Worst weather you have performed in?

[Marcus Wilson]

I'm performing outside in Sun Valley Idaho this weekend last night it was -7 degree fahrenheit (-22 Celsius). I'm just curious if anyone has performed worse weather.

[Kim]

Stilts...

I had my first (and one of the few) stilt walking gigs in a Hurricane.

Admittedly, it was quite a low key "antipodean" hurricane, but a hurricane nevertheless....

[Chris Griffith]

worst weather

Living in MN, I've performed in subzero conditions. . .

I used to stilt in a nighttime parade in December in DT Minneapolis through sleet and snow, with sudden gusts of wind bursting through the intersections, and 50 lbs of batteries strapped to my chest, lighting up my costume.

I also once did a juggling street show in a downpour . . . I thought once it started in the middle of my show that people would split, but no, they all pulled out umbrellas and stood there in the rain watching me get soaked and trying to figure out if my torches would light or not.

But the worst weather was a few years ago, when in the middle of a punch & judy puppet show, I noticed the sky turning black and slightly green. . . I was holding the stage down with my foot while operating the puppets above my head when the sound guy tapped my shoulder and said "It's gonna start pouring -- you've gotta wrap up and get the microphone off of you!

I quickly interrupted the show, said "Thanks for coming!" and threw my puppets into their bin, my microphone off, and within 10 seconds got completely soaked with torrential rain & wind. There were 15' stacks of speakers all around me, and power supplies everywhere on the stage.

My puppet booth got drenched, and the fabric covering it shrunk.

Makes for exciting stories!

[Peter Voice]

For me, a pavement artist, the worst weather is Singapore with 36-38C temps, 98% humidity and daily rain all afternoon. I have to work from about 7am-11.30am with no audience, then 6pm-10pm in near darkness with ridiculously big crowds. The temp only drops to about 30C in the evenings. The heat is not so bad but the humidity is a killer. If I'm not careful I can lose as much as 6 kilos between 7am and 10pm. That's about 8% of my total body weight.

Some years ago Bev Isaac and Ulla Taylor were touring Canada as Chalk Circle. When they were at Edmonton I thought I'd google the local papers and see what was being written about the festival. I got a shock to see a front page photo of Ulla clinging to a tree in Churchill Square as a tornada swept past.

[gav]

Singapore is at the top of my list too. The humidity nearly killed me on the first day. I put in way too much effort for the fee I was getting.

Light snow in Zagreb at carnival time in february about -1c. My hands almost stuck to my shaker cups.

Rain and gail force winds in Bremen germany. The type of wind where your torches travel sideways.

42c in the direct sun any given weekend in Fremantle w. australia during summer

[pablo]

Everyone is a critic.

My first official show was at the spring Celebrate Festival at Lawrence University in Appleton Wisconsin in May 2001.

It was cold, windy, raining and sleeting during my performance, and I remember telling the audience that "Mother Nature is my worst critic."

That was my first official improvised line. I don't remember if anyone laughed. I think they were too busy shivering.

[Ullarty]

The worst day for weather I've worked in was at the Joondalup Festival in Western Australia (04 or 05)... 47.5 degrees celcius(~118 farenheit), measured in the shade.. Bear in mind the sunny pavement is up to 20c hotter!!!! Nick, Miss Behave, Isobel Neccesary and Jacqui were there, (but didn't they go to the cinema and the pub between shows??) Luckily, our director Alex eventually called curtains on showtime.

The 2001 Edmonton tornado was a comparitive breeze.. (And the 2004 more spectacular for the snow-dumping!)

[Peter Voice]

Gav, Ulla is right, 42 in Freo (Melb. ACT, Adelaide) is ambient temperature, always measured in the shade. That pitch could kill a camel in a couple of days.

It was 41C (in the shade) today in Melbourne, with a wind from the desert that would turn a full grown buffulo into jerky in 3 hrs.

The temperature out in my street is 62C with the thermometer on my tripod at head level. It was 82C one inch from the pavement, the bitumen was melting. I actually measured it just to find out

The maddening wind has blown away the bushfire smoke that has choked our city for 10 or more days but has sadly delivered it to to Tassie and NZ.

A new bushfire took out the power lines from a major station and large parts of the city/state are on rationed power. We lost power (and my first attempt to reply to this thread) for four hours in my part of town, closing most shops, banks, teller-machines, etc. There is a fire only a couple of kms west of us that dominates the sunset. Even the butterflies have no energy to flutter by.

I figure there will be some good shows to be had out there in the cool of the evening tonight for the brave. That is if we don't have thunderstorms.

Really, Gav, I wrote this just for you to let you know what you're missing at home.

For every-one else, you have to live with weather, like it or not.

Personally I think the more weather the better but I hope no-one was silly enough to work here today.

[nick nickolas]

Yes Ulla we went between shows to the cinema/pub and ate warm popcorn...
47.5d in the shade must be about 5.600.75000d farenheit on the concrete screeving....
I had to turn the hot tap on to cool the beer.

[gav]

Peter, I lived in W.A. for 9 years I don't need any reminders about the summer weather.

[Peter Voice]

Just teasing Gav. Hows the weather in Zagreb?

[Isabella]

Not as bad as a lot of the stories I've heard, but we're aerialists, and for two years now we've done a festival in Ohio with terrible rainy, cold weather on the first Saturday in June.

We tarped over the rig in an effort to keep the ropes dry, and did our shows in a light drizzle. Sucks a lot for the two girls with almost no body fat.

At the lunch hall, we asked someone, isn't it awful that it's raining again this year?

Nice lady dishing out strawberry shortcake - "It rains every year."

At least that explains why the crowds all turn up anyway...

A nice man brought us some garbage bags to wear - look! We're white trash!

[Steven Ragatz]

On the second summer I worked at Bush Gardens in Va., my partner and I had to go out every hour, on the hour, no matter what the weather. I remember us sitting down on the pavement, in the POURING rain, having races by floating our juggling clubs down the sidewalk like little boats while the guests all huddled in the nearby stores and watched.

Steven Ragatz

[UCO]

Berlin right now.
Does it rain does it not?

[Dan, a balloon man]

Makes my 39 degrees celsius in Nelson, BC for the 2004 streetfest look like a walk in the park compared to some of the stories on this thread....