On any given day, you might find Austin Smith hurling juggling clubs into the air on the street - that is, if he’s not on stage.

You could even say that Smith, 28, has been a performer all his life.   

“My dad was a performer when I was younger, and we would go to like the elementary school when the kindergarteners were learning the letter ‘J,’” Smith said. “My dad would juggle, and I would go with him all the time, and we would do a little performance together. He would put me on his shoulders and I would juggle.”

Smith grew up in Palmerton. He went to school in the Palmerton School District. Growing up, Smith said his father often took him and his siblings to juggling festivals. The first time he went to the International Juggling Association’s annual one, he was 9-years-old. It was held in Niagara Falls.

“I’ve been juggling all my life, and I’ve been going to juggling festivals from a very young age,” Smith said. “Juggling has just been a normal part of my life for as long as I can remember.”

After getting a degree in Graphic Communication from Millersville University, Smith moved to Burlington, Vermont. About five years ago, he started performing on the pavements of Church Street in Burlington.

“That’s kind of how I got started performing,” Smith said.

When asked about his own performance style, Smith said he’s “still figuring that out.” But he knows he likes mixing mediums.

And to Smith, his juggling is a form of artistic expression.  

“I think the one thing that I offer is like a high degree of technical juggling, but also I try to incorporate as much dance as I can,” Smith said. “That’s the direction I want to go, so it’s becomes something that’s relatable to a non-juggler, as well as jugglers.

“I believe that juggling can be a valid art form on its own, without it being supported by comedy or danger,” he said.

Smith had the chance to return home and show off that art form last weekend, during the Sixth Pocono Juggle and Circus Arts Fest held at Panther Valley Junior/Senior High School.

Through the weekend, dancers, jugglers, hoopers, unicyclists and other circus arts aficionados packed the school's gymnasium and cafeteria, practicing together, sharing tips of the trade, and best of all, spending time amongst friends.

The first time Kim Laird and Rob Barowski, event coordinators, organized the festival, it was 2011. It was free to attend; participants were only required to pay for entrance into Saturday night’s “Big Show,” headlined by Thom Wall, who recently completed a London tour with Cirque du Soleil’s TOTEM.

“We run a break even event,” Laird said. “We love sharing it with others. That’s why we want the community to come in when we’re having this event. We want them here.”

The festival attracted hobbyists and professionals from across the country. For some, it was their first time coming, but many of those gathered last weekend were familiar faces. It was like a “family reunion where you actually like your relatives,” as Barowski calls it.

“When we greet each other it’s big hugs and it’s hellos and it’s yelling and screaming,” Laird said. “This does become a second family.

“This is a group that once you connect with somebody here, you kind of don’t ever lose that connection in your heart,” she added. “It’s a community of truly caring about the people you’re around.”

Along with professional performances and a chance to connect with other artists, the festival also boasted a number of workshops, where people of all skill levels could try their hands at different skills, like hoop juggling.   

Matt Hall traveled from California to run a few workshops. Hall started juggling when he was 27-years-old. It didn’t take him long to master his technique. When he was 33, Hall won silver in the International Juggling Association’s 2013 Stage Championships.

For his first class on Saturday, Hall taught club spin control. He spent the hour demonstrating savvy club juggling, and encouraging the crowd to give it a go themselves.

At one point during the workshop, Hall asked everyone to sit down, close their eyes and breath.

Calling on the research of Carol Dweck - a Stanford professor whose work about “growth mindsets” challenged the way people perceive failure - Hall told the crowd not to worry if they hadn’t got the hang of it yet. They’d have the trick, technique or sequence they were practicing down eventually.

“The fact of the matter is that if you have a growth mindset, your resilience is higher, you will quit less often and your ultimate level of mastery of a task will be greater,” Hall said. “So you have to be gentle with yourself. You have to accept failure.”

“It’s (juggling) very meditative,” Gregg Erickson, who drove from Mountain Dale, New York to Summit Hill for the festival, said. “You’re just working on a trick and trying to perfect it.”

Captions (in order of attachment):

Austin Smith, of Vermont, balances a juggling club on his head at the Sixth Pocono Juggle and Circus Arts Fest at Panther Valley Junior/Senior High School. Smith, who’s originally from Palmerton, made his way back to Carbon County to perform at the festival. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS   

Matt Hall, right, leads a workshop on club spinning during the Sixth Pocono Juggle and Circus Arts Fest at Panther Valley Junior/Senior High School. Hall has been teaching juggling for as long as he has been practicing the art himself — about 21 years. The festival attracted performers and hobbyists like Hall, who's from California, from all over the country. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS

Matt Hall demonstrates a club juggling technique in his workshop during the Sixth Pocono Juggle and Circus Arts Fest. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS

Gregg Erickson, of Mountain Dale, New York, practices spinning clubs at a workshop during the Sixth Pocono Juggle and Circus Arts Fest at Panther Valley Junior/Senior High School. Erickson has been juggling for around 10 years. The festival attracted performers and hobbyists like Erickson from all over the country. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS

Through the weekend, dancers, jugglers, hoopers, unicyclists - and even some human hamster ballers - came to Panther Valley Junior/Senior High School for the the Sixth Pocono Juggle and Circus Arts Fest. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS

Matt Hall asked those at his workshop to meditate, asking them "to be gentle with yourself" and "to accept failure." DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS