The WonderFools will perform at the Tucson Juggling Festival. photo: Dan Stein
A mixture of hip-hop and classical music creates a dramatic beat as Bob Evans and his wife, Trish, face their audience.
Bob tosses three bowling-pin shaped clubs to her before lying on the ground. He lifts up his feet then grabs his wife’s hands. Trish climbs on top of his soles and maintains her balance.
“Ready?” Bob shouts. “Go!” And the two begin to juggle.
If you’d like to see this “acro-balance” juggling act, be sure to attend the Third Annual Tucson Juggling Festival (TJF).
This weekend festival starts at noon on April 8 and last until noon on April 10 in Catalina State Park. Though it’s a free festival, it will cost $7 to get into the park, $15 if you decide to campout.
“It’s a really great opportunity for families in Tucson to see a whole lot of incredible talent all at once,” enthuses Becky Renfrow, the public show coordinator. “It’s a great opportunity for anyone interested in juggling and acrobatics.”
The inaugural festival was in 2009, started by members of the Tucson Juggling Club.
“The whole circus thing is taking off more and more and it seems not a whole lot involves juggling,” said Dave Kha, a member who helped organize the first festival. “We came up with this idea to keep that part of the circus alive.”
Unlike previous festivals, this year’s celebration will host the first-ever TJF Public Show, which is guaranteed to entertain and inspire, Renfrow explains.
“It’s a whole lot of variety in a short time,” Renfrow says. “There will be really fancy juggling tricks, clownish hilarity, acrobatics, contortion acts you normally wouldn’t get to see.”
The TJF Show will be held on Sunday, April 10 at 2pm at Himmel Park, 1000 N. Tucson Blvd., shortly after the weekend festival.
It will include a variety of professional circus performers, such as hula-hoop troupe Orbital Evolutions, juggling duo The WonderFools, acrobats from Flight School Acrobatics, Santa Fe’s illusionists and contortionists, Button Wagon, as well as “acro-balance” juggling duo, Bob and Trish.
After their performances, the talented performers will stick around, teaching the community how to juggle, hula-hoop and become an acrobat for free – an apropos way to end the event.
“That’s the nice thing about the juggling community,” Evans notes. “It’s fun to show people that even if they are uncoordinated, they can actually juggle with time.”
For more information, visit TucsonJuggling.org.
