This past Friday I posted to see if anyone would be in in Sioux Falls for a pre-Siouxland supper. I found out that for different reasons the folks I would usually see then and there won't be around this year. My folks travel plans have also changed and rather than returning from Rapid City or points further west this coming weekend, they're still home this week and will driving to Fairmont on Friday.

So instead of supper in Sioux Falls, it looks like it'll be supper in Fairmont with family. I'm not sure how the rest of the weekend will go. I do know that Jay and I will be doing something different this year. We'll be staying in Sioux Falls Sunday night. This is so jmaynard can catch a Monday morning flight to Atlanta so he can pick up his airplane next week. Then I drive home.

Current Mood: good

Every year that the Siouxland Renaissance Festival has taken place, jmaynard and I have attended it. We arrive Friday afternoon, check in to a hotel, and then go out for supper. The past several years we've gone out to supper with some folks we know who are also going to the RenFest. We also tend to wind up going out with some folks on Saturday and Sunday, but that's usually arranged at the Festival.

I know a good many folks who will be there will be occupied with final site set-up and performer/vendor/volunteer orientation sorts of things on Friday. Is anyone reading this going? And will be free for supper Friday evening?

Current Mood: curious

Yep, jmaynard and I have returned from RCFM. Now to recover from the trip there, all the goings on of RCFM itself, and the trip home. The car is unloaded. Some things are even unpacked. The rest will likely be a little while. Once all that is done, or even before, preparation for the upcoming Siouxland Renaissance Festival will start.

Current Mood: tired

jmaynard summed up our the final day of MNRF. I realized again just how much I don't like huge crowds. I like the first day of MNRF much better than the last day as there are fewer people. The first day is by no means empty, but if I want to get from point A to point B the first day, at worst I have to weave through folks a bit. On the last day, it's more of a struggle to even maintain momentum.

The will-call window was taking payment for next year's season passes at an alleged discount. Jay and I decided not to get season passes for next year. A friend might be getting us comp tickets. If not, well, I realized I was going almost every weekend mainly to "get my money's worth" out of the pass, and to see a few friends. If I end up paying for individual tickets, it can still be savings by my simply not going every weekend. I don't need to go every weekend. It'd be nice to have some weekends of not really doing anything - or perhaps I should say, where I can more easily do something else.

This coming weekend (Oct. 2-3) I plan on not doing too much. I could go to Albert Lea for the Big Island Rendezvous, but there's not all that much of a reason for me to do so. It'd likely chew up about 4 or 5 hours of my time.

The next weekend (Oct. 9-10) , I plan on being at the Des Moines fall fair - and I'm not expecting much as it's being put on the same folks (person) that puts on IRF. I'm going to see a few friends, really, and to see irpooh's theatrical performance.

The weekend after (Oct 16-17), Saturday evening is the Siouxland Harvest Feast. And then my faire season will be over. Then my concern will turn toward the upcoming holidays and to MFF in November.

Also, I expect to catch up on COLT during October. I'm halfway or more through dealing with issue #18 and then only 19 and 20 will be left. They might even get taken care of before I get the next new issue. It's getting close, I feel a bit of a need to press on and finish things. Last night I felt a bit guilty about not doing anything with #18 even though I was ahead. It will be nice to be caught up.

jmaynard summed up our the final day of MNRF. I realized again just how much I don't like huge crowds. I like the first day of MNRF much better than the last day as there are fewer people. The first day is by no means empty, but if I want to get from point A to point B the first day, at worst I have to weave through folks a bit. On the last day, it's more of a struggle to even maintain momentum.

The will-call window was taking payment for next year's season passes at an alleged discount. Jay and I decided not to get season passes for next year. A friend might be getting us comp tickets. If not, well, I realized I was going almost every weekend mainly to "get my money's worth" out of the pass, and to see a few friends. If I end up paying for individual tickets, it can still be savings by my simply not going every weekend. I don't need to go every weekend. It'd be nice to have some weekends of not really doing anything - or perhaps I should say, where I can more easily do something else.

This coming weekend (Oct. 2-3) I plan on not doing too much. I could go to Albert Lea for the Big Island Rendezvous, but there's not all that much of a reason for me to do so. It'd likely chew up about 4 or 5 hours of my time.

The next weekend (Oct. 9-10) , I plan on being at the Des Moines fall fair - and I'm not expecting much as it's being put on the same folks (person) that puts on IRF. I'm going to see a few friends, really, and to see irpooh's theatrical performance.

The weekend after (Oct 16-17), Saturday evening is the Siouxland Harvest Feast. And then my faire season will be over. Then my concern will turn toward the upcoming holidays and to MFF in November.

