By Charles Shapiro

About 178 registered jugglers attended the 28th Annual Groundhog Day Jugglers Festival at Cross Keys High School in beautiful Atlanta, Georgia. The festival started off well, when we got the gym for Friday night, often difficult when the basketball schedule conflicts. The gym was almost uncrowded the first evening, with room to unicycle and experiment with other vehicles.

The second day cranked up fast, with PA systems blasting music and lots of pairs, quads, and larger groups intently passing clubs. One amusing passing pattern was Feast-Famine, a multi-person circle feed start­ing clockwise (the "feast"), and then going counterclockwise (the "famine") when it got back to the self throw.

On stage, the Georgia State Yo-Yo Championships featured five events, with players from around the Southeast participating. Georgia winners included Travis Bish (Sport Ladder, age 30-44) and Kentaro Kimura (IA Freestyle, Open Freestyle). Plans for the future include more categories and more judges, to help the competition go quicker. CNN showed up to cover the yo-yo contest, but spent some time on the juggling floor as well.

The Kelly's Seed & Feed Marching Abominable Band kicked off the juggling contest, witnessed by a packed house of at least 800 people. Their theme this year was "Any Holiday You Like," with snowmen, Uncle Sams, big hats, and wild pants of every description. Twelve competitors braved the completely cherry judges to present their very best stuff. Casey Boehmer walked away with the "Most Awe- Inspiring" trophy for his stylish club/ball routine, featuring up to four clubs in one hand and more tricks than most jugglers think possible on one arm. Matt Hall took the "Mind Bending" prize for diabolo work, which looks simple but is in fact scary hard. Kellin Quinn got the "Stupiflying" prize for a well-choreographed and costumed rou­tine involving cooking implements. Other highlights of the show included David Dimuzio's gorgeous club work, and some truly astounding blind juggling and head­rolls from Tony Duncan.

More juggling followed the afternoon contest / show. One of the hits of the festival was the Trikke, a strange cross between a tricycle and a pair of skates. Many people you'd never expect on a scooter tried it out on the gym floor, including at least one woman of 70-plus years. The New Orleans jugglers brought their goals up for a spirited - if cold - game of Unicycle Hockey in the parking lot in back of the gym. There was only one truly spectacular fall, a chest-dive onto the asphalt, which resulted in a minor chin abrasion.

The 11 p.m. Cabaret was held at EyeDrum Gallery in South Atlanta due to a scheduling conflict with the usual Little 5 Points location. The fire juggling out front was a bit of a bust, although a couple of folks did brave the cold with torches and fire poi when the audience was mostly inside. Matt Hall emceed the show, starting it off with a tennis ball-and­can routine. The Hamiltons were the first act, with a precisely choreographed and elegantly costumed ball routine. Next up was Nadine Beeny, who did a fine striptease, rola bola, ball-juggling act. Dan Howard lost the classical rock-paper-scissors and look-over-there contest with Matt. Next was Anthony and Michelle Mills in a club-passing routine which ended with Anthony leaping into Michelle's arms, and a spectacular balloon­and-leaf-blower balance by Steve Mills.

Kate Flagherty from Orlando, Florida did some fine club juggling followed by a sweet elbow lever on top of a battered suitcase. Michael Garner impersonated Dean Martin for a fine rendition of a song about cooking, ending by literally tossing his cookies into the audience. Alex Burke told an alliterative tale of working at Hershey Park, followed by world-champion top spinner Matt Ritter. David Dimuzio broke from his usual juggling routine to sit on a stool, play guitar, and sing, The cabaret closed with a solid comedy jug­gling set by John Nations featuring witty ban­ter and a five- tennis- racket cascade.

The next day at the gym started at 10 sharp and ran quickly by in a blur of flying clubs, $1 hot dogs from the school concession stand, and miscellaneous odd pastimes. Nadine ran around the gym showing off her electric "reflex tester" to shouts of pain and glee. The Trikke got an extended workout, and several lucky festival-goers got to experiment with the Flybar, an extremely high-tech (and somewhat dangerous) pogo stick for adults. At 5 p.m. the gym closed with the traditional cracking of whips to drive the last stragglers out, and a small cadre of exhausted jugglers adjourned to Panahar Restaurant for the feasting, the telling of lies, and the drinking of beer.

The 2006 winners Matt Hall, Casey Boehmer, and Kellin Quinn pose with their Phil trophies.

Fire man Roy Patterson

Alex Chimal warming up with five clubs.