IJA eNewsletter – June 2025

IJA logo
www.juggle.org		   IJA eNewsletter
   June 2025Editors: Don Lewis & Martin Frost
(ijanews@juggle.org)

 

CONTENTS

  • Looking forward to our Annual Festival!
  • Online voting is open for the 2025 IJA Board of Directors
  • Less than two weeks till the IJA Festival!
  • Mike’s guide to dining and drinking in Evansville
  • IJA Festival reviewers wanted
  • Get ready for the festival
  • How a festival site is chosen – a workshop at the festival
  • Opportunity for youth jugglers: Club YJA at the 2025 IJA Festival
  • Getting to Evansville
  • REAL ID (or passport) needed for air travel in USA
  • YJA Badge Book
  • IJA Board meetings
  • Upcoming juggling festivals
  • Latest articles in eJuggle

 

 

Looking forward to our Annual Festival!  Benjamin Domask-Ruh

IJA Board Chair June 2025

Hello IJA Community!

I’ll keep this brief as the rest of the newsletter is full of wonderful information about all the IJA happenings, including our upcoming Annual Festival in Evansville, IN!

This month was an extremely busy month in terms of professional work.  I bounced around the country connecting with jugglers and audiences galore!  Once such journey took me to East Grand Forks, MN, wherein I was performing and teaching at the local library.  A wonderful day and at least a dozen new young jugglers.

Along with these new jugglers was a more experienced juggler.  His name was Jim!  He entered the multi-purpose space where I was stationed and I knew the minute he set down his well used, worn and torn, duffel bag that I was about to meet another juggler.  (Lucky me!)  My suspicions were confirmed as he unzipped the bag of tricks and pulled out a set of old Todd Smiths, some Dubé transparent rings, some old lacrosse balls, and even a new set of Wes Peden glow balls!

He mentioned he was at the ‘80 annual festival in Fargo, ND.  He had since all but retired from performing, but we chatted a bit more but our time was cut short as the audience started filing in.  What I loved about our chat was how it reminded me that every juggler I meet that has been to an IJA festival says ‘Oh I was at the [YEAR] festival.  It was in [CITY] that year.  I remember [SOMETHING MEMORABLE.]’

I think this is one of the most amazing things the IJA is able to do.  Create long lasting memories that feed us year after year and connect us to juggler after juggler.  It made me wonder… Who will I tell about this year’s festival?  What memorable thing am I going to remember and link to the venue?  And… how many years from now am I going to be telling that story…?

I of course earnestly invited Jim to come join us, again, at another festival (see last month’s update for the importance of an invitation).  And I am earnest in my invitation to YOU!  If you have any thoughts or ideas you’d like to share, please feel free to reach out to me at ija.chair@juggle.org.  Otherwise, if you are at the Festival this year, please come say hello!  I’d love to chat.  ALSO!  Remember to come join us at our Annual General Meeting at the festival.  We’d love to update you on all the other happenings the IJA has been doing this past year.

RA2FJ,
Benjamin Domask-Ruh
IJA Board Chair

 

 

Online voting is open in the 2025 IJA Board of Directors Election
Martin Frost

The annual IJA election for members of the Board of Directors takes place at the IJA Festival in Evansville, IN.  The nominees are listed below. Be sure to read their candidacy statements.

The IJA Board of Directors is comprised of seven people who make policy and collectively decide on the direction of the IJA.  Each director is elected for a two-year term.  There are three director positions up for election this year, so IJA members can vote for up to three people in this election.

WHO CAN VOTE?

All regular, life, youth, and family IJA members who are at least 13 years of age as of Thursday, July 17, 2025, can vote.

HOW DO I VOTE?

You can vote online anytime up to 11am CDT on Thursday, July 17, 2025.  Or you can vote in person at the IJA Festival on Thursday, July 17, 2025, from Noon until 30 minutes after the end of the IJA annual meeting, which starts at 1pm CDT that day.  Voting either way is easy and only takes a minute or two.

You can use the following link to sign in and vote online now.  It will ask you to enter your IJA username and password and then it should take you to the voting page.  (If it doesn’t, after signing in, go to IJA 2025 election and cast your ballot there.)

NOMINEES

Here are the nominees for member of the IJA Board of Directors.  Read their candidacy statements on the web.  You can vote for up to three.

  • Bill “Biz” Olbrisch
  • Albert Lucas
  • Jeffrey McLean
  • Jesse Patterson
  • Michael Karas
  • Aslynne Howes
  • Ben Brown
  • Kaylin Meyers

 

 

Less than two weeks till the IJA Festival!  Afton Benson

Can you believe it!?  Only a handful of days until the 78th Annual IJA Festival in Evansville, IN.  We have received quite a few emails about registering for the festival.  While online registration is now closed, you can still join us in Evansville anytime July 14-20, 2025!  We have day passes for the gym, and you can buy show tickets onsite at the theatre box office (seriously, do this in person, the venue uses TicketMaster and the fees online are high).  If you’re planning to arrive Monday or Tuesday for the week, we’ve got a special deal for your gym pass for the week and all the Victory theatre show tickets: $350 for adults and $200 for youth 11-17 years old.

