[Sca-cooks] IKA: Kingdom funding feast

[Laura C. Minnick]

This IKA stuff is pretty interesting!

AnTir is frakking huge, and customs vary within it. I can really only 
speak to how we do it in the southern end- basically Oregon and SW 
Washington.

Kingdom events- two Crowns, two Coronations, Kingdom A&S, and An 
Tir/West War (all of which are subject to bid by local branches, profits 
are split between branch and Kingdom)- have no feast. The last time 
there was a feast at 12th Night Coronation was about 15 years ago. The 
main reason we don't have them- flat-out too big. Kingdom events run in 
the neighborhood of 1200-1500 people, and often more. It is really hard 
to find facilities big enough to host that many people, much less make a 
feast! 12th Night is now held in hotels, 'Con' style. Sometimes the 
hotel restaurant will offer a periodish meal, and at one place we gave 
them recipes and they produced period meals, which was really cool. But 
they were an exception.

The Principality of the Summits has four Principality events- two 
Coronets and two Investitures. 11th Night (yeah, I know) Investiture 
usually has a feast. Attendance at Principality events is usually in the 
neighborhood of 200 people. (Summits is the part of Oregon that is not 
Portland Metro. Most of the people in the state are in Portland, and the 
population base in the rest of the state is kinda sparse.) There have 
been in the past potlucks at the summer Coronet events, but they haven't 
done that for awhile.

Local events frequently have feasts- basically events from October to 
April are day events with a feast- at least a potluck. Some branches, 
especially the bigger baronies, put on really good feasts. And I am 
pleased to report that the potlucks are even doing well- went to one 
last month and was pleasantly surprised to see that about 3/4 of the 
dishes were at least period-oid, and about half were period, most with 
documentation on the 3x5 card with ingredient list! The foodies in the 
Portland Metro area have been really pushing with the evangelism- more 
and more people are experimenting with period food, and I am very 
pleased about this development!

I live in Portland- Barony of Three Mountains- and our events range for 
150-300 attendees, depending on the event. Yule feast is usually a big 
one, as is the A&S championship. We have been having some difficulty 
finding event venues here in town that will fit that many people. One of 
our favorite halls recently was sold and the new owners re-purposed it 
and no longer rent it out to folks like us. Our typical site is a 
Masonic hall, with kitchen/dining hall, and a big room for court. Their 
kitchens are usually very good. Sometimes we get a different site and 
aren't so lucky. Those events usually end up being potlucks.

Anne-Marie can probably speak to event conditions in the central area of 
An Tir- I really don't know about the rest of the kingdom- remember that 
it is a 27 hour drive (straight through) from one end of the kingdom to 
the other, and it has a very wide variety of customs and people, most of 
which and whom I have not seen or met. Is there anyone here from Tir 
Righ or Avacal? I'd like to hear about their customs!

'Lainie

-- 
"It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."  -Albus Dumbledore

~~~Follow my Queenly perambulations at: http://slugcrossings.blogspot.com/