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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Steppes does not own the Kingdom's Eisteddfod, and
we know that we don't own it. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The Barony of the Steppes has been putting on three
events per year since establishing Steppes Artisan in 1988. Twelfth Night
has been going on since before the first one I attended in 1978.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It is a sheer accident that Eisteddfod came around
to Twelfth Night right before the law forbidding more than two events per year
for a barony. The result is that Steppes is paying the kingdom event tax
on Twelfth Night, even though Eisteddfod does *not* appreciably increase the
number of people at the event, in order to keep the new law from stopping our
traditions.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>We've talked about what to do if the Eisteddfod
moves, and we have several options in mind. We are more than happy to host
it, and I suspect that it has stayed there as long as it has only because of
inertia. </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>There's no body of bards trying to
build it up into something bigger, and most Premeier Bards are more focused on
other aspects of the job than putting on the event. And the kingdom is
probably happy to leave in the Steppes because it's a centralized location, and
because a percentage of Steppes Twelfth Night receipts is more money than they
are likely to get for it anywhere else.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Robin of Gilwell / Jay
Rudin</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>