[Ansteorra] Starting a new thread regarding the demo aspect, and gaining new members - a "Foreign" viewpoint

[Doug Copley]

This sounds like a great event! We do have a demo in Norman, Oklahoma 
(called the "Medieval Fair" and sponsored by OU, located just south of 
Oklahoma City) that has a fair every year and the SCA does have a large 
area so that we are able to have siege weapons on display, multiple 
tents for A&S activities, dancing, archery / thrown weapons display, 
nobles/royals, and of course an area for fighting. There are 200 or so 
SCAdians that participate and help make the event possible and the fair 
has grown to over 300,000 attendees during the 3 day event. We are 
working to try to do better recruiting during the event and we had some 
success last year from our efforts and hope to do even more this year.

Vincenti

William Arwemakere wrote:
> Greetings all,
> 
> Up here in the far north, we have two yearly events that are officially
> public demos. Most of our demo's tend to be at schools, or smallish events
> where maybe 15 - 20 SCA members show off what it is we do. These two events
> are very different.
> 
> Ursulmas, held in late January (to celebrate the mythical St Ursul, the
> bear) is the largest prize-tourney in An Tir. I'll not claim it's larger
> than anything around, as I don't have stats to back the boast. This year as
> had an SCA attendance of 1300 people, and thousands of moderns came to check
> us out. (For note, the Heavy (chivalric) tourney had 162 fighters in the
> list).
> 
> June Faire, held the first weekend in June nearly takes over a small town
> overlooking the ocean west of Seattle. We use the large grass fields in town
> (
> http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=port+gamble+wa&sll=49.122239,-122.733507&sspn=0.007962,0.024719&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Port+Gamble,+Kitsap,+Washington,+United+States&ll=47.854494,-122.585825&spn=0.004082,0.01236&t=h&z=17
>  )
> 
> Camping attendance can be as high as 2500 people, and over 10 000 moderns
> come visit.
> 
> Both of these local Baronies have a large upswelling of people at the events
> that follow. The focus of the events is to showcase as many aspects of the
> SCA as possible. Of course the fighting gets the most attention, but there
> are always excellent A&S displays and pomp and ceremony to let the people
> know it's not just a bunch of fighters hitting each other. Show them the
> "big show" then bring them to teh smaller newcomers events to help thm get
> on their feet.
> 
> Does Ansteorra have any large, public-friendly events like this?
> 
> HL William Arwemakere
> Kingdom Protector, An Tir
> Archery Champion, Barony of Bordermarch, Ansteorra
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