Our Demo at the Fisher's Renaissance Faire
Our Demo at the Fisher's Renaissance Faire This demo is a very special demo arrangement made with the Sister's Association of Fishers Indiana organized to celebrate the relationship and the traditions of their sister city Billericay, England.
Their website is here.
Excel Spreadsheet with crew heads, who's participating, and lots of other info.
The Volunteer Chair for the RenFaire, Arlene Barker, let us know that she needs some bodies to fill slots at the Faire.
As a RenFaire Volunteer you get free admission to the Faire. You will need to be in garb but not as period as the SCA demo is required to be. Your normal SCA garb will do just fine.
Volunteers are arranged in shifts and the shifts run from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM and 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM.
You will have to park in one of the volunteer lots and take a shuttle bus in to the site so arrive a bit early.
Specifically Arlene has openings in these areas:
Volunteer Check: Runner 5 spots.
Trash patrol at least 7 openings.
Security with six shifts and probably needing 4 people per shift.
The Jail needs 5 deputy shifts and 4 ticket sale shifts.
Faire ticket sales has 8 shifts open.
Food vendor support has 6 shifts open.
Beth Hodgins (merchant Coordinator) needs an assistant or two also.
This is a great way to see the Faire for free. Work a little, play a little, see what the Barony has been doing with this. If you are interested contact Arlene Barker at 317450-0229 or 773-6449 or email her at arlenebarker31 at hotmail.com.
Other opportunities to volunteer.
The Barony needs some help with the pavilion set up on Friday. Several people will be bringing multiple tents and there are the three Baronial pavilions now. Extra hands to put them up would be much appreciated. To show that appreciation Baron Jamie has 3 free passes to the Faire for three individuals that are willing to help with the set up.
What are we doing?
Lets go over the requirements for this demo again.
Requirements
What we have to have
People doing things and looking good in period dress.
What is wanted are people using natural fibers of the medieval period in garb that is cut to period patterns. This gets a bit complicated by the fact that we have some SCA regulations that are harder to get around (see references to fencing and heavy below).
If you are doing a craft or being color that will interact closely with the patrons, all of your visible garb needs to be of period materials and patterns.
So far everyone has done a very good job with this.
If you are fencing, your fencing gear is armour and will not have to be changed. Four layers of cotton trigger is the armour standard and there is no need to see if other fibers will pass a punch test.
If you are fighting heavy, then “nothing obviously modern” is the rule. Think Crown Tourney rules of appearance. We have explained that a lot of fighters that look very good on the field do use modern trigger cloth or other materials just because of the abuse that fighting gear takes. Dana has given the nod to this.
Light and heavy fighters both will still need to meet the Midrealm armour standards. Where this conflicts with authenticity, the armour standard wins. For instance, hand protection was not used prior to ~1300 AD. However it is a requirement to fight on the list field. Therefore, even if it is an anachronism, you need to use hand protection of some kind that meets the armour standards. Likewise for the fencers: Fencing helms would be great but fencing masks will be just fine for this.
The tools of our crafts should look period.
While they don’t have to be museum-quality reproductions, they will have to look akin to examples from the appropriate period. To that end handles should be of wood (if appropriate for the tool) instead of plastic. It probably should not be neon pink wood. Choose steel/iron tools over aluminum, etc. If you are using modern tools such as screw clamps to hold work, you need to find how it was held by medieval craftsmen.
Furniture needs to look period and cannot be made of plywood.
Dana doesn’t want it to look like it came from a patio set. Directors chairs and bag chairs are also not allowed. Tables can have a modern top if they are covered by a cloth but still need period legs/trestles/support.
Essential modern items are fine to wear.
This includes eyeglasses and hearing aids. The committee doesn’t want to deprive anyone of their senses. Watches, tobacco, and cell phones are out. Put them in a chest so that you can access them if you have to but so the public can’t see them—and turn off alarms and ringers.
What we cannot have
Obviously modern, non-essential accoutrements.
Obviously modern shoes.
Blatantly modern armour unless required by our rules. Fencing masks and cups are in—Mad Max gear is out.
Modern boxes, tools, or other implements on display. Once you are done using the #2 philips screwdriver to set up your table, put it away.
What we have to do
We need to give good demonstrations of period crafts.
Use period tools and techniques. Try to brush up on the history of the craft. Be prepared to answer questions about it. A craftsman that is doing beautiful work but can’t answer questions such as “How long have people done that?” “What do these patterns mean?” “How much were you paid for this work?” isn’t educating the public very much.
