MadFest! Jan 11-14, '07

One of the reasons I've been rather quiet here is that I've been busy helping to organize this year's MadFest, a wonderful juggling festival held annually in Madison, Wisconsin.

It's sponsored by the Madison Area Jugglers, who are probably most well known for their exciting club-passing patterns. Of course, there's more variety to the MAJ then simply club passing - we've got members who do diabolo, toss juggling, whip cracking, unicycling, rola-bola, hat manipulation, staff spinning, poi, and contact juggling. It's a great group, and three of us got out to this summer's EJC, so anyone who was there might recognize certain people in pictures on our site.

I'm inviting everyone on this board to come out to MadFest this year - yes, even if you can't logically come, you're invited anyway! We've got crash space if you need it, an AWESOME space for open juggling (we reserved the University of Wisconsin-Madison Field House this year), a Juggling Extravaganza on Saturday Jan 13th, and are making top-secret plans to bring back the MadFest Renegade this year! Shhhh!

Here's the key info:

What: MadFest

Where: Madison, WI

When: The weekend of Jan 12-14
open juggling Thursday night, January 11th (unofficial start)
Juggling hall (complete with vendors) open on Friday the 12th, through Sunday the 14th. A fun variety of workshops will take place throughout this weekend.
MadFest Juggling Extravaganza starts at 7pm Saturday the 13th
MadFest Renegade: TBA

Why: Because it's so much fun meeting other jugglers!

How much: The Extravaganza is $10 per ticket, but the rest of the festival is free

I'll try to make it out, but not shure how things will work with my car yet, or if I can find someone to go along (I don't like long drives alone)

Hope things turn out ok with your car!

I know what you mean about driving trips - MUCH more fun with other people along
Lemme know if things work out

Madfest is coming up in less than a month now! Yay!

Oh, and be sure to take a peek at the official Madfest website

is it just juggling or any poi and staff?

There will definitely be poi, in the past there has been staff as well. Depending upon interest, there will be either an intermediate poi workshop, an intro poi workshop, or both

We've also got a lot of love for unicycles in Mad Town, so there will be spontaneous unicycle hockey as well :3

i sort of hate madison

all that liberal crap

i think i might be able to make it for a day or too

I'd be interested in an intermediate poi workshop, or mabey a contact staff workshop.

Madfest is only one week away!

I'm really excited about everything, the festival, the friends, the juggling, the spinning.... everything

Looking forward to seeing all the hoppers that can make it!

grr work the whole freaking weekend

That's too bad, Faith; at least you won't have to deal with us liberals

Other updates about MadFest

The Wisconsin State YoYo competition will take place this Saturday during the fest at 11am (registration at 10) in the Fieldhouse.

We're definitely having a renegade, and it's going to be in an awesome space this year - complete with food, drink, and bar!

We also will be running a free silent raffle for juggling props and other fun items during the festival.

I'll be sure to keep people updated as we get closer to the fest! I'm so excited!

oh this sucks
(that i can't go, not madfest)

That means I'm out too, parents don't want me taking the car to madison.

Ah well, that's too bad you can't come

Unofficial start of MadFest is tonight! I'm off to juggle now

you could take a bus