Berkeley Jam 2025
Berkeley Jam 2025
A day of juggling and circus arts in the park, celebrating community and creativity on the heels of summer turning to autumn.
What: A free day of juggling and circus arts, with workshops and games
When: Sunday 21 September 2025, noon–5pm
Where: Live Oak Park, Picnic Area #2, 1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley
Who: All ages and skill levels — no experience necessary
The picnic area is across the creek from the Berkeley Art Center, with the best entrance on Walnut Street. The jam spread out onto the big grassy lawn too, so the directions on the day amounted to "look for jugglers".
After a longer break this was the return of the club's community gatherings: a casual, one-day event bringing back the spirit of the old festivals, with free workshops running throughout the day for anyone who wanted to learn something new or just watch.
Schedule
People came by whenever they liked, but there were a few fixed points:
- Noon — event starts
- 12:30–1 — workshop block #1: beginner workshop, and 2 club shenanigans
- 1:15–1:45 — workshop block #2: balance, and Kino prerequisites and variations
- 2–2:30 — workshop block #3: funky passing
- 3–4 — games
- 5 — event ends
Workshops
Beginners Guide to Juggling, with Mike — the foundations of ball juggling, focusing on the techniques and drills that start you off.
Balance, with Zeej — wobbling, wiggling and hopefully anticlimactically just continuing to balance. A beginner-friendly look at where balance meets juggling, using your body as the foundation and testing balance points from top to toe.
2 Club Shenanigans, with Elan — a break from normal juggling behaviour to mess around with two clubs: simple throws, body throws, balancing clubs and two-club trap play. No prerequisites.
Kino Prerequisites & Variations, with Kai — a deep dive into Kinos, a staple of the West Coast flow juggling style, with beginner-centric drills, improvement techniques, and variations for added flare.
Funky Numbers Passing Patterns, with Isaac — for moderate and advanced jugglers who can juggle a 6 club 3-count. Ever been passing with someone and thought "there must be a harder way to do this"? This one gets your left hand involved and covers the funkier ways to juggle six clubs, at three levels of difficulty, then adds a club for some of the hard ways to juggle seven.
Jam Off
What is the Berkeley Jam without a Jam Off? Attendees brought homemade jam, jellies and marmalades to enter, taste, and vote on.