Ever since I met with the Puppeteers of America at UNIMA 2008 (read the bottom of the post here for a recap, UPDATE 30 July 2009: the UNIMA 2008 site is no longer available) I’ve wanted to go to the big American national puppetry festival. When I came home from the trip last year I made it a point to find out when the next one was, and discovered that it’s on in July this year. It’s a biennial thing, so it seems to be quite timely for my wish to attend.

The National Puppetry Festival 2009 is on in Georgia, Atlanta, and sounds absolutely fantastic. While it’s much shorter than UNIMA 2008 (5 days versus 14 days respectively), it has a lot more going for it: a book and puppet shop, on site housing, workshops and performances, meet and greets and so on. Though I’m not normally keen on visiting America - trust me, guns may be a ‘normal’ every day thing for your land, but it’s not for Aussies and crime with guns is a scary factor - I really want to head over for this festival. I mean, really want to go. Plus, with my renewed confidence in tackling my panic attacks whilst travelling, I want to keep hammering away at that issue.

Anywayz, registration is already open, and I’m hoping to check out all the costs involved in the next week or so and see if my measly savings can get me there (and back! ). I really shouldn’t spend what’s left of my saved income from my last job - still being unemployed - but I never consider that stuff. I save for things and I figure I may as well go anyway, since it offers opportunities for learning new skills and meeting people I could potentially work with one day. That, and I love the festival environment, it’s just such a buzz to get together and make stuff in the same place as other puppeteers. 

Actually, I don’t have a burning desire to go to the US itself. I’ve been fairly lucky, and my parents being globetrotters for their work, got to go to the West Coast (ie. San Francisco, San Diego, LA and Hawaii) when I was nine. Because we did three weeks of tourist-type stuff, I’ve never really felt a need to go back. But truthfully, since I’d be on the other side of the country, I wouldn’t mind doing some sidetrips to Washington DC or NY. 

Obviously, the biggest issue is money; my parents were thinking of heading over to the US to meet up with distant relatives (for the most part, people we’ve never met), but that is in September. Still, if they head over, it could be a family trip and costs could be shared. But even with shared costs, I’d like to pay my own way, especially since registration for the festival is about $500, and then I’ve got other costs, like workshops and so forth; family shouldn’t pay for that stuff, especially since they probably wouldn’t participate in anything while I’m there anyway. Then you’ve also got to consider the recent price rises due to the financial crisis and the fact that Australia’s dollar is usually weaker than the US. … And then I worry: "ok, I’ve got enough money - just - to go over there, but what about when I get back?" I mean, I don’t want to come back and have used up all my savings. 

Luckily, I have a couple of options: I have two bank accounts, one for every day use, and one for savings. I don’t touch the savings one and try to collect interest, so I’ll leave that money alone and hope that my other account has enough money to use for the trip. I have looked at getting a travel grant, but frankly I never do those things and it’s too late for most application processes anyway.

But the last thing is to raise the funds… so I’m going to temporarily change the membership functionality of the site… Read the second part of this post here.