Also, I expect to catch up on COLT during October. I'm halfway or more through dealing with issue #18 and then only 19 and 20 will be left. They might even get taken care of before I get the next new issue. It's getting close, I feel a bit of a need to press on and finish things. Last night I felt a bit guilty about not doing anything with #18 even though I was ahead. It will be nice to be caught up.

( Preserved comment(s) )

Looking back at faires, the furry cons I've been to, and some other gatherings and outtings, I've noticed something. The larger the group and gathering, the less fun it is for me.

It's not that big is automatically bad, but it's not a good way to start. "You and 200 of your closest friends" makes for a good joke, but it is just that, a joke. A larger gathering may have more variety to offer, but it can also be overwhelming. Where does one start? Indeed, is there a place to start, even? A smaller group means I can really meet people, rather than just get introductions which will fade as more introductions are piled on top of them.

This seems true for all gatherings. I first noticed it with the Animanias (not the anime gatherings, the real Animanias). But it has held, so far, for furry cons and faires as well. The only way to deal with a large group is to chop it up and deal with a small piece - and then hope you don't miss something by picking the wrong piece.

Something as simple as going out to eat can get complicated if too many are involved. A couple examples come from RCFM. The supersponsor dinner worked because although it was a fairly large group to get together for a meal, it was planned in advance. This meant no, or at least not too much, hassle over getting everyone together at a certain time and agreeing on where to go.

A much smaller group was assembled, or nearly assembled, the next night. It was almost two cars of folks with the problem of getting everyone to agree to go, agree on when, and where. It was to my great relief that it did NOT happen that way. With one carload (admittedly cramped) those decisions are just that much easier. Also, all could sit at one table and converse and have an idea of who was who. This is important for someone who doesn't already know everybody and also doesn't instantly pick that sort of thing up.

Something happened this past weekend that reinforced the above. There was no malice. The intent was good. And, from reports, most folks had a good time. Yet somehow it just didn't seem to work for me. It might have been that the crowd density was high. Or, that things happened such that I wound up not near anyone I knew for a while, and an assumption was made by someone that left me uncomfortable. The result was that I left a gather early - at a time and place I'd never have expected I'd bail out of. I actually felt bad about bringing my folks into it. Fortunately the rest of weekend was more as I had expected it to be.

It's not that I want to be isolated. It's that I want to be able to get things done without it taking forever and that I don't want to get lost in, or lose someone else in, a crowd. So, as I see it, bigger is not better. As the crowd grows the apparent value of each person in it seems to decrease, as people fade into little more than interchangeable carbon-based automata. "The more the merrier" doesn't hold true. "The more, the more wearing" is perhaps more the case. The cost of a larger group is bigger. Oh yes, there can be economies of scale if everyone wants the same thing and orders in bulk or such. But that is an unusual circumstance. A larger group is harder to keep organized and is more hassle than a smaller group. That hassle can easily outweigh anything else. That's the diseconomy of scale.

( Preserved comment(s) )

Current Mood: eh

Now, Siouxland did it again. If there were a textbook example of a good, if perhaps not perfect, small faire, Siouxland would be it. Rather than go into great detail, I'll just say that this is what happens there's a lot of "giveadamn" about keeping things fun. My folks, Jay, and I all had a good time.

Current Mood: pleased

I've mentioned that a faire in Sioux Falls, SD and a faire in Waterloo, IA happen to conflict in 2004. Yesterday, another faire - this one in Elk River[1], MN announced they would have a five(!) weekend run starting on the same weekend as Sioux Falls and Waterloo.

But wait, there's more! Not only that, now another faire in the Twin Cities area has just announced a four(!) weekend run also starting on the very same weekend as the other three.

So now four faires not all that far apart will be on the same initial weekend, and the two with longer runs are closest to each other and conflicting all along (except for the final weekend of Elk River, which is July 3-4 of all times).

The Elk River and Twin Cities faires are the fission products of Rosenthorne, so some of this is expected, but still. Sheesh.

[1] Northwest of the Twin Cities by not all that much. And for more fun, they're calling themselves the Stirling Renaissance Faire, so it sounds like Sterling as well.

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! - The Beatles

( Sleep, Ron Babb, Harvest Feast, housework )

Weather. We had snow overnight. Enough that the grass is covered or mostly so and the roads were more interesting than desired this morning. It's odd, but even machine exhaust seems a bit nice in the crispness. Perhaps it's an odor from pleasant times, or maybe just knowing how good it is to have a machine (whatever it may be) running when there's snow on the ground. There is a certain satisfaction in having something start and run in colder weather. Though today isn't all that cold (Yes, Jay, I know it's freezing out. It's November. It'll do that.) as it is still in the thirties, and that's above zero.

Current Mood: good

This past weekend was the final full faire of the season for me and Jay. As Jay mentioned there is the Siouxland Harvest Feast on November 1, then nothing again until Spring. This is just as well. I'm about faired out for the season anyway and won't mind having some weekends again without much of anything planned.

