Midsummer faire

[janestarz]

This was the first Archeon Midsummer Faire -- they have organised a Midwinter faire for a while, where Dolle Griet also had a stand to sell their wares. But this year we're taking it rather slow, also because of my personal state of mind lately, and I would just be a visitor.
Of course I had offered to help out both Maerquin and The Queen Ring so I would not want for things to do.

Saturday I was picked up by BigBoss at eight-thirty sharp. He was a bit early though, so I promptly forgot my camicia, which was still on a hanger after ironing. We rode to Alphen a/d Rijn to the Archeon and found the entrance for the cars with a little trouble. We weren't the first to arrive at the fisherman's late medieval house, and were unpacked quickly.

During the day we had our hands full with the kids visiting the midsummer faire. All children that were interested could help us. There was a wizard from the Maerquin barony (Baronie Marsilac) who tried to change lead into gold. But the spell went wrong and now things in the Archeon were transformed into gold! If the children found a person with a golden object, they could get a stamp and if they had enough stamps they'd get some candy. I had dressed up as my sun-elf NPC character from Charm, which includes a golden skirt and gold silk underbust corset. I added golden crystals and yellow make-up swirlies on my face to finish the job. A number of children found me, and they also harassed Bas who wore his Drachenfest djinn costume.

NoKey and his mother came to visit the faire as well, and we shared a lunch at the cloister, had very tasty lentil soup with bread. NoKey brought my camicia so I would not go underwear-less the next day, as well as a cauldron for tea.

I also took BigBoss along to the larp speed-dating, where I played a true harlot with a girlish giggle. I tumbled in the cuddling corner with Cupid (the very man that got me into larp in the first place, all those years ago!), and ended up with two (very young) Vortex players who walked me home. I also flirted shamelessly with Popeye, who was on a bachelor party. I'm afraid I'll go down into their memories as a stripper or some such. *grin*
I don't ever want to play that character again! I was ready to commit suicide after an hour of her.

I sat with Merill from Vortex during the Omnia show, having a blast checking out cute men. I didn't really enjoy Omnia all that much as they were a little bit too zen and too popi, trying a little bit too hard to impress everyone.
After the park closed, we gathered in the fisherman's hut and shared mead and cheese. We had a lot of fun before anastaszia and erwinl went to their own beds and we made ours.

On Sunday I would help out steelweaver and twilightbanana at the Queen Ring (TQR) stand, but first up was breakfast. I had slept in my camicia, having found out that it was very comfortable to do so, and stumbled towards the latrina next to the Roman bathhouse. On the way back I ran into Steelweaver and Twi, the former still lacing up her gothic fitted dress. We joked around about being 'unlaced' and 'running around in your underwear' and I promised I'd join them soon. The guys from Maerquin dragged me to breakfast first, and right afterwards I helped TQR to move their stand to a better spot.

I wore my Puerto costume (still no pictures online) with academic cleavage and a turban-style headdress and sat next to Sjoerd to lure people into taking an interest in weaving maille. Sjoerd was working on a six-in-one copper and black number, while I demonstrated scalemail. My golden shoes were standing next to me, and some children were very excited to find me and get a stamp for their 'fox-hunt'! I later heard from alhandra_s that one girl had told her: "There was a woman and she was working, but her shoes had been turned into gold so she had to take them off!"


Photo by Hans_S, made earlier this year.

Keffie and Leona, along with H'eldaran and his father stopped by. Keffie has some trouble with his knees so he took one of the park wheelchairs and they parked him with me. I took Keffie along to the joust at one pm. It was a great show! I was rooting for the white knight, who won, but most of the people were a fan of the black knight. The white knight was Wouter, a guy I know from a few years back, when he once played larp.

After the joust there was a chance to talk to the knights and pet the horses, so I rode Keffie over to the white knight and Keffie stared at the pretty horsie (Flamenco) while I talked to Wouter a bit. A lot of girls and some other children were interested in the horse as well, so I gave them some room. The ladies who had given this knight their favour (a lace kerchief) called me a farmer simpleton (boerentrien), but it was all in good humour.

After the joust I parked Keffie in the shadow where he took a workshop in chainmail (four-in-one) and I sat at the other side until the gladiator show. Can you believe I've been to the Archeon for a few years and never watched the gladiator show? Keffie was the only one of his group that didn't join us and I ended up sitting next to Leona. The show was very funny, but also very exciting. You could really see they had rehearsed everything very well and that they were not holding back!


Photo by Hans_S, made earlier this year.

This time, the arena was rooting for the underdog in stead of the emperor's favorite. I thought both were very good-looking, but the blonde curls of the least favorite really endeared the man to me. He won too, and got to execute the other gladiator, smearing his sword in blood. Lots of blood! The crowd cheered.

I sneaked a peek at the speeddating again, but got tired of the character and snuck out again very quickly. I spent the rest of the day with the TQR stand and finished my scale mail endeavors, only to buy more rings and start on a project for Marianne. *sigh*
After closing, the four of us cleared away the stand and Sjoerd gave me a lift home because the bus of Twi and Steelweaver is only marginally fit for three people.

It was really a great event, and I got a terrible sunburn on my right shoulder because SPF 30 only works for half a day, or some such. Luckily I noticed it and could cover it up. I was very glad to have something on my head as well, even if a turban is not the best thing for me to wear. I was all rosy and happy when I got home!

I sure hope the pictures of Puerto will go online soon! I know for a fact some people took pictures of me working at the TQR stand, but I doubt I'll find any of those but the ones Hans S. took. I really enjoyed telling people about weaving maille, and how much fun it is, so perhaps I will do that again some time.

Comments

[woran.livejournal.com]

Good to hear you had fun! Did Twi and stealweaver drink enough?

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Seeing as how Steelweaver brought me a drink while I was talking to some people while sitting in the full sunlight doing scalemail, I'm probably not allowed to judge.