International Juggling Festival Yangon 9-15 February 2015

 

Sponsors

Festival Sponsor Logos


[ezcol_1half]Email: festival@seriousfunglobal.net
FB: Serious Fun in Yangon[/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]
Yangon Co-ordinator: Virginia Henderson 09 250 156 750[/ezcol_1half_end]


Thanks to everyone who helped to make the international Juggling Festival a huge success.

Our public Flickr page – please post any photos you may have taken. We’d love to see them!

The first ever International Juggling Festival in Myanmar took place in the former capital Yangon February 9th-15th 2015.

Talented performers and hobby jugglers from Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA joined us in Yangon and yes, we did create some serious fun! If you want see some of the action, check out our videos or Serious Fun in Yangon on facebook.

During the festival week we had workshops and master classes for festival participants, community shows and a free public show, and a never before attempted Day of Fun in a Yangon park, capped off by a fire and light show on February 14.

Read the Director’s Report

Project Work

A series of workshops and trainings with young people and community groups, led by Jules Howarth, aka Mr Jules, took place in and around Yangon in the months before the festival. The workshops focused on children living in marginalised communities and were aimed at developing their skills and confidence, while giving them a chance to play and have fun. The children’s juggling teams joined in festival events and the kids are continuing to juggle now and teach others, thanks to the fantastic donations from our juggling sponsors. See the story of the kids project in the Serious Fun in Yangon webisodes

Why do a juggling festival in Burma/Myanmar?

irstly, we wanted to bring some serious fun to people, especially children, who have survived many years of political upheaval, fighting, natural disaster and grim economic times. Secondly, we wanted to connect local jugglers and circus performers with the international network, to support the work they are doing and to create new opportunities for them.  Burmese jugglers were once world-famous – and we decided it was time juggling and fun once again took centre stage.

Myanmar is a country in transition with economic and political reform taking place after decades of military rule. We wanted the festival to create some serious fun for people, bring people together, bridge gaps and share skills.  All this and more because everyone needs to have fun.

The festival was based on previous Serious Fun juggling festivals in Laos and Thailand, which became the stuff of legend because of the locations, performances and the fantastic people who took part. From wonderful and super-talented international jugglers, welcoming local communities and performers, to the big-hearted Serious Fun volunteers who worked hard behind the scenes, these festivals were a celebration of the sense of fun, creativity and entertainment that inspires us all. The Yangon festival now takes its place alongsite the previous festivals, having fufilled expectations and objectives, thanks once again to the big-hearted jugglers, hard-working volunteers, talented children’s juggling teams and the support of our community project supporters, our sponsors and our local partners.