SC - First Feast

[CorwynWdwd at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/15/1999 12:36:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
annaoftderturm at pathway.net writes:

>        I am doing my first feast with-in a month. The hall will hold 100,
>  but my shire advisers said to plan for 48. I am making meat pies and
>  dumplings ahead and freezing them. But my real concern is what do I do if
>  the morning of the event 50 more people decide to stay for feast. 

The way I do it is to plan for about a third to a half more people (depending 
on predictions). After that, the feast is full and no more on boards can be 
sold. This is assuming that you are asking people to make reservations ahead 
of time. 

My most recent feast had a cut off of one hundred people. Then it became a 
Royal Progress event, and there was a LOT of pressure to up the ante to 150. 
I resisted, we DID up it to 104, to make things even. Towards the beginning 
of serving, there was another request from the Event Steward to feed an 
additional thirty people, which I again had to refuse, as everything was 
planned for eight people to a table and thirteen tables. Where was I to get 
the additional chickens and pie shells and assorted stuff?

Everything came out on time and the hot things were hot and the cold things 
were cold. We also fed the servers and the kitchen crew off the books because 
you do not muzzle the ox that treads the grain. 

My advice is to plan as much as possible ahead, including a somewhat solid 
number of how many you're going to feed. This was the first feast for me in 
over ten years, and I panicked just beforehand. I ended up returning some 
stuff, and I went over budget because I lacked storage space and bought 
everything the day before. Most of the overage can be saved for the next 
event. That that was perishable went to good homes or was served as breakfast 
the next morning. Your mileage may vary, and I assure you others on this list 
will have different opinions. That said, my final word is to estimate as best 
you can how many you'll be feeding, add about a third to that, and draw the 
line there. This means that if fifty more poor planners show up that morning 
planning to eat, 38 make other arrangements. Life is like that sometimes.

Corwyn
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