results of RennFest demo

["David Ritterskamp" <blackbow@sprynet.com>]

Without any further ado...

 

I am happy to report that the first (as far as we know) joint operation of an official sort between a RennFest and the SCA went off rather well this weekend.  I will be checking to find out if anything of this sort has ever taken place before, but it was deemed successful by both groups.  The RF head honchos said that they thought it went well and would like us back next year.  This bodes well for the upcoming negotiations regarding use of the site. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

There were roughly nine or ten heavy fighters on the field Saturday, which worked out fairly well.  We fought in front of relatively sparse crowds the whole time (we were on the flier in general terms but there was nothing specified on the schedule, so most people didn't know we were there; something to look at next time...) with the fencing demonstration taking the worst (early) slot.  I'm proud of them; they put on a more visually entertaining display than the heavies did (seeing as how they're more geared towards audience enjoyment/involvement anyway), IMO, and with less of an audience. 

 

The heavies fought a grand melee to start things off, and proceeded to a bear pit for the remainder of the first session on Saturday.  The second session consisted of a points tourney.

 

Sunday was slightly odd for the heavies in that several of the original ten or so did not return to fight for various reasons.  There were a total of four fighters in armor on Sunday.  Kudos to Tiber of House Shadowoulfe and Ld. Sebastian for showing up two days straight.  I wouldn't have had anybody to beat on without them. ;>

 

 

The fencing people had pretty much the same numbers and participation, IIRC.

 

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the non-fighters that turned out; one lady whose name I never did find out sat there for two days working on lacemaking.  Various other people (again, whose names I mostly never found out) were all over the place with fliers, explanations, and the like.

 

We gave out a ton of fliers, and Alison MacLeod's (she's the one that was in charge of the whole thing) fliers were quite well done and more visually entertaining than mine; those went quickly.  We talked to a LOT of people, and I would guess we'll get anywhere between 10-20 (heck, I dunno, maybe more) interested responses, total.

 

All in all, it went quite well, considering what could have happened, and I definitely wouldn't mind going back.  The rules that the RFers laid down (no sunglasses, long-sleeved shirts, hats, a few other things) didn't seem to get in the way at all, except that I hate bright light. Tiber, particularly, seemed to enjoy maneuvering me into staring right at the setting sun over his head.

 

They (the RFers) didn't seem to mind if we talked about the SCA (i.e., broke persona) to people, or at least we never heard any complaints. 

 

That's about it, folks.  More details on the site negotiations as they become available.

 

 

Regards,

Ld. Jonathan Blackbow
Clan O'Shannon 

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