The UV Room at Leeds - Tripping in the Light Fantastic
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Speaking from an incredibly biased perspective, I can honestly say the UV
glowroom at Leeds was a massive success. Speaking from my comfy bed in the
recovery home for the bewildered-and-sunburnt I can honestly say that
someone else will organise it next time.

Following hot on the trail blazed by the oh-so-successful one night stand
in Birmingham, Jim Semlyen and I (with able assistance from many others)
agreed to organise another Cosmos/FireNoise glowroom at the EJC. For the
prosaically minded (and those that didn't come) a glowroom is simply a
room lit by UV light and filled with glowing props and tripping hippies.
Actually, the hippies aren't necessary but they kind of come with the
territory. For the more poetic souls out there, the glowroom is a haven of
unexpected delights, a land of mystical effects, gentle yet exciting,
ethereal; other-worldly. Trippy.

The harassed powers-that-were had allocated a midnight 'til 3am slot in the
Swamp Circus tent, with the curfew imposed by the shut-down of the
generators. Actualy it's just as well we had a hard deadline or we'd never have
emptied the place - even when we switched off the lights (fluorescent) and
switched on the lights (incandescent) there was a hard core who remained
juggling whilst we took the equipment down! There always seems to be a
fraction of jugglers at European conventions who work the night shift -
perhaps future conventions should make use of this and split the site
temporally rather than physically? Maybe give a lower rate for those
willing to camp in the day and juggle at night..?

On the Friday night we decided to hold a UV cabaret. Jim and Anna of
Cosmos got the whole thing off to a swinging start with a classy display
of technical tricks - the audience was wowed by the skill and the effects
of the pole spinning especially. Cambridge's Patchwork Circus followed
with a very different piece involving juggling, swinging, UV props, stilts
and dance. It was impeccably performed and very entertaining - very good
use of 'hidden people' effects, excellent use of stilts to vary the height
and I loved the butterfly! Nice one. After that, we hit open stage time
which was variable in quality but solidly fun. The highlight had to be the
unassuming, anonymous juggler who performed with up to 6 rings,
specialising in multiplexes, pulls down and spinning - he had a whole
range of tricks involving spinning a ring, catching it on another and
transferring it around his body or onto other rings. InspiRING, you might
say...

The glowroom's success is a tribute to many people and they should be
thanked in print - the organisers of the EJC for the convention, the
atmosphere and the help; Swamp Circus for the tent and technical
assistance; Cosmos and FireNoise for equipment, people, support, help and
everything else; Altered States and Bill Knight for decorations; Jim
Semlyen and Anna Jillings for doing everything; Beard, Flare and Butterfingers
for equipment loans and donations; and finally, the jugglers who came - we
hope you enjoyed it and come again next year.