Crossroads Festival Demo 1993

Photo

SCA Demo at first Crossroads Fair

Information

Location:	Dreiburgen Indio Fairgrounds
Date:	03/6-7/1993

Event Staff

Autocrats:

Eadwynne of Runedun

Highlights

From the Dreiburgen News, April 1993

Chronicle of the Crossroads Renaissance Festival Demo by Eadwynne of Runedun, Dreiburgen Chatelaine

On Friday night, March 5th, an intrepid few, Gautier and Christianna, Alexander and Kelsy from House Ribbonwood, Timothy "cute-buns" Kyle, and my lady and I set out for Indio. We arrived at the ExpoCenter and were given directions to our site for set up. The site, as it turned out, was excellent. We were next to DragonMarsh and Glennatiegh, and just down the way from Anselm Armories. The SCA Equestions were on the other side of camp, close enough to visit and too far away to smell (the horses). In other words we had a near perfect SCA enclave.

The Saturday morning sunshine seemed to come way too early. More SCA folk arrived and Christianna fed us and Cynthia (Fionghuala) watered us. By opening hour, we felt that we might take on the day. I am told that 4,300 people came through those gates, and almost as many on Sunday. A few signed our interest list and if they actually join, they could double the size of the Desert March Canton. We met new friends and found some old ones who said they had been in the SCA elsewhere, but hand't known where to find us. We hope that they'll come out and play.

As usual, the fighting brought the most attention, but our arts and sciences demos were definitely noticed, especially the inkle loom and mail-working. Between bouts, we allowed customers to try their hand at combat using Alexander's boffer swords. Despite my early concerns, they proved to be the "hit" of the Fair. We were given compliments by both the public and regular Fair participants who said we did a "great gig." They didn't realize it was just a normal SCA day to us. I think we showed them what SCA really stands for.

To the organizers of the Event, Tom and Pat, thank you for the invitation. We had fun. Thanks to the Fair-folk who made us feel welcome. Special thanks to the Canton of Gallavally for the loan of their Eric and their new Pavilion, and a big thanks to DragonMarsh for doing the junk food run for us.

I want to express my heartiest thanks to everyone who showed up and gave us a hand: Tethra, Beth, Allaine, Thurstan, Thomas "ouch, that smarts" Danlar, Marian and John, Wolfram and Megan, Duke "no thanks for the whiskey) Ivan, Paginus and Eldwyn, Luther, Tesse, Wilhelm, Katherine and Ruth, and all of the other folks who came over, and anyone I didn't know or might have missed. Thanks to the Glennatiegh folks for very personal reasons. I want to especially thank my lady, Cynthia (Fionghuala), for her patience, hard work, and for being my inspiration. I want everyone who participated to know that your efforts were appreciated not only by me, but by the Festival Organizers, Tom and Pat. Everyone added something to the event, and again, thank you all.

P.S. For those of you who stayed for the free meal Saturday night, sorry... Next time we'll order out.

Memories

We set up a fighting area where people could attack each other with boffers (foam padded weapons). Liability would never allow that today, but I degress... A very prim lady had brought her two children with her. She was tall, blonde and looked all business - an odd costume for a ren fair. The kids were also dressed very formally - I have seen kids in church more relaxed. The mom allowed her kids to try out the boffers on each other. The kids actually seemed surprised that they were given this permission. Oh, my, gosh. These two kids took to each other like Viking Berserkers. I held my breath a bit because they were swinging those sticks against each other like baseball bats. All expression left the mom's face and she may have even gotten a bit pale - apparently, she'd never seen this side of her kids before. When they finally tired out and left, one of the other people in my group whispered in my ear, "I think you just saved those kids thousands of dollars and years of therapy." I think he may have been right. - Eadwynne of Runedun
This will always be a special event for me because I was "crossbow handfasted" to my lady, Fionghuala, by my friends from Glennatiegh and several of my other friends, in particular Timothy Kyle and Caitlin. Everyone seem quite amused, but it really was a special moment. As for the Saturday night dinner, well, Tom, the Festival Organizer, seriously underestimated the mouths to feed and tried to stretch the spaghetti dinner much farther than physically possible. He meant well. - Eadwynne of Runedun

Photos

Eadwynne of Runedun, Timothy Kyle and friends at Crossroads Festival Demo 1993
Eadwynne of Runedun and Fionghuala at their handfasting at Crossroads Demo, 1993. Crossbow aimed at Eadwynne is off camera.