Went to Middlefaire yesterday. People asked me what I thought of the place. I said "You go down this row, then you go down this row, then you go down this row, then you go down this row, and done!" LOL!
Of course in the middle of this square town configuration is road that goes through the center. You have two belly dance stages, a jousting field with the jousters from Four Winds, Stonehenge (w/ Marcus former Amtgarder from Waco) who have their own stage, and really, strangely, I didn't get through it all in the time I was there yesterday. Oh, and they have a small but neat tavern in which groups perform at one end.
So you have people from Scarborough, Four Winds, and LARPers there. The atmosphere was just sheer fun. More people dressing and getting involved in the atmosphere than actual mundanes. Why? Because these are the diehards.
Yeh, I really haven't had this much fun at a renn faire since I was about 10 years old running around Scarborough with a stick with a bunch of other kids killing every monster we could find.
(My pre-larp days obviously....) And that was when Scarborough was like in it's 2nd or third year, and that is what this place was like.
Stopped in, watched Dame Isabel's troup dance, then I was in the 1 pm parade. It was a small parade, but we had the LARPers (they had two of us) beating on our shields in rythem with the belly dancers and drummers behind us, and all the caravan that followed. And when we reached the end of the parade, we were still beating our shields with our swords to the beat of the drummers, flutes, stringed instruments and we just jammed for like 5 or 10 minutes more. I mean the parade was over and we were still there.
The LARP presentation is in a open field just after you get through the gate. After the parade I got with Conaan, who has been a part of a local Amtgard chapter only 15 minutes from the Renn Faire, and we got a game of like 10 players together. He said he had 20 in the previous week. I had him take down a sign in sheet and get E-mail addresses so we could tell these perspective people what Amtgard events are coming up and to hopefully keep them in touch to join the Amtgard chapter down there.
Had a BLAST! Next weekend they are having the LARP tourney, not quite sure if it will be Saturday or Sunday. But hey, while some fenn faires TOLERATE the LARP weapons, this place is fully embracing them. A golden opportunity to show people what Amtgard is all about, recruit some new people, and have some fun while you're there of course!
Entry is $12. Here is one site that talks about it:
http://www.faires.com/EventRecord.php?Id=442
In service,
Sir Goodwyn Clu Da'Bard
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Previous messages on this...
From:
mothergypsy@yahoo.com
Subject: [MWG] Middlefaire and LARPing
Date: September 22, 2009 1:24:56 PM CDT
To:
mourningwood@yahoogroups.com
Reply-To:
mourningwood@yahoogroups.com
Hey folks,
As some know I haven't been on the field because I am working at Middle Faire this year. Well this upcoming weekend they have asked me to invite you crazy folks down for a LARP style boffer tourney. This is what was forwarded to me, don't know too much more, but here ya go...
Dame Isabel
There will be a combat tournament that will be held at Middlefaire in Hillsboro, TX. We are needing as many fighters as possible to help with the running of this tournament. This year is more of a test year for it, and things on how the tournament will be run can, and probably will change over the remainder of the faire's run. Each day's tournament is split into two parts, eight qualifier rounds with the winners participating in a finale round which is also a show as well as fighting (only a few characters in it have any form of .scripted dialog). A fighter can participate in as many qualifier rounds as they like, although any fighter can only win a qualifier one time. Our test run of the show round will take place on this Saturday (September 26), with us discussing it prior to the test run. The full tournament will be run on the following weekend (October 3-4th). We also need four people for that weekend to portray pirate characters who are part of the host's cursed pirate crew for one aspect of the show round. During the test run, we will need four male fighters who have barbarian garb for the same aspect of the show round. (The four take over the tournament, including knocking out the host.). If anyone wants to be part of the barbarians or pirates for either weekend and feels strong enough to be able to lift the host (who weighs approximately 180 lbs) over his shoulder and carry him off stage we definately need him to contact the host of the tournament at
clayton@terabites.com.
All participants will get free admission to the festival, as well as free camping. Alcohol is allowed, however any fighters participating in the tournament are not allowed to drink alcohol until they have been eliminated from the tournament (this is for safety reasons). Garb should be kept to a PG-ish rating (if there are questions on whether garb is suitable or not, one can either contact the host at the email address listed above, or can bring it with them to the faire and we can make the determination there. (If a person does bring garb like that, please make sure you have alternative garb available.). As a reference point, the host has three characters at the faire, one is a barbarian that wears a loincloth, but with an undergarment underneath. The other is a pirate that wears wrap pants. He does not wear a shirt with any of his characters (because of his storylines). Both garb combinations are acceptable. If he wore the loincloth without the undergarment, it would not be deemed acceptable.
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask and we will answer the questions to the best of our ability.
We look forward to having as many of you join us at Middlefaire for this test run of our combat tournament!
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Have a great week and we'll look forward to seeing you this weekend!
Clayton Jackson
(aka Captain Morick Towain the Pirate and Clon the Barbarian)
Assistant Cast Director at Middlefaire
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From:
sword2632002@yahoo.com
Subject: [AmtgardAnnouncements] Tournament at Middlefaire
Date: September 22, 2009 6:04:48 AM CDT
To:
amtgardannouncements@yahoogroups.com
Middlefaire would like to host an AMTGARD tourney over the next 2 weekends in Hillsboro. Please contact me if interested at
sword2632002@yahoo.com
