Tales from the faire

[fbhjr]

The last weekend of Delafaire went well enough, but the three days long was a lot. Veteran’s day isn’t the biggest of holidays and not a lot of folks get it off. So, the crowds were certainly thinner on Monday.
Sunday was very popular and according to the entertainment director, the best Sunday of any faire he’s ever done.

All three days we had folks come to our shows. Less in the morning and more as the day progressed. We always ended with more folks than we started with, even if a few did drift away each time.

These faires give you a 45 minute slot for a 30 minute show, which means that the audience doesn’t all get up and go to run to something else. When it is every 30 minutes, there is more of a tendency to do that.
But, the entertainment director is also one of the acts, so I know he understands.

Sadly one of the jugglers got hurt on Monday. Some sort of trick with a straight jacket and he fell off the stage and got a concussion. He did finish that show, which everyone thought was beyond the requirement for him. But, he did call off the others.
I hope he’s OK. I haven’t heard. I did write to the entertainment director and aske if there was a go fund me or similar for him. We’ll see.

Saturday night we did do another round of the lightsabers. That’s because our friend Dom was there that weekend. He’s big into Ludosport, a competitive lightsaber organization.
If I get the chance to spar with plastic lightsabers against someone who is going to the national championships, I’m going to.
We did skip the pot luck dinner that night. The week before we did it and no one was super impressed with it. So, after playing with the lightsabers we went off to a steak house.
I waited for the table while everyone else went and got changed from the faire clothes. There was a bit of “why am I sitting here alone in the dark outside a restaurant on my birthday” thoughts, but the others were soon back. And, I had gotten to play with lightsabers and perform a sword fight at the time of my birth, so it was OK.

We did bring the metal halberds with us this weekend. We most often use the much safter rubber ones. But, the metal ones make for a better show. We only had 4 performers with us this weekend, but they were all our best, so I didn’t feel too bad about letting folks use them. Not going to put them in the hands of our younger members…
Every time we walk around the faire with them they get a good reaction. And, I know some folks came to see our show because of them as they told me that.

It was cloudy Sunday and there was just a little bit of rain. As Delaware is in the middle of a drought and there were clouds of dust everywhere at the faire, this wasn’t actually a bad thing. Sunday night it rained a bit and Monday there was much less dust.
The weather Monday had cleared up a lot and it was a nice warm day. I’m glad that is the day I picked to wear the kilt as it was the warmest day of the weekend.

Over the three weekends of the faire we performed seven days, and each day I wore a different outfit. I’m not sure if that means I have too many clothes or not. But, I did not exhaust my supply either.
I do it for a bunch of reasons, but one is it does make it very easy to tell which day any photo of me is taken. Each of the 7 days is unique.

As the crowds were thin in Monday the entertainment director let us pack up after our last show and not wait for the end of the day. That gave us a good hour head start on the drive home and that was very nice.
We got on the road before 5:30, even with all the packing, and got home before 11. Normally we’re lucky to be home by midnight, so I was very happy about this.

It’s been a lot of shows for us this year. We’re tying our third biggest year ever with 34 event/days this year. The most in 18 years.
I can’t say I’m sorry it’s done as I want some time off. But, it has been a good year with a lot of good shows.
And, I’m happy about that.

Comments

[ravena_kade]

34 show is impressive. Glad you got to perform on your birthday.