Medieval Fair Weekend
I'm tired. This weekend past was the weekend of our annual medieval fair. It was a lot of fun, but one begins to fully realise how strenuous armour can be when you're wearing it in the hot sun, on your feet for 6 hours straight with very little time to sit down (There is no seating other than what we've brought and that’s all in the crowded display pavilion.) But on a positive note, I’m getting even more armour fitness from the experience! ;)
The actual combat demonstrations can be very trying though. Combat is always fun, but i like to play for the right reasons and under the right pretense. Unfortunately there seems to be attitudes that to be entertaining, we must play up and generally make loud noises. We were encouraged to play the game in a manner that is not exemplary to how we would normally play. I believe that we should demonstrate the calibre and technique of combat that we would normally display at an event, not banging on things and taking any shot that looks good, or not taking it unless it looks good to the crowd. Our public demonstrations are meant to attract new members, and if we do not give an accurate impression on what we are about, we will not attract the people that could be really interested, we will attract children. And that really is the bottom line for me, I want to attract members at demos, not impress kiddies. Both will happen if we ascend onto the field with the same courtesy and chivalry and take ourselves as seriously as we would on any other day. We need to show that we are martial artists and not clowns.
I must praise anthraxia on her fine commentary though. This was something that made the demonstration more informative and fun for everyone.
D wants to run an armouring demonstration next year, which I think is going to be awesome, so I'll get some expendable working class garments together and perhaps do the nasty jobs of sanding and finishing, or maybe do some forging. We'll see how we go.
We also got to see some of our friends from Melbourne who came down to work at the medieval fair and various schools for the week. This was a lot of fun, it's always great to see them work, best job ever, and playing pickups with Mr. E is always fun. we'll be seeing them again on Tuesday night for dinner.
All up, a good weekend with lots of fun and friends.