Kingdom Birthday Events

[David KUIJT <kuijt@umiacs.umd.edu>]

Poster: David KUIJT <kuijt@umiacs.umd.edu>



Dafydd says Hi to Cheapside and the Merry Rosies!
 

Bryce writes:
> Now that Emerald Joust has come and gone, I have a
> rhetorical question for you.  For the last few years,Kingdom Birthday
> Celebration has been tied to this very popular event.( In fact, Emerald
> Joust, back in '94,was the first to do this.  I know, I autocrated...)

Actually, that isn't quite accurate.  Atlantian Ten Year, in 1991, was the
first time an Emerald Joust tournament happened at the same event as a
Kingdom Birthday.  I've just looked it up in my copy of the TenYear Flyer
-- Emerald Joust (the tournament) was held on Sunday starting at 10:00 am.

This doesn't have much to do with Byram's question, below, but it does
happen to tie into my response to his question, as you will see.

 
> Now here's the question.Would any other group out there in Atlantia be
> interested in hosting this prestigious and well attended event?(Kingdom
> Birthday, that is!)Perhaps even on memorial day weekend? Or perhaps since
> so many people from all around the Kingdom make the event happen, Their
> Majesties should declare this a official Kingdom event( at Curia), and open
> it up for bids.
 

I would actually like to see Kingdom Birthday happen _less_ often, not
more.  Is it not better to hold a Kingdom Birthday every five years, or
every ten years, and make it a really special event, than to hold it every
single year and have it be nothing really wonderful?

Atlantian Ten Year Celebration (ATYC), in 1991, was the biggest event in
Atlantian history.  It had millions of things going on, and was really
special.  It had a 30 page flyer; 851 people showed up at troll. 

Why do we need to hold a Kingdom Birthday every year?  For a yearly event
it is impossible to put the huge amount of planning and effort that went
into ATYC -- there were almost thirty people on the staff list for ATYC,
and almost all of them are now peers if they weren't at the time; hundreds
of people helped with it who aren't even mentioned in the staff list. 

If we could hold such an event every five years or ten, it would be great.
Holding Kingdom Birthday every single year doesn't make it great, it makes
it ... just another event.


Dafydd ap Gwystl

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