Kingston’s first Limestone City Juggling Festival since 2000 proved to be an unusual event that drew in spirited audiences and performers alike.

The festival was hosted by the Kingston/Queen’s Jugglers Club and occurred from Oct. 24-26 at Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, (KCVI).

Each day boasted a variety juggling events and games. All three days included open juggling and workshops, and Saturday was the night of the festival’s main performance that involved a wide range of professional jugglers putting on a show for eager audiences.

Almost 100 people participated in the festival, including the performers, organizers and audience.

Morgan Anderson, a member of the Jugglers Club and one of the festival’s main organizers, expressed her happiness with the finished product of the event.

“I’m really satisfied with the turnout,” Anderson said. “We’ve got a lot of professional jugglers and people coming in from the community, so I think it’s great.”

Anderson added that the festival is a great way to get performers together, especially since the juggling community is a tight-knit one.

“If you’re a juggler, you go to these festivals a couple of times a year and you see all your juggling friends,” Anderson said. “So it’s great to bring everyone together to learn and teach new things.” It’s satisfying to see the community come out to learn a thing or two from the performers, and further interact with the jugglers through workshops and games, she said.

Some of the festival’s workshops included teaching beginners basic juggling and balancing acts. There were also more advanced forms of juggling that proved to be mesmerizing to watch.

Dominique Rabideau, a semi-professional juggler that has been performing and practicing for 12 years, said this year’s juggling festival was exciting for her.

“I hope that they continue to put it on – it’s really nice because it raises the interest level in Kingston for the juggling club,” Rabideau said.

In Canada there aren’t as many juggling festivals, she added, whereas in the United States there are a lot for people to attend.

Rabideau was among the many performers that took part in the festival’s Saturday-night show, juggling hats and glow clubs. The long-time performer also praised the audience in Kingston because of their genuine eagerness to watch jugglers put on performances.

“Juggling festival audiences are always really supportive and excited because they’re here for the juggling,” Rabideau said.

“Some of them might not know as much about juggling and it might be new for them, but it’s always really cool to be able to present to an audience this little world of juggling that we have going on.”