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<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 10/25/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Alden Drake</b> <<a href="mailto:alden_drake@sbcglobal.net">alden_drake@sbcglobal.net</a>> wrote:</span>
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<div><SNIP></div><br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"> Looking at Eisteddfod, I found that Eisteddfod is a kingdom calendar event. Steppes Twelfth Night is not. Steppes typically hosts Eisteddfod and tacks their event onto it, which is fine, but it seems to me (by what I saw last year) that the Steppes event overshadows Eisteddfod. So what can we do to make Eisteddfod bigger and better? What about combining Eisteddfod and the Bardic Collegium? Do classes in the morning and afternoon, and then Eisteddfod in the evening? What can we do in addition to these two things? Have a bardic sponsored tournament to determine the "Bardic Defender"? Have an A&S competition of original bardic compositions? In service,
<br>HL Alden Drake<br>_______________________________________________</blockquote>
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<div> I disagree that Twelfth Night attached it's self to Eisteddfod, it was really the other way around. I believe that Twelfth Night was always a calender event. As a Barony Steppes gets to have two events on the calender. Twelfth Night has been a major event for longer than I've been playing, and usually there are a lot of awards given out at the Twelfth Night Court. That couldn't happen if it were not a calender event. I suppose that Steppes may be taking advantage of the fact that they have a Kingdom event attached to Twelfth Night to allow them use their second calender event for something else, but if Eisteddfod were moved you can bet that Twelfth Night would remain a Calender event.
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<div> In the past Eisteddfod used to move around a lot. You never knew from one year to the next where or when it would be held. It started being held at kingdom A&S or LPT and a lot of the Bards, (myself included) were not happy with that. If you were competing in Eisteddfod you pretty much missed the rest of the event. Once it started being held at Twelfth Night a lot of us really pushed to keep it there.
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<div> Absent Eisteddfod the main activities at Twelfth Night occur in the evening. During the day it's mostly visiting. If you spend all day in the competition you haven't missed out on a lot. At most other events there are activities scheduled back to back from morning wake-up till the end of evening court. If Eisteddfod is to be held as part of another event then I can't think of another event that is as suitable as Twelfth Night. I also like the fact that Steppes is centrally located.
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<div> I wouldn't object to having Eisteddfod as a stand alone event but I doubt that it can draw enough people year after year to make it economically feasible. Many bards feel that the Kingdom Bard is also the Crown's Bard and that the Crown should have a part in choosing that Bard. The Crown and the Heirs are usually at Twelfth Night and can be involved if they choose. A stand alone Bardic event may or may not have the Crown in attendance. There is also the issue of where on the calender to put it. It's a pretty crowded calender.
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<div>Robert Fitzmorgan</div>
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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">-- <br>"If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day." John A. Wheeler
<br><br><a href="mailto:Fitzmorgan@gmail.com">Fitzmorgan@gmail.com</a><br>Yahoo IM: robert_fitzmorgan </blockquote></div>