Castlefest 2008

As the three day experience from a merchant can not be very interesting for people to read, I'm just going to blog about the things that stand out.

Thursday
Arriving at the scene and realising that we didn't get the spot we were supposed to made me angry. Our stand would be around the corner from its original spot, instead of at the crossroads (inviting people in!) we were at a path that had a big sign with "emergency exit" at the end. It was hard to see that this path was not a dead end, and as such was not very inviting to people.

Arriving at Malor's place and getting a phonecall from Ragar that I didn't need to go to Puttershoek that night. It would save me another trip and a lot of stress.

Friday
Early morning, Ragar arrived on time and we had 90% of all the stuff ready downstairs when he arrived. The rental bus, a Ford Transit, was really quite huge and we could easily fit the rest into it. I was pressed up against NoKey in the front seat, but hey, that's okay!
Getting onto the grounds with the thing was hard enough. We arrived two minutes after we were allowed onto the terrain, but there were some tricky turns the bus could hardly fit through. The caretaker of the terrain scolded NoKey badly when he tried to get a pole out of the ground so we could make the turn more easily. Ragar started to fume, and we contacted one of the logistics guys to liaise. I know this caretaker is not happy with Castlefest being held near his castle and that we will leave the grounds a muddy mess, but that doesn't give him the right to threaten to toss us bodily off the terrain if we do not cease and desist. We were just trying to keep the rental in one piece, and we would put the pole back, after all.

Malmah with his son Aiden wrapped in one of our reindeer hides.

Setting up was quite a lot of work as it always is, and we hung NoKey's real quarterstaffs from the side of the tent to display the hides. Then Ragar and NoKey went to set up our tent at the camping as soon as Willeke arrived.
We were scarce done setting up when the first customer came. It was a boy who was walking with MC of 3M, a competitive shop that is not very nice, and he pointed at a hide. "How much is that?". Ragar checked, it was one of the more expensive ones of € 90,-. "Sold!" the boy exclaimed, and handed us the money. Whee!
Another good customer was one of our neighbours from Donkerstad Roleplaying. Malmah (right) plays a werewolf there and he immediately bought the long-haired brown sheepskin we had as well as one of the reindeer hides, to wrap his son in. The brown sheepskin was used for his werewolf as well. We got to see a lot of the reindeers in action, because a lot of people wrapped them around their shoulders.

Mom visited on Friday! Just after I was back from doing my rounds (checking in with the other standholders and chatting a bit here and there) and we met up quickly and browsed the medieval side of the terrain. Mom was very happy to be there and was completely blown away by everyone being so nice and friendly, everyone being dressed up, everyone being so happy. She exclaimed at the foodstuff too. "Oh, you can get fresh fruit here! Look! Can I buy you some fresh fruit? And there's ice cream over there!" and we sat down in the shade of a tree to eat our fruit. Yum.
I was really happy to see mom enjoy this so much, she was really having a blast.

This was quite a contrast with my father, who rang to say he was on his way. I finally saw him walking briskly past our stand, not noticing us at all. Perhaps he had expected something smaller. I ran after him, and brought him back to the stand. First thing he said was "Why won't you answer your phone! I called you ten times already!"
Yeah. Um. Hi dad, I'm working here. It's nice to see you too. I'm kind of busy as there are twenty people in our stand. I didn't even hear the phone.
As it turns out my father was royally pissed that he had to pay fifteen whole euro to get into the festival just to see our stand. This is a man who has been working with a large pharmaceutical company, for twenty-something years. It's not like he really needs the fifteen euro to pay for food or his mortgage.
In stead of just strolling around and having fun, enjoying the atmosphere, he expects to get in and out in fifteen minutes and for free and starts to scold me for not hearing the phone. And then he admits that it's "much larger than he imagined" and well, he'd never actually say he was impressed, but if he would, he certainly would have said he was! He just...never gives out any kind of praise.
That was quite the contrast indeed.

I met a young man, who tried on a deep red velvet cloak, who happened to practice dancing. We got to talking and as it turns out he lives in Utrecht. I gave him my card and he promised to get in touch so we could go dancing one night. I'd love to dance again. I saw them again at the Faun performance, when he and his girlfriend danced the Samba.