The Nishna faire wasn't bad, but it seemed to be lacking. Mainly it was lacking patrons. It was a nice get-together for folks otherwise and it was good to see the Iowa (and South Dakota) folks again. Met (and watched, and photographed) Ginafae of Renaissance Sword Theatre. It'll be a while before I get the prints back. And Jay is out on the east coast for the week so any pictures he took are probably still waiting in his camera's memory.

I'm really hoping I snapped a few shots when I hoped to. Seeing some of the members of Danza Mystique trying to scale a climbing wall was memorable. I think I have a good shot of Nasira in mid-air during a descent.
And when I tried the climb, on the section noted for being easiest, I found it isn't as easy as some can make it look. I expect there were a few photos taken of my climb, but I don't know when I might ever see them.

Saturday night, on the way to a not too far away restaurant (and away from the on-site activities) Jay and I both mused that the faire was somehow misfiring, but couldn't really point anything wrong that needed fixing. Others, on ATF, have now mentioned a few things. Hopefully those things will get fixed.

Someone on ATF pointed out that next year the Waterloo faire, assuming it remains part of the My Waterloo Days celebration, will fall on the same weekend as Siouxland. I like Waterloo, but not enough to miss Siouxland. Siouxland is my one real must-see faire when it comes right down to it. I'm hoping to get my folks down to see Siouxland.

Considering the amazingly impressive reputation Siouxland has built for itself, the Waterloo faire could find it has a problem: vendors and acts going to Siouxland. The vendors I talked to this year all said they were doing great business there. The performers I talked to said they were doing well and having more fun than they did elsewhere. And then add in that the Siouxland folks are organized to the point of being almost scarily efficient about most things. The main upshot is that contracts and such are handled well in advance, not at the last minute. Chances are by the time Doc (a good guy who pretty much runs the Waterloo faire solo) gets what he needs from the city, many vendors and acts will have been spoken for - for at least a few months.

The last weekend was spent in Sioux Falls for the Siouxland Renaissance Festival. I'm rather fond of this festival for a few reasons. One is that I was involved, albeit in a minor way, from about the start. I responded to a posting about the possibility of a faire in Sioux Falls and in a couple weeks met a couple of the folks who now run the thing. The impressive thing was that they did research. Not just on "what is renaissance" but on what other faires got right and what they got wrong.

At the odd meeting I made it to, the level of organization was almost scary. They made plans and generally stuck to them and had the jobs carved out and sectioned - but not to the point of messing up communications.

This lead to their first faire, last year, being so good that many commented that it was amazing it was only a first year faire. Other faires, with many years behind them, got more wrong. Now, last year was not perfect. There were bugs. But Siouxland took notes and asked what needed to be changed. Not only that, they acted on the results they got. Result: This year was even more impressive than last. There are still a few bugs, but they're all little ones. I expect next year will be better still. People may run out of positive adjectives.

( Details of last weekend at Siouxland )

If you've not been to Siouxland, or not been to small faire, or just need an astoundingly positive weekend, Siouxland plans to do it again in 2004. How good it this festival? I haven't heard anyone say they wished they'd been somewhere else. I have heard folks say they'd skip their closer "home" faire to go to Siouxland if the dates were to conflict. Even with the rain and mud of Sunday afternoon it got praise for that time. That's how good. No, it isn't. It's much better. You'll just have to see it for yourself sometime.

Current Mood: bouncy

Or, how checking tire pressure can turn into a setup that snowballs out of hand.

( Herein, the story... )

Current Mood: amused

Well, Jay's folks are in the Fairmont area this week. We saw their new motorhome last night. They saw our house. And we all had a supper at the local Mexican restaurant (which was the third night in a row for me & Jay - not bad, but I'm ready for something else now).

We'll be making our way, though not all together, to Sioux Falls on Friday. Current plans are to meet up with Billie & James for supper at Nap's Alabama Barbecue, then we all spend Saturday at the Siouxland Renaissance Festival. Depending on the weather they may well be another potluck there Saturday evening. I'm not doing the M&M thing again, though. Maybe I'll just get some bread spreads (peanut butter, Nutella, jellies and such) and if it rains, well, they can be used in Osceola, IA in a couple weeks.

Jay & I will stay for Sunday, or most of it, at the festival. His folks will be going on their way to see a bit of the Fargo area. We will likely see them again in Minneapolis next week for supper at Lindey's.

This weekend should be quite interesting. Last year was Siouxland's first year and they got more right than many well-established faires do. Sure, they had a few misfires, but they didn't have any big misfires. It seems as if everyone (performer, vendor) asked to be invited back. And the Siouxland folks not only took notes, so to speak, but sought out ideas of what could be done better - and have since then set to work to fix those things. The only real problem they may have is one they can't control: the weather.

Current Mood: good