Show lineups are up on the festival site and you are not going to want to miss one moment.  Bonus show!  On Friday at 3pm and again at 5pm, Michael Karas will be sharing his show “Useless”.

About Michael’s Show “Useless”:
Juggling Show: 'Useless'Michael Karas has been juggling for almost 30 years … at the expense of learning other potentially more “useful” skills.  In his brand new solo show, he explores his own “uselessness”, and tries to figure out if it was all worth it.  With a background in dance, theater, and movement, Michael creates a show featuring unique tricks, tight choreography, awkward humor, and hopefully a healthy dose of self-awareness.  Michael has been performing at the IJA since 2004 (Buffalo) but this is by far his largest, most ambitious project to date — a 60-minute love letter to juggling that will celebrate the ups and downs of our art form.  The show features lots of brand new material never seen before as well as a few of Michael’s favorite acts from his career.  Michael looks forward to seeing you there!  Tickets will be $10 and will be on sale at the Festival Registration desk only!

Note: “Useless” is a theatrical juggling show with both louder and quieter moments.  While it can be enjoyed by all ages, the show is paced best for those 8 and older.

Do not miss this incredible week of shows, workshops, games, competitions, and community.  Make your plans now to be part of the magic in Evansville!

 

 

Mike’s guide to dining and drinking in Evansville
Mike Sullivan, Senior Future Festival Site Coordinator

Downtown Evansville has no shortage of good, affordable places to eat and drink, but not all of them are easy to find!

In fact, some of the best spots are quite well-hidden, but fear not: after three visits and 9 days scouting out everything in downtown, your ol’ pal Mike has found them all, and prepared this annual guide to keep you nourished and hydrated all week long.

Check out this year’s guide to Dining and Drinking in Evansville — and bookmark the page on your phone so it’s handy once you get to town.

See you there!

 

 

IJA Festival reviewers wanted  Eric Shibuya

eJuggle is looking for writers to cover parts of the upcoming IJA festival (shows, games, renegade, etc.).

If you are interested in covering some aspect of the festival, please contact Eric Shibuya at ejuggleeditor@juggle.org.  Accepted pieces can be compensated.

See basic submission guidelines, and contact Eric with any questions and/or proposals.

 

 

Get ready for the festival  Don Lewis

The festival is almost upon us.  Are you ready?  Each year I write some of the same reminders here, and each year the same issues crop up for some people who didn’t pay attention.

Identify your stuff!  This is particularly true for juggling props.  It is one thing to leave your clubs lying around at a local club meeting.  It is quite another in a festival gym where there might be a thousand juggling clubs scattered around the gym area.  Stuff gets kicked (or sometimes moved gently) out of the way when groups are trying to get a complicated pattern to flow.  Your stuff may not be where you left it when you come back from a break.  You always know where your cell phone is, right?  A surprising number of people set their phone down for a moment, perhaps to demonstrate something, and idly walk away.  The phone ends up in the lost and found box.  Guess what?  We don’t know your passcode, so we don’t know whose phone it is.  Put your name on the opening screen image so we know who to get the phone back to.  Same with clothing.  Sometimes part of the gym gets re-configured and things get moved.  It is just a whole lot easier returning things if we know who they belong to.

Identify yourself!  If you are going to vote at the festival, you need ID.  If you are bringing kids, they all need some kind of ID in case they get separated from you.  By the end of the week, everyone at the festival will probably know who you are, but you’ll still be a stranger in a strange town.  If you accidentally step in front of a bus, it helps if you are carrying some basic ID.  If someone finds your wallet on the street, a phone number might help you get it back.

Check your shoes!  You are going to be standing on a concrete floor all day for a week.  The broken down old shoes which are super comfy on the grass may not be so great after a week on concrete.  Instead of buying new shoes and breaking them in, you can buy new insoles for a quick fix.  Don’t count on finding exactly your size and preference in a small town if you need new shoes once you get to the festival.  Consider a pair of industrial safety shoes.  They are made for standing on factory floors all day and can be super comfortable.  They come in a wide range of styles and colors that look just like regular shoes.

Bring any medication you might need with you.  You can’t always get things easily away from home and you are not going to want to waste time searching for an open store.  Check your travel insurance to see if there are any hoops you have to jump thru to be covered for medical emergencies away from home.  If you are traveling with children who are not your own, be sure to have a parental authorization for treatment with you, as well as their insurance details.

Leave room for more props!  It is easy to be tempted by all the stuff on sale at a festival.  Be open to being tempted by the vendors and take some new stuff home to play with!  If you do suddenly want new props but don’t have room in your suitcase to get them home, consider donating your old props at the festival.

 

 

How a festival site is chosen – a workshop at the festival  Jake Darrow

This workshop on how festival sites are chosen will be presented on Tuesday, Jul 15, 2025, 1pm – 2pm, and Saturday, Jul 19, 2025, 10am – 11am (same presentation, offered on two different days).

