Wednesday, February 11, 2009

St. Radegund's Fair - "Kingdom Style"


This seal depicts St. Radegund
She holds a staff signifying her royal status,
carries an alms purse and a book;
she required all the women in her abbey to be literate.
St. Radegund is the patroness of women with impossible husbands.
Last year we held the first St, Radegund's Faire Arts & Science event out at Jack McGowan's. It was offhandedly conceived during a conversation about cheese which evolved into a conversation about cows which devolved into the idea of holding an A&S event. We decided that the Shire should do a "practice" run in the form of a local event before jumping in to do a Kingdom level event. So, with only a three month lead, we ambitiously planned, organized, and carried out our first ever A&S and camping event.

Attendance was not high but very satisfactory for a "first" event of this type. Those that came had a blast! We have heard nothing but praise concerning the event and it seems to have gone to our heads because we have this mad plan to do it again...as a Kingdom level event!

Even though Lupercalia has not even happened yet, we are going to, as a group, need to seriously begin planning for both event logistics and finances. This event will also require a real commitment of time and effort. This doesn't mean it will have to suck up your life - whenever that happens it becomes too costly a venture and absolutely not worth it.

As a Kingdom event we will be inviting guest instructors to add to our Shire's considerable talent. That will be exciting. We were considering asking Berenice, the Western Regional Senechal who attended Radegund's last summer, if she would be willing to co-steward the event with us to help "share the load" but have learned that there are some serious medical problems in her family. So, this means we must rely on our own resources. Hmmm....Who should be event steward?
Jack McGowan's is a fabulous venue for a Kingdom Event. It has great camping, is close to a town with hotels, has huge space and few mundane reminders but has mundane amenities! There is space for archery, of course, and if appropriate marshalls are found, space for equestrian activities!

We need to settle on a weekend in August, first of all. (For further discussion go to the Rivenwood Tower Yahoo Group page - must be a member.) We have already requested the third weekend but our glass bead-making instructor will be unable to attend. We want them there so we are looking for suggestions as to weekends! Although the last weekend in August is the weekend right before many of the schools in this area begin, it may be the only option to have all shire members/instructors be here. We are waiting on input. It may turn out that this may not be advantageous either.

We will be discussing this event more exhaustively at the next business meeting, along with the Lupercalia post-mortem. The meeting will be Sunday, March 1st. at 3:00pm at Darin and Gretchen Ingalls.

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