This weekend's demo

We did a demo this weekend at a semi-local medieval/fantasy faire called Krebashia Kingdom. I was, quite frankly, not looking forward to it. It really didn't seem all that interesting to me, and participation from our group was going to be fairly low, due to real life getting in the way. But, we had committed, and went out Saturday with eight of us, and set up.

I have no idea what I was explaining,
but it must have been intense...
Photo by David Monahan

The Faire is a production of the Ekrub Players. They are a small group dedicated to bringing the performing arts to communities in a family friendly atmosphere. They were very eager hosts, although the event schedule was a bit jumbled. This was largely due to trying to work around the weather, which was rainy at the beginning. That aside... it ended up being a very fun day. We fought in between jousting by Paragon Jousters and a comedy/fantasy sword fighting troupe called Steadfast Steel. The ground was soft, and a bit sandy, but we have fought on worse. I think we gave them a pretty good show... folks seemed to enjoy it, and a reasonable number stuck around to ask questions after.

One thing that I found interesting was the difference in questions at this demo versus all the others I've been to. Most of our demo's have been at public events like our town wide Summerfest, and on the college campus. At the Faire, people were already interested in the medieval aspect of it, and weren't being sold on the concept. It resulted in a very different dynamic. Yes, there were those who were from the fantasy side of it... but they still had the interest in all things involving swords and playing dressup. :) We had people who already did blacksmithing and brewing and costuming, and would be good ready made additions to the Society as a whole.
All in all, it was a very successful demo. We steered some people towards the Coldwood group, and gave contact information for the Society and the Northern Outpost specifically to a bunch more. Next year I think we will try and get people from Coldwood there... the location is actually closer to their Shire, and would be a good opportunity for them as well.