We need to do so portraying ourselves as members of or visitors to Billericay. We need to bend our personal research and personas to that end for the short duration of the demo. You only have to be English (or a visitor to England) for a couple of days, so it isn’t a terribly huge imposition for participating in the Renn Faire.
We need to be on site at 8:00 AM so that we can make all of the preparations for the opening at 10:00 AM.
There is a Parade that most of us must participate in. We will leave a skeleton crew to watch over our site.
What we cannot/should not do
Other than answering questions about where to find out more about our wonderful organization, we should limit “SCA talk” to private areas away from the patrons of the Faire. It is just more anachronisms that we can’t explain easily.
Keep our SCA items that denote SCA-specific association or rank out of sight. Tuck away the Laurel medallion or the Dragon’s Tooth. We are all proud of the symbols of our achievements, but they are SCA culture, not medieval culture. Colored belts are fine, but please remember that the Middle Ages didn’t identify dependants with belts—i.e., a green belt is a green belt, not an apprentice belt.
The site is dry. We can go drinking offsite afterwards.
No animals allowed. Large hungry birds of prey will be present. No kidding.
The Renn Faire committee will have final say on who gets to participate.
Jeanne Clark and Joseph Paul, as members of the Fishers Renn Faire Committee, will review the kit of participants. You must meet the requirements of the committee to participate in this demo. There will be no “walk-ons” the day of the demo.
Meals
The cooking demonstrations put on by Mary and Mistress Giovanna from Nordskogen should be providing lunch and dinners. Expect to provide for your own breakfast.
List of People that we have on paper
Address the lack of dancers.
We have a problem with dance at this point. We have tried to outsource this, unsuccessfully, to other groups. Our own dance mistress, Celeste, let us know well in advance that she would not be able to do it this year because of schedule conflicts with her Middle eastern troupe. Johan believes that he can provide leadership on Sunday. We need a dance leader on Saturday and we need to get some bodies committed to this. If you are currently doing color but know some of the period dances please consider volunteering to dance. Dance pays us better than color does and you get to perform!
Pavilions
How many do we need?
Minimums that we need by activity.
Fighting
Rattan
Three tents minimum
Crispin’s
Robar’s
At least a wedge for the list field to store weapons and excess equipment
Fencing
Two tents minimum
One for the down time at the base camp.
One to store stuff in at the list field.
Do the fencers want to set up a salon? If so do the want to do it at the list field or the base camp?
Cooking
Two tents
One to do prep work in, possibly open.
One to hide all the modern packaging stuff and non-period gadgets.
Dancers
One tent minimum
Artisans
Pewter pourers and blacksmiths
One tent large. Jamie’s 17x22 can contain this.
Woodworkers and leatherworkers
One tent. 14x14 Baronial.
Textiles
Two tents. One 14x14from Liesl and Rowena’s wedge for the loom display.
Brass rubbing and color people
One tent 14x14 Baronial
Misc. artisan and color people
One tent 14x14 Baronial.
Tents for gear stowage
At least one Regent or Marquis style tent.
Further tents for people to sleep in as needed.
That makes fifteen a minimum.
Set up of pavilions will take place on Friday. The sooner you can get your canvas there the sooner we can get it up. Doing it in the dark is no fun.
Our lay out has changed.
We are not where we were last year. We do have a forest back drop and almost certainly will have to bow our frontage out. The good news is that we can anchor the ends of our tent line on the forest and make a courtyard for sleeping tents/ modern stuff.
When to be there
Parking
Friday
You can bring vehicles into the park and across the grass to our encampment.
Please consult with the Camp Steward as to where you will need to set up.
You may stay overnight if you want to but vehicles must be off the lot when you are done with set up.
We will have two vehicles on site for the weekend to shuttle people back and forth to the volunteer parking during the weekend if they can’t get a bus.
Saturday
We will park in the back lot of Riverside school. It is .25 mile north of the park on Eller Rd. Use the bus entrance. We will be shuttled to the site from there. The shuttles start moving volunteers at 8:00 AM. By 9:00 you should be on site and ready to be briefed.
We will have two vehicles in the lot to help with getting people in and out.
Be on site between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM
Doors open at 10:00 AM
Fencing Fighting and Dancing Schedule
Fencing happens at 10.45-11:00, 1:45-2:00, 4:00-4:15
Fighting happens at 12:15-12:30, 3:15-3:30, 5:30-5:45
Dancing at 2:30-2:45 and 5:30-5:45
Artisans are presenting through out the day.
Last things
Mike and Speakers
Taken care of. We will share the crystal mike with Mark Booth the falconer.