I like to attend local festivals.

Most of the time they are named after an idea or emblem common and representative of the area, such as The Dogwood Festival or The Yellow Daisy Festival.  Sometimes they just echo the theme: The Jazz Festival or The Blues Festival.  Generally they are centered around arts, crafts and music (with a sprinkling of local cuisine thrown into the mix). But occasionally there can be found an aberrant festival, one that steps outside the norm and doesn’t simply host the traditional ideas, but embraces a reclusive, and often bizarre, interest with passion and enthusiasm.   These are the festivals that provide the most fascinating glimpses into the human psyche and segmented sociology.  They are also surprisingly fun!

Today I went to the Jugglers Festival.

There wasn’t much advertising surrounding the event.  I wouldn’t have even known it was being sponsored if I hadn’t heard about it from a friend.  He is a member of the Seed & Feed March Abominable Band.  They are known for their surprise blitzes  Atlanta throughout where they show up in crazy costumes to interrupt every day moments with their song and dance.  They are a kind of marching band flash mob, bringing laughter to the mundane. The band would be opening at the Jugglers Festival at the Shriner’s Temple.

The whole idea is something out of the Twilight Zone.  Imagine my surprise to find hundreds of people packing the place. I could barely find a parking spot!  I couldn’t believe so many people were looking to find interesting ways to keep their balls in the air.

It turns out the festival celebrates the art of juggling.  They offer performances by professionals and competitions for amateurs.  They offer mini-workshops to teach the basics and more advanced for those who want to improve their skills to perhaps catch items on their back and head while balancing on a ball.  Of course, there are tables set up from supply vendors offering balls, pins, swords, specialty gloves and even costumes for jugglers.  It’s quite a structured and enthusiastic event.

As I moved around the room, I noted the crowd was not made up of the strange and unusual.  These were everyday people, in everyday clothes, enjoying an unusual hobby to the point of obsession. What’s more?  They were happy. They weren’t self-conscious or embarrassed; they were just enjoying the moment.  I liked them immediately.

This was certainly a trip through the looking-glass into a realm some would call freaky (you know, the people who lack the balls to live a little and just laugh).  This was a place where people broke with expectations, propriety and “common interests to passionately pursue what they love.  And if you chose to arch a brow or cast a frown, you might just get pulled into the show as a means to break through those walls!  After all, it’s hard to judge when you’re juggling.

Maybe there’s a lesson here.  If we all took the time to pursue something out of the ordinary and embraced it with such fervor, our burdens wouldn’t feel so heavy with so much joy in the air.