[Bryn-gwlad] Demographics (was: championships)

[Heather Cook]

Wait wait wait.

I was in SCA about 6 years ago in Louisiana (the good ole days?), and this
is how a typical event would go:

Friday night...set up tents, get settled in, wait for friends to show up,
and then a bit of preliminary drinking, debauchery, and general goofing off
Saturday...get up early, fighting, eating, lessons, socializing, other A&S
stuff, shopping, all the typical event stuff
Mid afternoon siesta
Feast, Court
Drum Circles, Bardic Circles, dancing, socializing, drinking and debauchery
laaaate into the night.
Sunday...sleep in a bit, clean up, pack up, and leave about 1 or 2ish

and then hit the Waffle House for a scattered/covered/smothered on the way
home.

Is this not how things go now? I'm going to be seriously bummed if I don't
get my Saturday night drum circle/debauchery. I am not a day tripper, I love
the full camping weekend.

btw, I'm Heather, I was at Fighter Practice on Tuesday for the first time.
I'm just jumping in here.

Heather

On 8/1/07, Patrick R <tex_yankee2004 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> Not fair, not fair I say. You are making me regret not being around for
> what is starting to look like the good old days.
>
> And as for our friend Clair, I recall you having a bed that the two of you
> bring with you (sorry I could not resist).
>
> Dante
>
>
> *Chris Zakes <dontivar at gmail.com>* wrote:
>
> At 05:39 PM 8/1/2007, Eule wrote:
> >Saundra mentioned:
> >"But when we started playing, heavy was on Saturday and light was on
> >Sunday. That was just the way it was. As the rapier community
> >grew, this was a problem."
>
> I think it was longer ago than that (depending on where you were.)
>
> >
> >To which Eule recalls:
> >About 15-20 years ago (or so), when this first started to change I
> >remember having a conversation with Galen Nicole (Kingdom Rapier
> >Marshall at the time) and he told me an interesting
> >statistic....back then we had over 400 card carrying rapier fighters
> >in the kingdom (he mentioned something like 465 as I
> >recall). Mainly because there was so much crossover between
> >chivalric and rapier at the time.
>
> How do those numbers compare with the overall population of the
> kingdom then and now? I'd be surprised if the percentages weren't
> about the same.
>
>
> > My understanding is that those numbers have continued to decline
> > over the years.
> >
> >Now that I think about it, you may have something there Saundra.
>
> *My* perception is that there are several things that have lead to
> the shortening of events.
>
> 1. Many of us are getting older. As Clare said, the ground keeps
> getting harder and rockier, so sleeping at home (or in a motel) is
> more attractive than camping on-site. This can be avoided if you have
> a good camping bed, but not everyone has that luxury.
>
> 2. Many of us have more disposable income now. That makes staying in
> a motel more feasible. In the old days if it wasn't a camping event,
> you stayed with friends in the area, or one member of the event staff
> was in charge of finding crash space for out-of-town folks. I can
> recall having a dozen or more people sleeping on our living room
> floor for a Queen's or Candlemas. Doing that meant that the "event"
> kept happening even if you weren't on site; having people scattered
> over half a dozen motels means such post-revels are *much* less common
> now.
>
> 3. Holding court after the feast is over. It seems that all too often
> it's feast, then court, then "Vivat Ansteorra", the lights come up
> and everybody packs up to leave. A feast which segues into singing or
> storytelling or just visiting with friends is a much gentler way to
> end the evening.
>
> 4. Fewer informal bardic circles. Again, back in the early days, it
> was rare *not* to find folks sitting around a campfire singing songs
> or telling stories. Granted, many of the songs were filks or things
> from Steeleye Span or Rudyard Kipling, but they *sounded* period
> (mostly. ) If you're camped on-site then there's nothing to stop
> you from staying up half the night singing (and drinking) because you
> *don't* have to drive anywhwere.
> I can recall a certain Prominent Lady breaking up one of these
> circles at an event out at the RenFair site (which will give you an
> idea of how long ago it was) because she was offended that we weren't
> singing period stuff. She didn't offer to do anything more period
> herself, she just wanted us to stop because we weren't meeting *her*
> expectations.
> I don't want to offend the Middle Eastern Dance folks, but it seems
> to me that all-night drumming was another contributing factor to the
> decrease of informal bardic circles. It's hard to concentrate on the
> rhythm of your song when somebody in the next camp over is going
> "boom-thwacka-boom" over and over again as loudly as possible.
>
> -Tivar Moondragon
> fossil-in-residence
>
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