Belated Event Reviews

Sunrise
Originally uploaded by bartnnick

My apologies for not reviewing the last several events. It's nothing against the events themselves and everything to do with the fact that I can't find the darned cord to upload my photographs! I'm convinced the cats ran off with it. Just when I was remembering to actually take pictures too.

Kohkohmah:

Kohkohmah-Foster Encampment

This is my all time favorite event site. The natural ampitheatre, the wonderful stockade fort, the tree cover. I love that it's so easy to forget about the modern world when on this site. The event itself is well organized which makes it easy to participate & feel involved. This year was a little disappointing at the coffeehouse. Our camp lost it's main road frontage to the French, which limited the number of spectators who came around to my demo. Ideally I need to be set up in a main drag, the more people walk past the coffeehouse, the more people stop to listen to me talk. I was also surprised at how few of my fellow reenactors stopped by for coffee in the mornings (or even during the day). Last year I could barely keep up with the demand, this year I actually had extra! Still it was a good event. L made friends with the French children, played in the creek and on the bridges and dipped her own candle. I barely saw her, which means she was having a good enough time not to want to hang around complaining of being board.

Feast of the Hunters Moon:

Feast of the Hunters Moon 2008

I attended this event at the last minute, playing "shop girl" for J. Henderson Artifacts. When the opportunity came up I simply had to take it! I'd heard from others that Feast is the "biggest dog & pony show around", and they weren't kidding. I was boggled at the sheer number of participants. With an event this size it's expected that not everyone will be of the highest caliber, but there were quite a few fantastic camps to balance it all out. I especially enjoyed working all weekend, strange I know but I felt great having something constructive to do. I also learned that working in the pottery shop is great fun because everyone comes to you to say hello. i don't get many visitors while doing the coffeehouse demo, mostly because people are trying not to interrupt. In the shop however, no one worries about interrupting.

Mississinewa:

Mississinewa 1812

This is our only 1812 event and one of the best for enjoying the river. This year the weather was completely cooperative. Cool at night but not too cool, sunny and warm during the day but not scorching hot. L spent most of the event at the far end of camp playing with the kids in the River Rogues group. The one drawback to this was that "the other side" of camps was close to a mile away. I didn't have the coffeehouse demo with for this event (it's not 19th century appropriate) so I was able to spend most of my time with her, hanging out, painting with watercolors and splashing around in the river. We attended the ball Saturday night and enjoyed watching the dancers, even though we didn't dance ourselves. The Saturday night pirate party was, as always, indescribable, which of course leads to the rather sedate Sunday. I spent the morning working in the pottery shop while L played in camp. The best thing to come from the event though, was that L finally got over her fear of the boat! I'm looking forward to being able to take her out on the water more often now that she actually enjoys it.

Well, that's basically it for the event reviews. Now that the busy season is over I'll be back to regular blogging and sharing the little bits of research that I've managed to sneak in while running from event to event soon.