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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| Claremont High School’s Nestor Romero entertains the audience between acts at the juggling festival. Mr. Romero organized this year’s event and hosted Saturday night’s performances. |
Imagine a festival where competition is not the focal point, but rather an opportunity for people who share the same interest to come together and interact.
This was the atmosphere that made up Claremont High School’s second annual Juggling Festival, as hundreds of jugglers made Claremont their meeting point last Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s not a competition,” said Nestor Romero, event organizer and CHS student. “It’s a room of craftsmen sharing their craft. You get to juggle with someone else and learn new tricks. So it’s not about competition but it’s about what can I teach this person and what can I learn from another person.”
Juggler David Cruz also sees practical benefits within the activity itself.
“It’s a good hobby and a good way to socialize with people,” Mr. Cruz said. “Also when you become successful at a skill, it builds up confidence. Juggling is a very humbling skill especially when you start off because you think you’ll never get it. But if you stick with it, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.”
Because there is no competition at the annual festival, the invitation that Nestor gives out to jugglers leading up to the event dates only requires that the participants make the drive to Claremont and participate. The Internet is one highway of communication that the CHS student uses in order to get the word out regarding the event, as a Google search of “Claremont Juggling Festival” will yield multiple results of websites that mention the festival.
“The quote they say is ‘Give us a place and we will come,’” Nestor explained. “Sometimes all you have to do is contact one person and then the rest of the people will come.”
From morning through evening on Saturday, the jugglers hung out in the CHS Gymnasium, honing their skills individually and collaboratively while also participating in different games. On Sunday, the festival changed locations to the nearby Cahuilla Park, where the jugglers continued to juggle to their heart’s content throughout the day.
The festival also managed to attract former CHS students, who have an interest in juggling but never were able to experience the festival during their high school tenure.
“Juggling is exhilarating,” said Mike Nicholes, CHS class of 2005 and former president of the CHS Juggling Club. “I love passing and my favorite part is when you get 3 or 4 people together and do it. This festival is so amazing because I’ve never seen so many amazing jugglers in one place.” (story continues below)
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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| Donald Barrett performs in the Claremont High School Theater Room on Saturday night during this year’s Claremont Juggling Festival. The weekend-long event featured performers from several southern California cities. |
One of the highlights of the weekend festival was the Saturday evening juggling show that featured 6 different performances and contained multiple objects including clubs, balls, rings, knives and more. The performers consisted of Donald Barrett, David Cruz, Carey Pickford, The Juggolos and Olga Galchenko. Nestor hosted the show, which also had an appearance from Vova Galchenko who, along with his sister Olga, is an international juggler.
“The place where I’m from, if you’re not into something then you’re probably getting into trouble,” said Mr. Galchenko, a 20-year-old native of Russia. “I’ve been juggling since I was 7 and when Nestor e-mailed my sister and I about last year’s festival, we wanted to come and see what’s up. I performed last year but this year has been a chance to hang out and see my friends.”
Some of the performers had their own specialty act during the show. For instance, Mr. Cruz juggled knives while on a rola bola and Donald used rings in his routine.
Another specialty act was that of the Juggolos, a juggling duo consisting of CHS graduates Matt Napoli (2001) and David Riley (2002). The team dazzled the audience with 6- and 9-club passing and included behind-the-back and through-the-leg tosses as part of the act.
“It’s great and awesome to see a festival like this,” Mr. Riley said. “Plus it took place at our alma mater—our home town.”
Mr. Napoli agrees and is delighted to see his interest taking shape at Claremont High School.
“When we were students here, we were [likely] the only two jugglers in Claremont,” he said.
Whether the participants came from out of town or are local residents, younger or older, amateur or professional, the festival offered something for jugglers who looked for a venue where their juggling interests are embraced and understood. Carey Pickford traveled from Temecula in order to be a part of this year’s event and took delight in the overall environment.
“It was nice being backstage and nice to be in the gym where things were flying everywhere,” he said. “Many times I have to practice by myself and wish that there were more people to juggle with. Here, I did have people to juggle with and people who understand what it’s about.”
—Landus Rigsby
