SC - Serving question & Feast Disaster (long)

[Jim Revells]

	In Feb. attended Market Day at Birka XI an event that I started 11
years ago in NH.  This is a letter I composed telling about it.  I put it
up on the humor & Norsefolk list as well as the Baronel news letter but I
think it has a few points that reenforce the current thread on events &
service.  I may be wrong but I hope you enjoy this letter.
 
	In the year before Birka I decided I wanted to run an event with a Viking
theme.  Not knowing anything about how to do this I started planning to
late to get it advertised in any of the News Letters except the local one,
Carved In Granite.

To get the populace to attend I came up with the idea of going to near by
events and passing out flyers. I rented the club house of my apartment
complex because it had a Sauna  (Note to Authenticity Police: yes I know
they are Finnish, but I like them & if the Vikings knew about them
they-would-have-used-them)   and "a bubbling hot spring" (Note to
Authenticity Police: see previous note)  ; got me a Feastocrat (Ragnar Mac
Hardy) who didn't care that the hall didn't have a kitchen; and to get
ready
for the event.  We called it "A Viking's Home Coming" it was held in Oct.

The day before the event my former wife, Lady Jane of Stonemarche, made the
suggestion that Ragnar and I really should start cutting up and cooking the
25# of Turnips that we needed for the Feast (a good thing too! Note to all
future
Feastocrats: Precook every thing you can before the day of the event!!) We
cooked the Feast at my Apartment that evening.  The event went off well.  I
had planned for 50 people, and we had 45 show up.  The Feast was well
received.  We had less than 1# of Turnips left over and that was all we had
left over (the secret was the Cream Onion sauce) .  The cost of the event,
including damages to the site that I don't think we caused, was less than
the money taken in-by $5.

This small event gave me confidence that I could run a big event.  It also
made me familiar with the proper way to get official sanction of an event.
I made this
statement in front of the Baronial meeting, many having enjoyed the
Homecoming event. They agreed that I should put together a plan to have a
big event-"oh, 100-125 people" was what they thought I was talking about.

The original plan was to be a Viking themed merchanting event to be held in
November so people could shop for Christmas gifts.  While talking to a
group
of friends about the event and what I planned, Fitz (yes Stonemarchers:
that
Fitz!) suggested that I base it on one of the Viking trading towns: Herbidy
or Birka.  After a little research I decided that the visit of Anskar
(later
St. Anskar) was the right time frame and type of market I was looking for.
I
went to work looking for a hall in Nashua. What I found was the St.
Stanisloff's complex. It had 2 halls one that would seat 150 people and the
other that they claimed would seat 500.  The only problem was that both
Halls were booked until Jan 3, therefore the event date got pushed to
January. I did ask one thing of the Hall management, that they hold both
halls until I could get approval. They said sure they could wait until mid
December to have a firm answer. I put together my proposal and figured out
how much I would need to make the small hall work or the big hall work.

At the Baronial meeting the description of the event met with wide
approval.
I had included every thing I liked to do at an event: Heavy Fighting,  A&S
contest, Archery, Thrown Weapons, Food &  Merchants.  I even had a  few
things that I thought other people would enjoy & might show up for:
Fencing,
Dancing and a Quest.  They bought the event as far as the small hall went,
but balked at the big hall.  "You really think you could get enough people
to come to an event in NH IN JANUARY to break even on the event???"

 I replied "Yup. All I need to do is get 200 prepaid reservations and we'll
break even."   They agreed that I could use the big hall if I got that many
reservations.  Some how I don't think they believed I could do it but I had
a few months to prove them wrong.

The first step was to put together a flyer on the event.  The second was to
attend an event every weekend to give out flyers, talk up the event, and
take reservations.
This meant going as far as 300 miles from home, but it worked and I got
over
200
prepaid reservations at the Mt. Freehold Yule Festival just before the
deadline.

The Barony honored the agreement, even though many people still worried
that
the event would back fire and bankrupt us. Well, everything went right up
to
the day of the event.  My Feastocrat, Lady Katarina Helena von Schoenborn
was willing to cook a feast for 300 that included Grilled Lamb and a Fish
dish. The populace of the Barony volunteered to do many different Jobs for
me. I delegated every job I could ahead of time. We set up most of the
merchants on Fri night.  All was in readiness-so we thought.

