Pocono Juggle and Circus Arts Festival 2026 in Lansford, Pennsylvania

By JoAnn Ireland

The Pocono Juggle and Circus Arts Festival, the fourteenth festival in sixteen years, took place this year over a three-day weekend, starting on Friday evening, February 27th and going through Sunday afternoon, March 1st at the Panther Valley Junior and Senior High School in Lansford, Pennsylvania. All skill levels are welcome at the juggling and circus arts festival and it’s open to the public.

The festival is currently admission free and is supported by the Saturday evening show ticket sales (only $10 per person), sales of festival merchandise (e.g. festival logo branded t-shirts, drawstring prop bags, and journals), and a raffle consisting of numerous donated items. The raffle this year offered another great selection of over twenty unique items to choose from, which included multiple juggling t-shirts, multiple three-club sets, three-beanbag and five-beanbag sets, a diabolo, a balance / slack board, a unicycle, for use and decoration in your home – multiple framed artistic juggling and circus themed graphic prints, a coffee mug with a juggling bear on a unicycle, a juggling branded wooden cutting board, and for a diversion from juggling – two hand-held video games. If you’re coming to the festival next year, it’s all the more reason to consider bringing something to donate that fits with the juggling / circus arts theme that another juggler or circus artist would appreciate.

There were also multiple prop vendors in attendance. Pass the Props (https://passtheprops.com) run by Brad and Bonnie Wyman, who offered an assortment of juggling props available for purchase; Kyle’s Kracking Whips; Fly Juggling – beanbags, the online Complete Juggling System course, and jewelry; and Shape Lab – a specialty shop for 8-rings and hybrid flow shapes.

The Panther Valley wrestling booster parents were back this year and they had extensive homemade food and beverage options for sale throughout the festival (nothing was more than $5, with many items at $2 or $3). The school had cafeteria tables set up for you to enjoy the food, meet new friends and catch up with old juggling friends. Workshops (e.g., by Donnell Griffith on club juggling and manipulation; Benjamin Lipman on hats: throws, rolls, flips and isolations; or Jackie Erickson on three ball esoterica) were conveniently going on nearby in adjacent areas, so you never felt far from the juggling action. Basically, you never had to leave the festival site if you didn’t want to to get something to eat, which was incredibly convenient.

There were many jugglers in the gym on Saturday afternoon. There was plenty of bleacher space to store your prop bag, or just grab a seat to take a break and watch the juggling. One fun and interactive aspect of the festival is the Extreme Trick Contest that took place on Saturday afternoon. The gym closed at 6:00 PM for jugglers to get some dinner before the evening show started at 7:00 PM, which was also conveniently located within the school auditorium.

Ridiculous Nicolas – Nick Polini –  was the emcee for the Saturday evening show. Nick has appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Season 19 of America’s Got Talent. Some of his performance pieces included: footbagging while jumping rope, balancing a golf club on his chin with a golf ball on top that was further topped with another perpendicular golf club that he spun using a third golf club, and playing a small xylophone by holding it over his head and spitting ping pong balls out of his mouth.

Jay Ko was the first performer of the night; he has also served as the IJA’s official videographer since 2007 and received the IJA Extraordinary Service Award in 2012. In honor of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States, Jay recited an abbreviated version of the Declaration of Independence while juggling three clubs.

Kevin Hogan was next and he performed a beautiful piece with three rings showing unique manipulation, next using three LED clubs, and then followed up with some impressive footbag moves. Kevin won first place in both the open freestyle routines and battles at the 42nd annual East Coast Footbag Championships in 2024.

Erin Gettelman (IG: @lover_sucks) and Josh Spaugh (IG: @joshua.spaugh) met at Circadium in Philadelphia in 2019 and performed a multiball partner juggling piece with a romantic theme with up to seven balls.

Jacob D’Eustachio was next and he performed a solid routine with three through five clubs and then concluded with a six club flash.

The Lipman Family – Benjamin, Shelby, and Milo, performed unicycling and concluded with unicycling while jumping rope.

Bennett Santora of Fly Juggling who has over one million followers across platforms performed a three ball piece. He demonstrated how more challenging patterns evolved from the box, like the inverted box, N-box, crossed column inverted box, and the inverted sprung cascade. It was a wonderful piece to watch and learn from.

Stephen Doutt was next and he performed impressive moves with one and two diabolos and those movements were especially accentuated by the fringe on the arms of his jacket. Stephen studied at Circadium.

Zak McAllister, (IG: @ZakMcallister) IJA gold medalist in Individuals and Teams (both in 2019) who also studied at Circadium, closed out the first half of the show. Zak performed a very unique piece with up to three balls and a suitcase full of assorted modified clubs – as described by Ridiculous Nicholas, it’s like he got them from Dr. Seuss’ yard sale. As a juggler, it was definitely a performance you would want to watch again and again.

Lars Reick (IG: @sh8peshiftr) was introduced by Ridiculous Nicholas as the Bob Ross of flow arts and geometry, and he opened the second half of the show by performing flow pieces with 8-ring props and other flow prop creations, which are available at the aforementioned Shape Lab.

The Lipman Family – Benjamin, Shelby, and Milo, returned to the stage to perform club takeaways, ball and club juggling and passing, and hat manipulation, some of which combined acrobatics.

Jacob D’Eustachio returned to the stage and performed ball bouncing and some toss juggling with three, five, and up to seven silicone balls. He was also very well accompanied by an audience participant, Osher, when he requested a drummer to assist him on stage.

Stephen Doutt returned to the stage and performed his Rube Goldberg machine inspired piece using three rings, three rings and a ball, and three clubs with innovative style and manipulation.

Ash Meyer studied at Circadium, has a BA from the National Centre for Circus Arts in London, and is based out of Atlanta, Georgia. Ash performed a beautiful dance / cyr wheel piece. Cyr wheels are rather unique performance pieces, so it was great to see Ash as part of the show.

Erin Gettelman and Josh Spaugh returned to the stage to perform a partner juggling / club passing routine with up to seven clubs.

Zak McAllister closed out the evening’s fabulous set of performances with his ring routine, performing beautiful, jaw dropping patterns with up to seven rings that had many photo worthy moments.

There is quite a bit about the what else to see and do while you are in Lansford, PA and nearby Jim Thorpe, PA in this article about the 2025 festival. Another unique aspect of the area is its coal mining history that has been a very large part of the area economy in the past. At the 2018 Pocono Juggle and Circus Arts Festival, the jugglers set a record by having the most jugglers juggling in an underground mine – 27! Tours of the No. 9 Coal Mine and Museum are offered; however, it is only open from April through November.

Juggling continued in the gym after the Saturday evening show and on Sunday. As always, a lot of people worked really hard to bring together the Pocono Juggle and Circus Arts Festival, first and foremost the co-founders and co-organizers Kim Laird and Rob Barowski, Marty Larsen who provided the sound during the show, Ella Larsen who was always available at the festival front table in the gym, Jay Ko for recording the evening show and taking photographs during the festival, all of the aforementioned evening show performers, and of course the many staff members at the Panther Valley School District who have been so welcoming to the jugglers and circus artists over the years – thank you again for having us! The Pocono Juggle and Circus Arts Festival is expected to take place on the last weekend of February or the first weekend of March in 2027.

All photos by JoAnn Ireland