the main juggling space, and easily accessible to the public. It’s best to keep them in one room if you can, and it’s even better if you can get one person to be trader liaison. For Durham and Cardiff this was one of the traders, and this meant he knew what was needed, and set up the hall/ marquee layout himself, leaving the organisers free to do other things.
Accommodation
Some jugglers will not want to camp, and for them you need some kind of accommodation. This could be rooms, caravans, or deals with local hotels. Even if you can’t provide your jugglers with rooms, you should at least give them contacts for hotels/ B and Bs, so that they can organise their own rooms.
Passes
Opinion was divided for a few years on what these should be. Some BJCs used fixed wristbands, only to have (mainly contact) jugglers complain. The last few years have had passes on strings/ribbons. The problem with these are they are transferable, and can be passed around between non-paying scum who want to cheat you out of the money they owe you (bitter, moi?) Opinion is divided as to whether people are sneaking in as much now, but it still is an issue. Best to try and instill watchfulness in your honest jugglers, who may challenge people without passes. An important issue with the passes is that they’re cheap, and you have plenty of them (with some distinctions for different day passes). If they’re inventive as well, then even better.
Security
Juggling conventions did not used to have paid security. So why have we started to use security firms? Well, part of this is the constant struggle for volunteers, particularly hose willing to sit out in the cold in the middle of the night checking passes. If you pay the security firm, this is one less worry for you. Also, depending on the area surrounding your venue, you may want some professional scary looking guys patrolling your perimeter fence….
Fencing
Another recent addition is fencing. This is something to bear in mind when looking at locations, as some venues will need loads of fencing. Where do you need to fence? Well, this is essentially up to you, but you may want to restrict access into the camping,, the renegade, or the bar/food area (or all three). You need volunteers for this. Herras fencing is heavy!
Running a Registration Desk
Things you need…
- Volunteers! Have a timetable so they can fill in times to suit them. Do not waste your volunteers… it’s no good having seven people sat behind registration for two hours, them no one to help for the rest of the day.
- A list of instructions for your volunteers. This should include what they need to give out, how to contact you, and any other relevant information. This could be written down, but you also need to have people pass on the information to the next set of volunteers, via a quick induction.
- Two separate desks or areas– one for paid-on- day, one for pre- registered.
- Welcome packs, passes, show tickets (if applicable), all to hand.
- Two lists of pre-registered people . One alphabetical, one numerical. If the jugglers turn up with their number, you can just use the numerical list, ticking them off with a highlighter pen. If not, then you can cross reference them against the alphabetical list.
- A workshop board and other information. This should include a map, with shops, cash points, food and beer marked on. Also have bus routes and taxi phone numbers written down. A message board is also a good idea. Frequently people ask you , ‘when so-and-so gets here, can you tell them…’. You will inevitably forget. Get them to write it down!
- Some conventions have different information and registration areas. It’s probably best to keep them together, as jugglers will always stray back to the registration point, as it’s their first point of contact.
- A till or cash box (plus somewhere to keep larger amounts of money). Also, a list of prices for various different passes.
- A radio at registration desk. This is important, as your volunteers will need some way of contacting you. It might be good for the volunteers to have a list of who to contact for different things e.g. show problems are likely to be dealt with by one person, site problems by another.
- A list of traders and technical crew/ artistes who may be getting in for free, and will need instruction once they arrive. Remember, though, they need passes too (and the traders will need show tickets).
- A T-shirt display, with prices. Some people list how many have been sold, and other information. This is admirable, but bear in mind that a great deal of tally charts are forgotten about, then made up. It is important, however, to lay aside any pre-booked T-shirts. If someone’s paid for one, and you sell it, they’re going to be a bit peeved.
- Signs around the site. If you’re running registration, this will probably be your responsibility. Remember to put them in easily visible places, everywhere you need them.
- Usual stationary things – highlighters, paper, pens, scissors, staple guns, drawing pins. If you do not have these, them ask previous convention organisers before you buy them – they inevitably have a large amount of kit from their convention.
Things to bear in mind…
Some previous BJC’s registration desks open the night before, for a few hours. This is a good idea. It gives you a chance to test your system, whilst also getting through the people already on site, leaving less work for the morning.
Have set opening and closing times (you are allowed to leave the desk!) and a plan of what to do with people when they arrive during the night. Tell security your plan. This may be to give them no passes for the night, or give them the current days pass, meaning they have to register first thing in the morning.
Think to yourself, ‘Is this activity really necessary?’ Some BJCs have packaged up registration packs the night before for pre-registered people. This can be a good thing, but could be considered a waste of your volunteers time. Having passes, tickets etc to hand, in boxes, in the morning is all you need. However, the more passes you have on strings ready for the morning, the better.
Pre-registration
Make no mistake – this is a huge and time consuming task. If you are one of the main organisers, do not attempt to undertake this yourself. Give this task away to someone who can make frequent trips to the bank, has a computer to enter the details into the spreadsheet, and is likely to be living at one address up until the convention date.
This last point is crucial, because the forms need to be sent to one address, preferably the person who is actually dealing with pre-reg.
The pre-registration form itself really needs to be circulated as early as possible (as this is your main publicity material) but people are unlikely to start registering until December.
Another piece of literature that you will need to get printed is the information you send back to the pre-registered jugglers. This should include the directions, their registration number, when they should arrive, and other useful information. Also, this is a good document on which to write ‘no dogs, fires’ etc. Get this to your pre-reg person as soon as possible.
Setting up a Company
No matter how many are in your team, you will want to set up a company to guarantee you against personal financial loss. There need only be two in your company, but if you want more, then you can. One of these must be the company secretary, meaning you will get all the paperwork.. Contact Companies House for details on how to do this.
It will help significantly if one of your team is an accountant, if not, make sure you allow enough money at the end to pay your accountants fees.
In addition to this, you will need to set up a bank account. Try to do this early on, as you can then pay in cheques as soon as you receive them (as people tend to send them when they have the money, and expect them to be paid in a.s.a.p.). Remember to get a paying-in book for the person dealing with pre-reg.
Publicity
Always bear in mind when publicising your event who your target audience actually is. Your primary audience, of course, will be other jugglers, and a high proportion of them will attend other festivals. Therefore, getting your fliers (with registration forms on the back) out nice and early is really important. These need to go to every juggling convention before your festival. If none of your team can attend a particular convention, then contact other people who may be going and ask them to take fliers for you. Most people will be happy to do this for you.
Also, speak to the main juggling suppliers – ask them to send out your fliers with their equipment. Contact the juggling shops, ‘novelty’ shops, and juggling clubs. Use the internet, have a web site, post to rec.juggling, and uk jugglers regularly.
Use your local publicity too – newspapers, television, tourist information etc. Think about what you have to offer the public – beginners workshops with cheaper prices perhaps?
Make your registration document easy to read, and think about the information you need from them – their details, certainly, but also things like, do they need a crèche? Can they offer workshops? Would they like to volunteer? Are you having helpers tickets (with cheaper prices?) Are you selling t-shirts? Can people pre-reg them at a cheaper price?