SPRINGFIELD – If you saw a number of people juggling downtown last week, you weren’t hallucinating.

The International Association of Jugglers was having its 71st annual convention in the city from July 16 through July 22.

On July 20, a group of performers demonstrated their skills at the Downtown Farmers Market.

Noel Yee, the festival director, explained the convention attracted between 500 and 550 members from across the country as well as from Asia and Europe.

He said the mission of the organization was “render services to our fellow jugglers.” The convention had workshops and competitions geared to many different age and experience groups, he added.

“It’s a pretty bustling event,” he said.

Yee added part of the convention’s schedule was devoted to breaking a world’s record on the greatest number of people juggling at once.

Yee said that children make up a “huge” component of the membership and there is a big range of age among members.

Eleven year-old Kai Heartlife is from California and put on his juggling show for people shopping at the market. His father, Hearty, said his son was “born into a juggling family.”

Isaac Canter from St. Louis Park MN has been juggling for the last five years and showed proficiency this three bowling pins, easily tossing them under his legs and into the air.

A large group of teenagers and young adults who called themselves “The Merry Misfits” performed comic juggler routines while other members of the group sang to an accordion.  They hailed from Hudson, NY.

Yee said that about one-fifth of the membership of the organization is professional and the overwhelming majority are hobbyists.

While in the city they performed a juggling “open mic” at Theodore’s and out on a show at Symphony Hall.

Yee praised the Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau and credited the organization encouraging the organization to come to the city.

“This town has been amazing,” he said of Springfield’s hospitality.