The troubles started early Sat morning. Katarina, due to the press of
Mundane life
did not have very much of the prep work for the Feast done ahead of time.
This was the first major problem.  Katarina & the event were all saved by
the Carolingian Cooks
Guild joining the Stonemarche cooks in the Kitchen to prep the feast.  One
of my most vivid memories of the feast was the sight of Master Kobioshie
dressed in
Japanese silk chopping vegetables- the man is very good with a knife.

The next major problem was the ovens.  When I checked the Hall Kitchen, I
had
checked the ovens.  First I turned on the left oven and made sure that one
worked.  Then I turned it off and I turned on the right oven and it worked.
Good.  The ovens in the Hall work right? Not according to Murphy!  Did you
know that in Commercial double ovens there is a thing called a metering
valve that when it breaks will allow either
oven to work independently but will not allow both of the ovens to work at
the same time?

Over half of the feast required baking.  When this was discovered, we went
in search of the hall maintenance guy was off who knows where, but it took
over 2 hours to find him.  In the meantime Lady Jane organized the local
people to take the Feast to
various homes to bake it there.

We let the merchants stay set up later than planned and announced that
Feast
would be late. We started the dancing while we waited for the Merchants to
get torn down for Court. Court ran over long too so many people left to get
dinner else where.
Because the Feast was so late I announced in Court that anyone who stayed
could eat.  The feast was very good when it was placed on the table and not
just because we were all starving.

 The rest of the Event went well. The merchants made money and people found
treasures that they could not go home without.  Stick Jocks found out that
it doesn't hurt that much to get hit when there is a foot of snow on the
ground (at least not if you wear a gambison & warm up your armour before
putting it on.)  The Barony made enough to pay for the event, pay for the
hall for the next year and still have a little left over.  We had between
400-500 people attending.  All in all, the event was a success.

Birka I set the tone for Stonemarche with almost every one in the Barony
being
involved with putting it on in one way or another. There was an attatude
"WE
can get it done" that appears to continue through to today.  If it does
then
that, not the Event, is the more important legacy that we all created
together.

	Shortly after Birka I was asked,by several people, if I were going to the
next Carolingian
event. Katarina and I both attended and were made Companions of the Order
of
the Burdened Tyger.  On small funny thing: I am an early period Viking.
Katarina is a late period German.
My scroll was a beautiful late period floral patern; hers was done in
Runes.

After I gave the report on Birka One at the Barony Meeting, I asked if I
could do it again?  They eagerly agreed to Birka II, but you should have
heard the moment of stuned silence when I said I was thiking maybe next
year we could use both Halls (we did). Birka II was a sucess also, with far
less pain and stress.  It exceeded the attendance of the first Birka
despite
the Gulf War.

We also had a crew from NH Public TV filming the event The
TV segment turned out well too, very positive without too many
inaccuracies. Maybe we should invite them back for Birka XII?

The Feast was handled by Seosamh O Choda with no excitement and YES, I Did
Check BOTH
OVENS at the same time that time!

	  I  had tenitive approval for and had been making plans for Birka III
prior
to Birka II when I found out I was being laid off of my job the day before
Birka II.
I asked a friend, Tamooj, to take over Birka III.  He also promptly lost
his
job, and his wife Deadra took over the event.  I merchanted at Birka III
and
IV.

Later I got divorced, then was forced by misfortune to move away from the
area.
I merchanted at Birka IX in a small way.  After years of trying I finaly
convinced the owner of Sudden Service to open a store in the North East so
now I'm back and very happy about it.  The main reason I
came back was to be closer to my daughter Dawn, but coming back to be a
part of the SCA here was also a major point.

