My wife’s Celtic sword fighting

[fbhjr]

Every year the Higgins Museum goes to the Blackstone Valley Celtic Festival. The sword guild puts on demonstrations and there is a table of information on the museum and samples of armor and weapons.

Five years ago, when I quit performing with the sword guild, this was the last show I did. So, I’m willing to say that I may not be the best witness to how it goes. To me, it reminds me of why I quit and shows that it hasn’t changed.

For reasons not entirely clear to me, the Celtic faire was held at Indian Ranch.


This was something of an issue for me as Indian Ranch is an RV camp ground that is not clearly an event venue.

I guess the good news is that once upon a time I was chief engineer of a company that made awnings for RVs. That was more then a dozen years ago and it is good to see some of my product is still in use.

But, when we showed up at 8:30 in the morning, there were zero signs for the festival. So, we stopped there, didn’t see anything and kept driving. Finally, I turned around and came back. They had turned on their electric sign that gave every show they’re having for the next month. I watched it long enough for today’s show to come up and confirmed it was the right spot. But, you’d think there would have been more marking...

Anyhow, they gave us a very nice spot near the lake.


palusbuteo brought our old tent with him. I haven’t seen it in a while and it was nice to see it after a bit.


Mark brought a bunch of swords for the show.


As we got there 2 hours before the first show, my wife wanted to practice.


Now there are times folks have wondered “the two of you are middle aged and not in the best of shape. Why do you have what it takes to run a sword troupe?”
Because of all of the Higgins sword guild there today, my wife was the only person who picked up a sword and practiced.


She practiced for a fair bit of time while other folks walked about and did other things. She kept at it even when she seemed a bit discouraged that no one else joined her.


But, eventually Mark of the shining blade did come out and practice with her.


Eventually some other people came out too.
They were sort of doing one of the historical methods we do at one of our shows, but in a very different way. Eventually they admitted they didn’t remember it well and asked my wife for advice.


palusbuteo had wisely decided to go with the multiple layer all wool costume for the day in the 90+F day.


As soon as the show opened, blue_micha paid to get in so Mark could show her some of the small sword stuff he’s been teaching my wife. (I remain very sorry that the festival was so very expensive, $17.50, for such a small venue. It was VERY nice of her to pay to get in to learn more material for Phoenix.)


Mark did spend some time showing her the basic stances.


Hopefully this is something we will be able to add to our shows at some point.


As palusbuteo’s all wool Civil War reenactors took the field, I decided to wander around the rest of the festival.


For a Celtic festival, I was surprised by the Avon booth, 2 different home window booths, the palm based bouncy room and the general lack of much Celtic based stuff other then bands that do Irish songs. (The bad covers of the Scottish group “The Proclaimers” I don’t count because I really thought it was a very bad version. But, I was grumpy...)



To give you an idea of how small the festival was, I circled the entire place, stopping to take pictures, in less then the 10 minutes the wool guys needed for their demo. They were still at it when I got back.

There were demos other then my wife and the wool people.



The demo schedule was one 10 minute demo every 15 minutes all day long. Even with several different demos going, that meant my wife had to do her demo at least 4 times over the day.


At least the site was nice.


And, even when it was very hot, my wife kept doing her shows.


I have to admit, it was tough for me just to be a spectator. I really like doing things, and not just watching. And, other then the music, there really wasn’t much else to do there.
The good news was I had my iPad and keyboard. The earlier lobster post was 100% done under the tent by the lake this morning.
I wasn’t the only one playing with tech there either.

And, one of the guys from where I work showed up and watched the shows. Another was supposed to and didn’t.

I’m not saying our Phoenix Swords are better. We’ve also done shows where we sit around and are bored. But, I like to at least think we have more of a plan and a clearer vision of what we’re doing then the sword guild does.

On the way home we stopped at The Edge for hot dogs. While not lobster, it was still very nice.

When we got home, I found strange patterns of shadow on my ceiling. Don’t know what to make of that.

Comments

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Damn, if I could have snuck out early enough, I'd have loved to have joined you at The Edge, I have been meaning to go back there.

When we packed up and they let us in with cars at 5PM, I was one of the first in, as I was also the 2nd person from the museum to arrive in the morning. But this time because it was pack-up, I was stuck with 3 trucks blocking me in, so I had to wait a while. But, I was able to change into shorts and wade in the water which was very pleasant.

I too wanted to do some practice with the Civil War stuff before we started the day, but, noone else seemed interested in moving. Can't blame them, it seemed like I was squirting sweat out of me. Our first demo, infront of what, 3 people? Was pretty sloppy. Even though we do this every Tuesday nite, having a run-through is a good idea. But we were supposed to call cadence to our movements, so when we did that in the other demos, we were more coordinated.

Nearly $20 admission is ridiculous. From what Devon told me at the end of the day, there is a rival Celtic Festival in Northampton this same weekend, with a larger venue, the vendors who would have been here, and bigger name acts. So those factors alone I think explains why attendance was abysmal. I too was not impressed with the lack of site advertising. I saw more signs for the festival INSIDE the festival than anywhere else. There was a lot of advertising in the local paper, but, that's always a crap-shoot.

So, I can't blame people for not coming, paying $20 just to get in to see 4 bands, and 6 vendors and some people in all-wool who you couldn't hear talking because of the bands...I'm not so surprised.

But yes, being on the lake, with the occasional breeze, with otherwise gorgeous weather, was nice. But, not entirely worth the effort. It was great to see you, Holly and Robin, however.

Maybe we'll be asked to venture out to NoHo next year...

[morgan-lafaye.livejournal.com]

There was an all-you-can-eat ice cream fest at Elm Park. $5.00, got you in. Ice cream on a hot day will always win.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

While I'm glad you got ice cream, it would not be a win for me.

[morgan-lafaye.livejournal.com]

While I didn't go, I figure folks choose a cheaper event.

[pallid-regina.livejournal.com]

Hey...are you and your wife sharing that hat? ;0)

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

She needed the hat more then I did.
I wasn't doing the show, so I could stay out of the sun.