RP: The Arts Festival - Day One

[shh_su]

Date: 10 August 2005
Characters: Su, Rabastan, Caradoc, Ernie, Marietta, Kingsley, Cedric, Slughorn, anyone and everyone
Location: Streets of Stoatshead Hill [Arts Festival Area]
Status: Very Public
Summary: It's Day One of the Arts Festival
Completion: Incomplete

Comments

Vendors

[shh_su]

The stalls were set up back-to-back in the streets, and Su was pleased at the striking appearance they made. There were booths for fine arts and crafts as well as food. Su was pleased to see that many local businesses had decided to participate in the Festival. Hopefully this would be good for Stoatshead.

Re: Vendors

[shh_kingsley]

The festival area was starting to get busier. It had been a relatively slow start, but Kingsley thought it beginning at noon on Friday gave people time to sort any kinks before the crowds started in the evening. Or the heavier weekend visitors queued up

Kids Area

[shh_su]

Moving on to the kids area, Su was pleased to see Elizabeth Garner, Rabastan's employee, briskly and efficiently getting things organized. Friday was Performance Art Day in the children's area, and Su was sure it would be a success. The children would be able to dress in costumes, dance, and give puppet shows. Su paused to admire the hand puppets that children could make as a craft to take home before moving on to the next area.

Re: Kids Area

[shh_rabastan]

Elizabeth was slightly nervous. When she volunteered to work with the children, she thought she could convince some of her friends to help. They agreed, as she knew they would, but none were able to take a holiday to help set up. Luckily, she had a number of enthusiastic teenagers from the orphanage to help

Street Performers

[shh_su]

As she walked along River Road, Su grinned. It was quiet now, but soon the street performers would be arriving. There would be jugglers, carolers, house elf charmed origami, balloon animals, story tellers, and a clown doing face painting and caricatures.

Re: Street Performers

[shh_caradoc]

Caradoc laughed as he passed a juggler who had an unusual routine mixing juggling and comedy. The man juggled muggle style, then would use magic to freeze items in mid-air before letting them rain down on him.

He would have stuck around to see more, but he was on his way south of the river to practice one more time with the other members of the jazz quartet who would be performing later that day. Unfortunately their vocalist wouldn't be able to join their final rehearsal because of school, but Rose promised she would be back in Stoats for their 3:30 performance.

Performance Area

[shh_su]

Things looked ready to go at the performance area. Some members of the dance acrobatic troupe were around, warming up. Su checked the performance schedule, pleased at the variety of acts they had found. She was looking forward to seeing the Shakespeare troupe's version of Love's Labour's Lost, and the flamenco dance troupe following that was sure to be excellent. There was a Scottish folk group, an Irish Gaelic harp player, and even Beijing Opera. Su was delighted at how many Stoatshead Hill residents would be performing as well. Today there was a jazz quartet, and two of her former classmates would do a selection of Muggle music, among other performances.

Performance Area - Jazz Quartet

[shh_caradoc]

Ralph and Delores Pickney played clarinet and alto sax normally, but they also played a number of other instruments. Tonight, they would take turns handling piano -- actually a muggle electronic keyboard, which took up a lot less space than a piano and was much more portable -- as well as their usual instruments. Caradoc himself was playing both his trumpet and a borrowed bass. The fourth in their quartet was a young man who played drums. Jazz wasn't his favorite music to play, but he had the talent for it. Rose Zeller would be adding her vocals.

They took the stage and set up. At 3:30, the curtain went up and the small band began with Rose belting out an Ella Fitzgerald tune.

Re: Performance Area - Jazz Quartet

[shh_cedric]

Cedric had wandered by the musicians several times, listening as the different groups played, but when he heard someone singing Lady Ella, he stopped and turned to see a small girl with corkscrew curls and brown skin. Somehow, she looked far too small to have a voice like that. But he paused to listen, also recognizing Caradoc on the horn, and clapped enthusiastically between songs.

Performance Area--Ernie and Marietta

[shh_ernie]

Ernie'd taken Marietta's thoughts on their attire to heart. While he was wearing denims, he was also wearing a shirt and tie. However, his collar was undone and his tie a bit loosened. He'd also spent a lot of time, mussing his hair just so.

He peeked through the curtain. There were people out there. Who were going to sit and listen to them play. Feeling a bit queasy, he turned to Marietta. "With what are we opening again?" Oh, good Merlin, what if he forgot the chords? Or the words?

The Dissenting Voice

[shh_slughorn]

Horace woke from his first undisturbed night's sleep in nearly two weeks, startled awake by the blare of music, which seemed to be coming in through the walls and vibrating the floor as much as it was coming through the window. He stared out, noticing the unusually busy streets, and remembered the festival signs he'd been ignoring for the last two weeks. He cast silencing spells, but there wasn't much they could do about the vibration he could feel through the floor. Downstairs things were even worse, with the piano in the rear lounge actually vibrating in time with the music. And there were to be two more days of it!

Nothing for it; Horace would have to do something. Twenty minutes later, dressed in his best Muggle clothing, Horace was booking in for a three-night stay at Exeter's finest hotel.