Greetings from the New Zealand Juggling Festival 2004 … 5-8 February 2004,
Iwitahi (near Taupo).
Plans are well under way and the registration forms have been mailed out - if
you haven’t received one by snail mail and would like to, please reply to this
email with your address. If you have that’s great. Hope you like the cartoon
that Burton Silver has done for us! Very generous of him. Please pre-register
as soon as possible if you have received it … so we know how many T-shirts,
rego-badges, and generally good stuff we can afford.
For those of you who don’t have the hard copy information in your hands, read
on for some details - or you can go straight to http://festival.juggle.org.nz/
for full information.
In 2004 the festival will be held from 5-8 February (6th is Waitangi day, so
we’re back on a long weekend) in an awesome campsite called Iwitahi, which is
on SH5 between Taupo and Napier (26km out of Taupo). We will have the whole
site to ourselves, so we can party 24-hours a day, enjoy private cabins (well,
they are a bit shack-like), great camping, huge fully-equipped communal
kitchen, swimming hole, flying foxes and obstacle courses (for those so
inclined). As per usual, we will have a large marquee on site with the
fantastic sound system provided by Dave Joyce. Other on-site equipment will
of course be UV lights, and part of the marquee will be UV-lit at night.
For 2004 we also have the special feature of having the Public Show and
Juggling Olympics hosted as part of the Lake Taupo Arts Festival (5-15
February 2004, see www.taupofest.co.nz). We’ll be on-site for the workshops
(from Thursday to Sunday) and the Renegade Show (Friday night), the Public
Show and Olympics will be in Taupo on the Saturday of the festival (buses to
town provided). After the Juggling Olympics we’ll get to attend a free
concert by Nesian Mystik (one of NZs top R’n’B Hip Hop Bands) and enjoy the
Crystal Palace festival venue on Taupo waterfront before the Public Show.
Fire Party will be held after the Public Show on Taupo waterfront (if we can
get the permits). Drummers, free fuel, big crowds…
Some great overseas acts have already said they’re coming, Hilby
(http://www.hilby.net/ who you may remember from 2002) and Nils Pols
(www.fastandfunny.com, who is offering to teach and teach hat tricks). More
are in contact and might be coming … we will also be joined by Artfool
(Damian and Irene) and Trapezius (Pieta and Susie) for amazing aerials in the
public show … and possibly some tuition if we can find the right trees on
site.
This year we have put the fee up slightly to encourage pre-registration ($50
wage, $40 unwaged - $40 and $30 for pre-registration). We have also put a fee
on for children ($15 for the weekend … the whole weekend for the price of
two movies, sorry to break the free trend, but budget requires). However,
camping fees are lower $8/night per adult, and $4 per night/child. There is
cabin accommodation for about 70 people - so pre-register now to confirm
places … if you don’t have a form, feel free to mail details
(name/address/e-mail) and dollars to PO Box 97382, South Auckland Mail Centre,
Auckland.
Need to buy some juggling stuff … Nic and Julie (Renegades) will be on-site
with a full range of anything juggly you could want, so will Peter Bier with
all the unicycly stuff you could want.
Worried about transport … we’ll be doing pick-ups from the Taupo Information
Centre, 10am and 5pm on the Thursday and Friday of the festival. Get in
contact if you need a hand outside of these times. Driving yourself … turn
onto State Highway 5 just South of Taupo - drive for 20 minutes, the site is
1km down a driveway off SH1 and will be signposted.
That’s it for now. We’ll send a news update in December or January. We are
always happy to hear from you and answer questions.
See you … 5-8 February 2004 at Iwitahi.
Happy juggling
from
Leila
