GCRF day 1

[fbhjr]

Saturday we got up, got in costume and headed out to find out cars covered
with frost.

Not really what we had been hoping to find 1300 miles south.
But, at least then, the sun was still shining and it didn’t seem so bad.


We showed up two hours before the gates opened so we could make sure we got
to practice our fights and make sure we had everything we needed.


Some time after I had fallen asleep Friday night, kismets_kiss
had arrived from Kentucky. She had brought two other folks with her. All
of them helped out quite a bit and were a big addition to our shows. All
the photos you see of our shows were taken by one of them. And, he did a
great job.


As is tradition for this faire, Phoenix Swords does the very first and very
last show of the faire. We were up on stage for our historical show at the
stage nearest the gate as people began to come in.



The contract we had for the faire said 4 shows of ½ hour each. So, we
weren’t surprised to find we were scheduled for 5 shows. 3 at ½ hour, one
at 45 minutes and one an hour.
The faire organizer had called me the day before as we were eating at
Waffle House and told me one of his acts had cancelled on him.
I’m not saying we like changes like this to the schedule, but this is the
12th year we’ve done this show, we really like the people who put it on and
we like the crowd this faire gets. If there is any show where we are
willing to do this sort of thing last minute, this is the show.
And, even with the schedule as it was, it was actually less busy than what
we did last November when these folks put on their pirate faire. So, we
had time to roam about, eat and relax between the shows.


But, it was a lot of shows. 3 of the 5 out on the joust field.


I am allergic to anything with fur and things like hay. So a hay covered
field with horses and what they leave behind that is a mixture of hay and
horse?
Not a fun place for me.
It normally gets to me. This year the jousting squires did not do a very
good job cleaning the field. So, it was worse than normal.
But, the show must go on, etc…





The show we were doing this year was “judicial duels”. The loser got to be
pelted with plastic fruit thrown by kids in the audience.
Those kids REALLY enjoyed getting to throw fruit at us.

I am VERY glad that blue_micha & morgan_lafaye
went to great lengths to find plastic fruit that was fairly painless when
hit. Some of those kids really whipped it at us.

Back at the tent I was still having allergy problems. As I said, allergic
to anything with fur. I am particularly allergic to rodents. And, across
the path from us was the petting zoo. Full of all sorts of animals
including capybara, the worlds biggest rodents.


While on the subject of rodents, there was someone I didn’t like at the
faire. I had never met them before, but they still annoyed me greatly.
It was an older man dressed as a leprechaun.

He was handing out some sort of cards to people with his photo and facebook
info on it. I don’t know if he was trying to get hired for things or what.
But, he would walk in when others are doing shows and move through the
crowd talking with people and giving out these cards.
I’ve got nothing against promotion at faires. But, I do have something
against doing it in the middle of other folk’s performances. Talk to them
in the lanes, by the gates, near the restrooms, but NOT at the shows.

Between shows we offer sword lessons to people. We used to get lots of
people who wanted this. The last few years it has really dropped off.
Since about 2008 we’ve been lucky to do 5 a day and often not even that.
This year we did more than a dozen a day.



It was very windy all day. And, it never got very warm. As the day went
on, it also clouded up. That made it feel much colder than it was, but on
with the shows.





To help fill in the long time slots we did some fire as well. I’m not big
on fire on fields full of hay, but if you’re careful it can be done.



As the day progressed it got colder. I had thought that weather only about
8C/47F would drive off an audience in Florida. But, lots of folks stayed.

Our folks put on more layers and kept warm.


Of course, to do fire in that made us look more and more like vampires as
we tried to shield the flame from the wind and make it visible against a
dark background.


This doesn’t mean it always worked…


I have never been a big fan of the guy who plays the king down south. He
usually has people who hang around with him that he orders around like he
really was king.
But, Saturday afternoon the cold drove them off and he was reduced to
getting his own coffee to stay warm.


By the time the fire show started it was about 45F/7C, very windy, cloudy
with that damp sort of air that just robs you of heat.
This resulted in our fire fuel gnome.


The fire show went on anyhow. Most of what we did still worked fine.






But, the fire swords were a problem. They just didn’t want to lite. Every
time we lit them up, the wind blew them back out.
We finally got some fire going on them, but only a little. Far less than
normal.
So, it was a bit disappointing.


Wind may have hurt the swords, but it made Tom’s fire breath that much
bigger and it carried a long way.


At the end of the long day we went to the all you can eat place near the
hotel, Ryans.


My wife got some ice cream that looked pretty strange.


Then, back to the hotel for a meeting to talk about how it had all gone and
so that the Tsarina could count the money we made.

Comments

[ravena-kade.livejournal.com]

Glad to see that people stayed when it was s cold.

I see Temper has some orange in her fire garb =)

The extruded ice cream does look...umm..strange. I would have had to have seen it coming out of the soft serve machine before I ate it. They certainly don't have the Dairy Queen Swirl down pat.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

She was running the ice cream machine herself. And, she never worked for Dairy Queen, so hasn't been trained in the swirl...

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Yay! photos!

I especially like the one from the historical sickle with you and Blue_Mica

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

What on earth is going on with that ice-cream?

I have to say the tent looks freakin' fantastic. I know you have told me in the past how much work went into planning it. It looks amazing.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

You get to extrude your own ice cream from the machine. So, if you aren't swirling it as it goes, this is how it comes out.

Thank you on the tent. My wife is very happy with it.