From the Frontlines: Ursulmas

The feast of St. Ursul of Aquaterra was once again celebrated this year with violence and commerce.

Hmm. Maybe the mainstream holidays aren't the only ones becoming commercialized... :-)

This year for the first time in at least five years the main activities were split between two halls (so with the archery/thrown weapons we had three locations). It is my opinion that this didn't work very well; not enough cross-traffic between the fighting (heavy, rapier, and YAC were located in one hall) and the rest (merchants, A&S, etc.).

Lord Nigel, our current Baronial Bardic Champion, however, was an overachiever again and got a number of bards to perform in pre-scheduled slots on a 'stage' (backdrop, seating, and everything) throughout both days. Wanting to encourage this, I did a slot Saturday and one Sunday (30-40 minutes each) despite having the tail end of a cold. The audiences were small (about a dozen people at peak for either of my performances) but responsive. I hope we do it again next year.

House Weir (which has near-complete overlap with the Emerald Rain dance troupe) did a static display instead of dancing this year; everything a moorish woman would have had with her while traveling. Most of us pitched in something as well as the documentation for it (clothing, jewelry, food, furnishings, etc.). Somewhat to my surprise we won Best Static Display. I'd half forgotten there WAS a Best Static Display award!

I participated in the youth scavenger hunt, composed a story tying the various stages of it together (made a knife at A&S, went to Thrown Weapons to try it out, hurt myself and needed a Chiurgeon, etc.), and at the end each person got to make a quickie copy of a period board game (I chose an Roman form of tic-tac-toe). It was quite fun though I got a few odd looks.

All in all a good event, but I really hope we can re-unite the two major sections in one place next year.