Willeke and I went to see Faun. Wow. That show was really great. Especially their new song. The bass was really, really loud and the music was like a waterfall, dragging us along in the beat. Oliver was in the middle of the stage, a dark figure in the blueish mist, entrancing us with his music and his dance like a true shaman. The beat reverbarating within our chest.


Picture by Arne de Laat, Castlefest 2008

Saturday
More customers strolling by, and a couple of live roleplayers coming in to visit. There was less wind than Friday, when it blew straight into our tent and I was cold most of the day. I would be wearing my white linen dress, the Accepted dress, and that is quite cool despite the long sleeves. Still, a new day with new chances, because besides the hides I hadn't sold a single thing of mine. Leather went well, as all the small belt pouches were out but one by this time.

My Saturday costume: the Accepted dress.

I missed another Ballfolk medieval dance workshop that morning. It was just too darned busy to leave the tent and as it turned out I couldn't visit a single one (there were six during the course of the weekend).

Then it was time for a short visit to steelweaver, who was just setting up. I gave her a hand as she had some trouble with her back and we were photographed by someone who actually recognized my dress, although she said I was the Amyrlyn Seat. Ah well, close enough.

I was just going for a short bathroom break when I saw a puppy. I petted it for a moment and just when I got up I received a tap on the shoulder. I turned around and saw a familiar face - one I didn't expect to see any time soon! randallsilver had snuck up on me and I was so startled that I burst into tears. It was four or five years since I last saw him and our breaking up hadn't been my idea in the first place. 's Not fair to sneak up on a girl like that!!
Well, we hugged and I cried a little bit and then I went to do the bathroom break thing, and then we met up at the Dolle Griet tent and took a stroll down Witches' Lane together. It was great fun seeing him again and spending some time with him, but I was sad to find out that he and his friends had left for the rain as I had spent some time that night trying to find him during the Omnia performance.

I bought a new set of dice (green/gold), a plushie Cthulhu, a necklace for my mother and four bottles of cherry mead.

Each night we stayed open very late, as we are prone to do. A lot of people still stroll around and do some last-minute shopping and we love to accomodate them. There's little rush and we can take the time to help them while the music plays in the background. The downside was that both Saturday and Sunday it was very rainy and people stayed in the 'main grounds' mostly. Witches' Lane and our back end alley are not very attractive in the rain. Despite us paying exactly the same amount of money as everyone with the same tent at the Medieval part of the fair, the Fantasy part was just fucked as soon as it started raining. *scowl*

My Sunday costume! The slippers were absolutely period-incorrect but they were bliss after two days of ballerina slippers. I borrowed the hat from Steelweaver. Picture by Roelof Schaap.

Sunday
Sunday was the least cheerful day of all as it is the day all the tourists visit. People who actually take advantage of the faire do their shopping on Saturday, while the people who enjoy the atmosphere so much take the time to arrange their lives around the fair. Many people just look around and browse. I wore my medieval peasant-attire, complete with hand-hemmed apron and straw hat, courtesy Steelweaver.
I was called 'Oriental' in it. It was probably the slippers and the bamboo. Because the bamboo really makes the outfit and the rest doesn't matter, right? The hat was the perfect finishing touch though.
I was also called "Zeeuws Meisje" by a photographer who was trying to get my attention. Zeeuws meisje is a dairy product of the Netherlands (Logo here (.gif)) and it depicts the original costume (klederdracht in Dutch) of women in Zeeland. As a reference, please see this image (.jpg) for a good overall image of Zeeuwse costume, though it depicts only the costume of Schouwe-Duivenland. (I have a book of these costumes, and it's awesome!)
People just have no idea. *sigh*

I saw a lot of larpers just pass us by, completely missing the tent and not even noticing we were there. Malor was one, though JW did come inside to hug us several times.

Packing up was swift and thanks to the excellent volunteers of the fairs we were allowed to take a shortcut to our tent to load the car. We were home by nine, completely exhausted!

EDIT: Picture of my Friday costume here!