Join us in Ballroom A for an opportunity to learn about what happens behind the scenes each year to plan and organize the annual festival city.  How do we select a particular city, the steps involved with initial contacts, dealing with venues, working through contracts, and how some cities work better vs. others for our group.  Think YOUR city has what it takes?  The workshop will be led by Jake Darrow, the IJA’s Future Festival Site Coordinator.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity!

 

 

Opportunity for youth jugglers: Club YJA at the 2025 IJA Festival
Benjamin Domask-Ruh – YJA Director

The IJA’s Youth Juggling Academy (YJA) will once again be hosting Club YJA: a community and workshop series for jugglers ages 8 to 18, held at the IJA Festival in Evansville, IN, July 14-20, 2025.

Youth interested in furthering their juggling and performance abilities will attend daily (Tuesday – Friday) get-togethers during the IJA Festival from 10am – 12pm.  During this time, we will engage in youth-focused juggling and performance workshops led by professional teaching artists from the community and participate in group activities/games to build friendship and community.

This program is open to youth circus programs and families and will be led by Kayla Malmgren of R.E.A.C.H. Juggling!

Sign-up here to help us prepare for our festival this year!

While Club YJA will be a free program run by the YJA at the festival, festival registration will be required for all participants.  For more information on the IJA festival such as registration, lodging, and travel, please visit festival.juggle.org.

For any immediate questions, please reach out to Benjamin Domask-Ruh – YJA Director at: YJA@juggle.org

 

 

Getting to Evansville  Mike Sullivan, Senior Future Festival Site Coordinator

If you’ve never been to Evansville, Indiana, you might be wondering what the best way is to get there.

Well, with Evansville, you have choices!  And not all of them may be obvious, so before you lock in any plans for your travels, check out these options.

Fly to EVV
You can fly to Evansville Regional Airport (EVV) on American Airlines or Delta Airlines.  There are flights from Chicago/O’Hare (ORD), Charlotte Douglass International Airport (CLT), Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport (ATL), and Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport (DFW).  Both carriers operate daily flights from their world hubs and connect to hundreds of cities on five continents.  Check FlightsFrom.com to see the best route to EVV from your city.

Fly & Drive, or Fly & Ride
Some travelers may want to investigate options available by flying to either Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF) or Nashville International Airport (BNA), then riding a bus or renting a car and driving to Evansville.  Evansville is 127 miles from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport and 157 miles from Nashville International Airport.

Both Louisville and Nashville are served by every major US airline, including discount carriers Southwest and Frontier.  You can likely save a bunch on airfare if you don’t mind driving or taking the bus to Evansville from BNA or SDF!

  • From Louisville, take a taxi to downtown (7 miles, ~$25), then take Miller Transportation bus to Evansville.  Total travel time is about three hours and typical fare is around $60.
  • From Nashville, take the local city bus (WeGo Transit Route 18) to downtown Nashville, then take Greyhound bus to Evansville.  Total travel time is around four hours and all-in fare is around $40.

Explore options, routes and fares on Rome2Rio.com.

More info on getting to Evansville is on the IJA Festival’s Location page.

See you in Evansville!

 

 

REAL ID (or passport) needed for air travel in USA  Don Lewis, Martin Frost & the TSA

If you are planning to travel by air within the USA, you now need either a REAL ID or a passport.  A REAL ID is a driver’s license or identification card that is also a federally accepted form of identification.

The TSA does not require anyone under the age of 18 to provide identification when traveling with a companion within the U.S.  However, the companion will need acceptable identification, such as a REAL ID, U.S. Passport, U.S. Passport Card, DHS Trusted Traveler Card, etc.

For more info, see: Acceptable Identification at the TSA Checkpoint.

If you’re in the US and not sure if your driver’s license is REAL ID compliant, contact your state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).  Be sure to do that in advance if you’re flying to the festival, so that you can avoid a last minute surprise.

 

 

YJA Badge BookThe Juggler's Badge Book

Did you know that the IJA’s Youth Juggling Academy has a book?  It does!

The Juggler's Badge Book

The Juggler’s Badge Book is the ultimate companion for aspiring jugglers of any age!  Track your progress, unlock achievements, and earn badges as you learn the art of juggling.  With its engaging format and rewarding sticker system, The Juggler’s Badge Book makes learning to juggle an exciting and fulfilling adventure.  Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned juggler, let The Juggler’s Badge Book be your guide to skillful juggling and a collection of well-earned accomplishments.  Start achieving your juggling journey today!

The Juggler’s Badge Book is $25 and makes a great gift!  Purchase yours today!  Proceeds go to supporting further YJA initiatives and advancing the IJA’s mission to render assistance to fellow jugglers.

Published by the International Jugglers’ Association in collaboration with Modern Vaudeville Press.

 

 

IJA Board meetingsIJA Board meetings

IJA Board meetings are open to all IJA members and are hosted on Zoom.  To find out the times of this month’s vision and business meetings, or to attend, please email ija.chair@juggle.org and say which meeting you’re interested in.

 

 

Upcoming juggling festivals

For a list of upcoming juggling festivals, please visit our friends over at The Juggling Edge.

While you’re there, visit their list of juggling clubs.

 

 

eJuggle logo

Latest articles in eJuggle

 

 

Leave a Reply