[Bards] How to improve Kingdom Eisteddfod

[Jay Rudin]

Alden responded to Robert:

> You said "Not every venue works well for Eisteddfod" and maybe
> that's where we're crossing wires.  IMO, Eisteddfod should *be*
> the venue, and if the hosting group wants to do something in adition,
> it should aim to work within and around *it*.

I suspect that you two are using "venue" in two different senses.  Robert's statement is quite true that not every site has a good room or location to hold Kingdom Eisteddfod.  

I'd love to see Kingdom Eisteddfod become the big, vibrant, stand-alone event it was when the College was active.  As a stand-alone event, it attracted about 150 people in Elfsea in 1988 when Catrin won, and about the same one year later in Namron when I won.  Then we took it to the Western Region, and drew a bit fewer -- about 70 people or so.

But we need to solve the problem in the correct order.  Right now, neither the bards nor the rest of the kingdom are treating it like it's the big kingdom-wide focus for bardcraft.  And why should anyone else do so unless we do?

Last year there were six entries.  That's not a grand event that should attract a crowd.  I recommend that we try to build it back up to a major event.  And step one isn't where it's held.  Step one is for the bards to enter it.  

Nobody would go to the Super Bowl if good football players refused to play there.
Nobody would watch the World Series if only five ballplayers showed up.

The greatest fencers enter Queen's Champion.  The greatest chivalric fighters enter Crown.  But every year lately, most of the greatest bards ignore the Kingdom Eisteddfod.  

Now, most of the kingdom ignores the Eisteddfod and the Premier Bard.  Wonder where they learned that?

Queen's Champion is the most prestigious fencing competition in Ansteorra, and maybe in the Known World.  A lot of non-fencers care deeply about it.  But it started with this fact: every time it occurs, most of the best fencers enter the list.

A dozen fencers have won more than one Queen's Champion.  Only one bard has ever won Eisteddfod twice.

Let's build a great Eisteddfod.  Let's start now, and build a field of competition that will justify a grand stand-alone event.  We won't get it done this year, or even in two years, but we can make this event a grand focus for the bards.  And if we do so, *then* we will nce more be able to set up a stand-alone Eisteddfod focused on the bards.

I'll enter this year.  Who's with me?

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin
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