That brings us up to Sat. Feb 5th.  It was a perfect day for a Winter event
clear but not too cold.
After getting dressed I started helping friends bring in their goods (Dina
from Cloak & Dagger and
Ewen from Longship Trading Co.).  It was very hard to
accomplish anything for running into people I knew and the ones
I thought I knew. Its embarassing to see someone that looks a lot like some
one
you know but you forget to add 8 years age to their faces.  Friends who
didn't recognize me can be excused I've shaved my beard off and added 25
pounds.  I
wound up working Troll for a couple of hours. It is the best way to see who
is there but makes it hard to talk to them.  I found it great to see all
the people who were there but I found myself missing a lot of people who
weren't there:  Tamooj & Deadra, Dove,  Anna & Ekkehard, Rusty, Oskar, Kami
& Michael, Killkaridan, Chad, Honest Sam, Michale, Bob just Bob, Semaj,
Demian the
Magyar,  Dannoff, Skia, Dameon, Rae Bradburry, Thora Sharptooth, and many
others. I saw Master El but didn't get to hear him sing or tell a story, I
finaly got to see Baroness Megan for the first time in 6 years.
	The most fun I had at the event wasn't suprising people I was back- it
was introducing Dawn to them.   After I left Dawn dropped out of the
Society
so most people haven't seen her since Birka III. She met me at the event
and
we cruised it together for a while.  The best was when I was talking to
Wolf
of Ulster.  When Dawn was younger she used to enjoy greeting Wolf by
jumping into his lap and giving him a big hug.  This was fine, until she
got
to looking a lot older than her age. Being a Gentleman, he made her his
"little sister" and warned away guys who didn't know her age (some times
forcefully).
I talked to him for 5 minutes before telling him that he should at least
say
hello to his
SCA "sister".  The look from face down to feet to face again was a classic
double take.  " You've grown up!" in a shocked voice was his response.  She
is 20 now.
	What did I think of the event you ask?  I have told many people that I am
proud of what the Barony has done with the event.  Baroness A'isha bint
Jamil, who was Autocrat this year 
did a supurbe job on arranging and overseeing the event.  The site was huge
with merchants and activites well spaced. (I heard over 100 merchants,
1000-1200 participants,
100+ fighters in the heavy list and about the same number for Fencers.) One
of
the really effective ideas they have come up with is a special cast pewter
token for people who pre register.  This year it was a copy of the pendant
of a Norse woman bearing a drinking horn. Many of the traditions I started
are still being done:  It still has a Norse orientation to the Event. I saw
a lot higher % of Viking garb this year than the first year.  It has been
a Royal Progress event all but one Year. The heavy list fighting was
indoors this year, yet it is still the same basic sustained wound Ox skin
Tourney except instead of dying if you step off the Ox skin you just lose
your legs.  There were both Lamb and a Fish dish at the Feast.  A'isha and
the
other Autocrats  have taken my idea and allowed it to grow while still
keeping the basic idea intact. Thank you all.

If anyone can come up with a complete list of the Autocrats & Feastocrats
please send it to me also
photos/video of any of the Birkas.

	What is instore for the future Birka? I had been told A'isha doesn't plan
to Autocrat Birka next year that leaves a question of who will.  People in
Stonemarche are throwing around names.  I hear mine has even come up.  I
would if no one else volenteered and it was a choice between me or no
Birka, however I think that some one who lives in Stonemarche should be the
one.  I haven't been a part of Birka for so long I don't know the inside of
the event well enough to deligate jobs to the people who would get it done.
Besides I don't think I could get my ideas approved without scaring
everybody in Stonemarche to death.  Can you see the response to:
	 "Well what I have planned is a 2 day event at the big Hotel in Manchester
that's attached to the old Armoury Hall- it looks very period- We'll  keep
Sat for SCAdians but open on Sunday to the general public at 2 Bucks a Head
for adults one for kids, we'll run it more like an SF Con than an Event, do
some Radio and maybe TV advertising in NH & the Boston area too, shouldn't
run us over $10K up front"
	The realy scary part is that was my plan for Birka V.  What are my plans
for Autocrating?  Well I've been approched by several people from the
Canton of Aschehyrst, where I now live, about possibly
running a small event-watch the Pike Staff.

Hej!
Lord Olaf Of Trollhiemsfjord,
Canton of Aschehyrst,
Barony of Carolingia,
Kingdom of the East