[Namron] WFF '06 Brief recap and Thanks

[Nico Cinocco]

I really want to express my sincere gratitude to everyone for helping out at
the Woodland Forest Festival.

More specifically, I have to thank Becky for taking on the SCA encampment and
getting that covered, Shadow for watching the Stage Schedule for me, Cormac for
helping us get TV and radio coverage and Siobhan for constantly being there to
support anything I needed during the runup 

I want everyone to know that despite numerous last minute changes, I am very
pleased with all the positive comments I received from our guests. Although the
shortfall of booths was noticed, the guest comments were very gracious and most
notably, the wonder and gratefulness of having such an event here in Shawnee.
Based on five opinions (three were from our experienced vendors), we estimated
that we were at about 150 people in the park most of the day with peaks up to
200. The average time of stay was about 90 minutes (based on guest comments)
and thus given 7 active hours (not counting the first hour which was slow and
the last hour since we started shutting down early) I would estimate that we
had at least 1000 guests with possibly up to 1400 for the day. A high
percentage was the children who were primarily influenced by the Wednesday
folder flyer. 

I want everyone to know that I am not only thankful, but truly in debt to
Steve, our absolutely fabulous blacksmythe for his incredible dedication and
effort in making a what was a must see display for every guest. Despite the
fire marshal requiring him to work without the benefit of shade, he presented
an engaging look into his work that had many of our guests so impressed that it
was the most often mentioned "booth" amongst those with whom I spoke.

Caius' Roman display was even more impressive than last year, with all the
shiny helms being noticeable from across the park and watching Ryan run around
with one on was really funny. 

Cormac's well-prepared display was pretty interesting and filled that space
really well. It was a good example of how involved one can get.

ENCAMPMENTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Of course, I am also grateful to all of our vendors and entertainers who helped
us expand the demo into something a little more engaging.
- Although we had originally booked four bellydance troupes, two pulled out in
the last week and one just did not show up. I very much appreciate the troupe
that perfomed for us, Banmala, who is a new group in OKC. They also had Tarot
and Massage available in theior booth and did well. (talk to Lucrezia if you
want to contact them)
- Twisted Blades once again did a fantastic job both on stage and on the grass,
their presence added a much needed "dramatic" element to the day. Hopefully,
next year the scheduling will allow the Redland Rogues (the OKC stage combat
troupe) to attend as well next year. 
- Arabesque really wowed the crowd with their unique music performances and
were especially wonderful for adding the interactive piece with children on the
stage playing with the wooden "dancing figurines" (My landlord came by and was
so impressed, he spoke to them about some real world gigs doing turkish-jazz
fusion pieces...)
- Dustin Cooper and Callen Clarke were excellent as well, providing more
traditional faire music and ambiance. Which made us seem more like a "real
faire..." 
- Jeremy "Fugli" added even more panache and style with his roving minstrel
gig. Thanks, Jeremy 
- Amtgard may not have realized what they were getting into by opening up their
boffers to the kids. But they were a fantastic hit with many of the kids (and I
should mention that on my way home, I saw two houses that had kids in the front
yard, swordfighting with sticks...) I am quite pleased that they were able to
make it and I hope that they found some new members. I tried to convince one of
them to come be our youth combat marshal...

VENDING
Our vendors were:
Old World Merchants (Lord Robert)
Lord Terric's Pottery and Mugs
Grampy Neil's Guitar Wagon
Lady Fayidah's dance "accessories"
Lady Lucrezia's Henna Booth and Faerie wings
Shawnee VFW sold Hot dogs and sodas
There were 36 applications sent out (by request), about 20 other inquiries from
non-faire type vendors (not sent an app) and four vendors that cancelled.
Based on conversations with the vendors (not including the VFW) our guests
spent a total of over $2000 on non-food items. I have not been able to contact
the VFW for details on their wagon. But I will say that we were lucky to even
have hot dogs, there were numerous snafu's with that setup.

We also had two charities, St John's who were touting their Angel Food program
and Systems of Care / Red Rock who were selling the "Official Logo" (the
overstock - logo only/ no shirts - that was not sold, will still be available
from me) and T-shirts.  There were two other charities scheduled who did not
show up. 

The Emmanuel Episcopal church Feast was very successful, they had 85 of their
100 seats sold before the festival opened. They had a representative in a hot
pink and black Jester's outfit (it was really hard to miss...) trying to sell
off the last fifteen. I spoke with one of the coordinators after the feast and
they felt that it was very successful and would like to work closer with us in
coordinating for next year. They will need a lot of help with getting the feast
to be  a little more substantial.

Again, Thank you all for you participating. The official postmortem report
(with numbers) will be made at the Oct pop meeting.

Lord Niku ho Choriskardia 
aka 
Nicu the Heartless

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