NJ Family Medieval Festival


NJ Family Medieval Festival

Friday Night we packed up the car and our clothes to leave Saturday morning. I joke about (but half believe) that we have pixies. We have both had instances when something went missing, we looked for it, then found it in the *first place we looked*

This has happened with wedding rings, keys and important paperwork. On Friday it was costuming. I have my ‘medieval outfit’ which is no small amount of cloth. We have our ‘costuming shelf’ and when we do laundry-that’s the first place I heave my costuming. I emptied the shelf, *destroyed* the dresser, yanked apart a number of closets and finally said to Frank.
“Okay, I give up I can’t find it.”
He went in, made a concerted effort, found the overdress and apologized.
We had supper, I decided to give it one last try and there, folded, on the shelf, where is always is, was the brown kirtle.
“Damn pixies.” I growled
“Thank you damn pixies:” amended my husband.

After that, packing went fine and I am glad I read the weather report.

At 3:00 we woke up to leave for 4:00. Nobody looks like a rock star at 3:00 unless it’s a Rock Star that has been through a blender. Because we were leaving so early everyone was already in costume and we had some new additions. morgan_lafaye made an arming cap for her crusader outfit which she calls “the baby bonnet” and blue_micha had purchased a cavelier-style chapeau she named “Ferdinand” because a hat that big with that many feathers needs a name. (not unlike morgan’s “Bertha”) We met to carpool and julytooth forgot to set her alarm. She called and we stuffed into two cars and said we’d meet her onsite.

The fog was incredible and unsurprisingly we made good time into NJ. We have a travel warning for those using google maps in NJ but more about that later.

We got to St. Mark’s and it was interesting to note that the people who drove 4+ hours made it it before the locals and were ready and set up at the correct time. Our jaw dropped when Julytooth arrived right after we finished erecting the tent.
“How fast were you going?” asked Frank
“You don’t want to know.” Was the answer. But she is a former native of NJ and assured us that she knew how to spot speed traps. (Guess so!)

The fairgrounds are good-sized but NOT well-shaded. We had debated whether or not to bring the tent but as it turned out-it was an excellent decision (perhaps those stuffed in the car with it initially wouldn’t agree but yes, shade is a great thing)
The heat was awful and humidity worse. We were scheduled for two shows and at the second one, we just did random fights for four people. My costuming was soaked with sweat and we did “sunscreen patrol” for one another as well as making sure we all stayed hydrated. Morgan bought gatorade and I never drink that stuff. I made an exception as did everyone else. Other folks who were there:
Crimson Celts

Long Valley Fencers Ckub

The Adrian Empire

The Wandering Poet

Christina Hanna</p>

The Adrian Empire folks ended up with terrible sunburns and sunstroke. We felt really sorry for them. Also their tent was destroyed by an overnight rainstorm. Phoenix members called us Friday and Thursday with questions of costuming and we said
“95 degrees, we will settle for you covering your naughtly bits.” So even the costuming hos were sure to bring light stuff.
We flopped in the tent, drank, stayed stationary until our shows. We did NO stage acts. The New Empire Knights didn’t do any jousting, they just rode horses around and set up next to us. perrin_o_ravnos was full of funny quotes this weekend as was Minyon. One on seeing the horses as they pulled in;
“Holly’s thinking ‘Chris, why did you put the horses so close?’ and Morgan’s thinking “oh Chris, why couldn’t you have put the horses closer!’”
It was fine since the grass was moist and I didn’t touch them. It’s only when it’s dry and the horsehair and dung dust is flying that it’s an issue-and honestly a lot of it is how high quality the hay is as well. If it’s cheap and musty-going to be a pr

Anyway, our historical shows were well-received and Chris had compliments from the patrons. I have no idea was the gate count was and was surprised anyone came in the heat.

The lead of Crimson Celts (Will "The Fiddler" Kradlak) came by with his violin and it was beautiful (circa 1789) and he flirted outrageously with Morgan. We have similar problems with group maintenance. LOL.

On Saturday we stayed at the Courtyard Marriot and although it was more expensive than we usually go it was SO worth worth it for the beds, the pool and the whirlpool. We tried to use Minyon’s tom-Tom but it just made raspberries at us. We first tried restaurant in Clinton but a quick look around said

“Way too chi-chi for sweaty performers” and while questing elsewhere, the second car went into rebellion and we stopped at the first place we saw-which turned out pretty well. It was the Ol’ West BBQ and we had good-sized meals in the bar. The waitresss had a lot going on so each time she hit the table she had to bring back six drinks or a pitcher of water. I had the Sea Dog Blueberry Ale which was surprisingly good as I generally don’t like fruit-tinged beers.

The faire closed early both days because of heat. We didn’t take issue with it. Made it home by midnight. Apparently it hit 104 on Saturday and Sunday was nearly as warm, just less humid.

We headed home and hit a Chinese Buffet that had the prettiest red bean dumplings I’ve ever seen-shaped and colored like peaches. We have a funny photo of Blue_micha stuffing one in her mouth like a squirrel. ;-)

It was a nice little faire. Chris has learned his lesson about our availability and told us he wants us for a number of future events so I have to get them on the calendar!