[Ansteorra] Late Night Court (& Feast)

[Jennifer Smith]

I've enjoyed reading this thread, but didn't have much to add, until Robert
Fitzmorgan wrote:

[...]
>        A typical event seems to have activities scheduled until 3 or 4 in the
> afternoon with feast starting around 7:00, or sometimes 6:00.  Feasts often
> run 2 hours or more.  So feast starts around 7 or so and if you are lucky
> court starts by 9:30.  Again don't get me wrong, I love feasts.  They are
> often some of the best eating I get.  I rarely skip a feast.  Personally I
> would prefer to have feast over and done with in an hour, but I realize that's
> not very likely.  An hour and a half would be great.

Wow, you've had feasts as short as 2 hours? ;)  In general I like eating
feast, but I probably only eat 1 out of every 3 events we attend (*but see
[note] way below*).  Reasons why are usually one of the following:

- cost ($10 feast is *crazy*)
- reservations only ("feast for 100 only" means it'll be sold out before I
get my Blackstar.  Phooey)
- ingredients (I admit it, I am a very picky eater. No mushrooms, few
veggies, etc... most feasts are okay, but there are some I've seen where I
know I'd only eat the bread.  For $7, I want more than that.)
- TIME (1.5-2 hours is good. Longer than that, and *I'm* going to starve to
death while waiting on the food, while my 2-year old loses all patience with
sitting down.)

If we can drive 30 miles off-site, find a restaurant, wait for a table, order
food, eat, and sit around for another half hour chatting with friends, then
drive back to the site for court and feast is STILL going on, then it's gone
on Too Long.

>        What can be done?  If we could start feast promptly at 6:00 and be done
> by 7:30, start Court by 8:00 and end by 10:00 that would be a huge
> improvement.  If we must start feast later than 6:00 or if they have to run
> for hours then do court before feast.  I've suggested this several times
> locally and the cooks hate the idea.  The response is that court will run long
> and delay the feast.  It doesn't have to.  If feast is going to be at 7:00
> then I see no reason we can't have a 5:00 court with an absolute ending time,
> finished or not, of no later than 6:30.  If we're not finished then we can
> have another, shorter, court after feast.

My goodness yes!  Luckily, my 2-year old can sit through even the loudest
courts, which is a good thing, since her bedtime is 8pm, and we regularly sit
through courts running close to midnight.  As a group herald, I've built a
court agenda for a number of courts now, and helped in the behind-the-thrones
heraldry stuff.  Assuming the kind folks running court were happy, we could
easily stop court at any time and resume later if needed.

About the only problem with running court before feast that is still
unresolved is the matter of setting up the feast hall.  I know most feast
stewards want more than 5 minutes to get their tables and chairs arranged
just so.  If court was held elsewhere than the feasthall, or say 20 minutes
were allocated for setup, it would be fine.

[...]
>        I mean no disrespect to those of give of their time and talents to
> prepare our feasts.  The skill of our Ansteorran cooks is amazing.  Perhaps
> it's unrealistic of me to expect that feasts should run faster.  I've never
> prepared one and probably have no idea how much work is involved.  It looks
> like a lot, and I have the greatest admiration for those who can do it well.
[...]

Ever notice how you never see any of the cooks during the entire event? :)

Here's that [note] I mentioned above:

I have had the great fortune to be part of the Merry Musicians of
Mooneschadowe, also known by the grace of Alaric Drake as the King's Players.
We are frequently asked to play during feast at several events in the north,
and each time the kitchen staff has always allowed us to eat free -- we don't
eat much, mind, since we're playing the entire time, and so don't get to
sample everything.  I can tell you that I *much* prefer to eat little and
play for feast, rather than drive into town to eat a lot at a restaurant, or
even to sit and eat feast as a "normal" person would. :)

-Emma de Fetherstan

--
Jennifer Smith
jds at randomgang.com