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Organizer's blog

A blog from the perspective of the festival organizers.

(12:43pm, May 13, 2010): Chris Garcia

Did a few things for the festival since monday such as customize the festival games prizes. We also got another sponsorship from Twirl Planet for the sunday raffle. I designed and printed out festival brochures to hand out during the festival, which contains the festival schedule, the list of sponsors, and some locations to eat on campus. Had UCSC Juggling Club Meeting, although we didn't do the planned parade around campus as we didnt have enough people and I had other things to do during the meeting. Oh yeah and... THE FESTIVAL IS TOMORROW!!!

(9:00pm, May 10th, 2010): Chris Garcia

So I have been a bit too busy to blog about how my progress with organizing the festival is going. I have done A LOT since my last blog almost 2 weeks ago. Mainly things consisted of talking to UCSC Recreation Department and finalizing the festival plans. I also did The Blind Juggler Project on Friday April 30th around campus. Our club was interviewed and photoed by Santa Cruz's local news and there are now articles about the festival in the newspaper. UCSC Juggling Club participated in the UCSC Wellness fair on Friday May 7th, where we got $100 for the festival budget, and after that I went to Fire Drums in the Santa Cruz mountains and had a great time while also spreading word about the festival. I have also been receiving the raffle ticket prizes from our sponsors via mail. Today J.C. and I hung up festival fliers around campus, and also bought some prizes for the festival games. More things probably happened during the two weeks, but I  need to get back to working on things for the festival so I'll end my blog for today... Oh and one more thing... THE FESTIVAL IS ALREADY THIS FRIDAY!!!

(11:50pm, April 28th, 2010): Chris Garcia

I got a lot of work done for the festival today. In the morning I began emailing various juggling stores and vendors about sponsorships and offering donations for the sunday raffle. We were able get donations so far from Neon Husky, Dube, Flying Clipper, the IJA, and FlowToys. After that I emailed a few juggling friends about performing in the public show. Luis Zavala (aka Funnie Fonzie) came over in the morning; he made an awesome flash animation of a slug juggling salt shakers for the festival that will be on this site soon. We went to Hall Sensei's class and I spoke with Matt more about the festival. We discussed more about the public show, making a checklist, festival fliers, as well as other various things. After that Fonzie and I drove over to San Jose State University's Juggling Club and we juggled for a bit. I picked up Flying Clipper's donation from Eric over there, and also interviewed Brad Jackson (creator of UCSC Juggling Club about 30 years ago) about UCSC Juggling Club's past. Upon returning home I printed out some more fliers for the festival and started making some signs that I will put on myself while doing "The Blind Juggler Project" this friday. And finally a little bit before writing this blog, I had made a checklist of things to do and that have been done already for the festival. Everything seems to be running smoothly... or so I thought until now...

So I have hit one major obstacle while organizing this festival to go along with not having an actual theater for the public show or indoor location for the renegade show. It seems while I was going through the UC grant proposal form I found out that the winners of the grants will not be announced until June... making it completely useless to the festival this year. This is a major setback, as we are now stuck to our $118 budget for running everything. I am thinking about maybe having the UCSC juggling club host a variety show on campus or in Santa Cruz, but that is extra organizing to do in a very short amount of time, and it is a long shot to make happen... stress levels are rising... Despite these setbacks, I still have full confidence that things will pull through for the festival and these obstacles will be overcome. I wont let them hold me back in bringing you all a great festival.

(3:05pm, April 26th, 2010): Chris Garcia


I woke up early today and started designing the official website for the festival, as well as the UCSC Juggling Club. Prior to today I have been doing organizing and planning here and there; small things like making fliers to hand out at other festivals, getting a rough mental list of things I need to do, speaking to UCSC's Recreation Department about the festival, finding a gym, and setting the date. Around noon I biked over to Silver Creek to speak to Hall Sensei about the festival; it was mostly a talk about how I am having trouble finding a stage for our public show and if we should hold show in the gym. We also spoke about the festival budget so I can apply for a grant from the UC. I then returned home to continue work on the website. I will probably be juggling between designing it, and studying for some midterms I have this week.

As I design the website I become more eager for the festival, and I continue to count down the days... ITS ONLY A FEW WEEKS AWAY! I still have much work to do such as contacting performers and friends to be in the public show and teach workshops, asking juggling vendors to donate for the raffle, emailing local businesses to sponsor us, emailing the local Santa Cruz News, planning the sunday juggling games, as well as many other things. I also need to go in and talk to the UCSC Recreation Department and College 8's Activities Coordinator to finalize my plans with the schedule. And there is always a matter of filling out a UC Grant before the end of this month for our event so we actually have a budget other than the $100 we are limited to now...Luckily, I am not feeling the stress yet, but I know I still have much work to do to bring you all an awesome fest!

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