No Juggling Allowed! Pratt Nixes Juggle Festival!

After 10 years of beanbag tossing, unicycle riding and club juggling, the Pratt Institute has given the annual “Juggle This!” festival the boot.

Now, members of the school’s Jugglers Anonymous club are wondering whether the showcase of their hobby — which attracted juggling artists from around the world and drew some 500 spectators last month — will ever happen again.

"It's one of the largest juggling festivals and the only in New York, so to not have it next year is upsetting," said Melissa Uhl, a senior at Pratt and the president of Juggler's Anonymous. "I know a lot who only come to this festival — that is how they meet other jugglers. It is going to have a big effect on them." 

Viveca Gardiner, the producer of the show and a juggler herself, was particularly disappointed because the free workshops and juggling lessons normally offered during the festival would no longer be available. "I like to teach families recreational activities that can be artistic," she said. "I saw this as a way to appreciate an art form that's undervalued. It's good physical exercise and isn't difficult to do."

Apparently, several days of juggling-related activities were simply too much for the Pratt administration.

"Liability was the official reason, but they keep beating around the bush about exactly why," Uhl said. "They also said something about the club using the [gymnasium] and not paying money, but we're a student club and we're supposed to be able to use it for free."

A spokeswoman for Pratt said that the juggling festival would not take place on campus again due to renovations to the institute's auditorium, as well as the amount of space required for the event.

Juggler Matt Guzzardo started the festival when he was a sophomore at Pratt. "It has been my baby for ten years," he said.

Guzzardo has stayed involved with both the club and the festival, hosting the show with performer Myles Kane and providing concessions. But the event is primarily organized by current students and members of the club. 

"It's very rare for such a thing to go on when students have come and gone," said Gardiner. "They were the ones putting in all the work and getting motivated to organize the whole thing." 

The juggling community throughout New York suffers from this decision as well. "It's huge and a highlight of the year for the juggling community here because people come from all around the region and the country, and the world for it," Gardiner said. "I love having the city offer this opportunity to other jugglers." 

Organizers hoped that “Juggle This!” might live on elsewhere, but expressed doubt about gathering the necessary cash.

"It's probably going to cost a lot more money than the festival makes, because of the cost to rent the space," Uhl said. "Whoever is setting it up would end up losing money.”