The history of poi in UK

Obviously there will have been juggling in the UK since the days of yore, when it was a large component in the entertainment of nobility, along with tumbling, primitive acrobatics and the gentle plucking of lutes. BUT how was poi introduced into the UK, and how long have there been clubs at which people practised it? are we talking years? Decades? Centuries? How long has it been seen by ravers and in nightclubs and become a popular pastime like juggling.

It was me. i did it all by myself! with nothing but my trusty time travelling abilities and some small aubergines and a tennis racket with no grip left!
honest! why would i lie???

Squirrels they are the answer to everything.

Hmm but seriously i think it would be very hard to say when poi was introduced here i mean it could have been one person showin his friends or if it was recent through the internet.

i personally saw a badger do it in the woods a long time ago and then i spread the word...

The best person to answer this would be someone like Mushipea Steve, who has been on the juggling/festival scene for a while.

[Boring mode]
I work for the National Trust and one of the properties I look after is Clandon Park in Surrey. The house has very strong ties with NZ - even going so far as to transport an entire Maori Whare (meeting house) from Rotunda (or somthing) to Clandon in one piece. Anyway, I got a chance to look at their family photo albums and they had pictures of traditional Poi being done around 1932 - I'm pretty sure they children would have played with poi and practiced with them in the UK before this too...
[/boring mode]

Another tricky thing is the difference between traditional poi which has been around for centuries and "modern" poi - using fire/glowsticks etc.

I'm glad to see that the UK lot have such a vast knowledge of "the history of poi in the UK" Its comforting to me!
If anyone does know anything it would be nice to hear about, but if not, its not important because the important thing is that poi is right here right now for us all to enjoy!

So at a guess for a figure - er... Decades. I'd warrant that as soon as NZ was "discovered" - some UK'ers bought some back to play with.

It's arrival on the Rave/Festival scene was probably more down to gradual increase in popularity than one specific thing.

Ask Malcolm when his first UK export was

this has been discussed before

i invented poi, yesterday