Post by K S ONeill on Nov 21, 2007 12:52:35 GMT -6
Yo
The clips from the RenFair on the current front page of the Rogue Site have got me thinking of something I was thinking of a while ago, but have not been thinking of recently, until I saw the clips, whereupon I starting thinking of it again. Which is to say;
Why don't we have an actual fencing tournament at the RenFair?
It could be a regular tournament run as we would usually run it, or it could be some kind of 'demo'; for example, we could decide it's to our advantage to only have impressive and pretty fencing, so we could restrict it to Cs and up, or Ds and up, or just pretty fencers in the opinion of the coaches sending them, or whatever we like.
If we restrict it to only As and Bs and make it a demo, then rather than go through pools we could just random draw for places on a DE chart. If this doesn't meet USFA requirements we could make it a remote practice for a local club, so that the club's insurance would cover the fencers. Outdoors, of course. Epee, of course, since foil and saber are incomprehensible. Er, to non-fencers. And me. But I digress. Outdoor epee has a long and storied tradition, it's simple, it looks like sword fighting.
Objections:
In the mud?
Well, sure. Or on a strip, a wood strip, say. Raised up some distance. Might still be a good idea to forgo foot shots, you could cake up your tip pretty quick.
Electric? Standard Leon Paul boxes don't look RenFair-ish.
True enough. That's a solvable problem, given how loose the RenFair is with authenticity. I can pretty easily, for example, work up a box that has a toy dragon sitting on top that roars and points to the fencer that got the touch. Seriously. I think making it some kind of electronic scoring is a good idea, though. Dry epee sucks, we are none of us used to visual judging and we're not very good at it. If the point of the thing is to advertise local fencing as done in the USFA, that's not very much like dry epee. We can come up with some kind of box arrangement that would work.
In white uniforms?
Well, that's a good point. It might be necessary to sacrifice a few cotton uniforms and masks to dye/paint jobs to look the part.
In return, what would we get?
Publicity. Tons of it. Loads. Acres. Lots of people watching. Every club that sends two fencers gets to have a guy wandering around with painted boards on the front and back and flyers. You could give beginner group lessons right there on the spot between bouts.
How would one go about this?
I have no idea. It's just a thought. I assume there's a process for getting a booth at the RenFair. It might be expensive or otherwise out of reach. Anyone know any more than this?
Ok, I've looked at the Ren Fair site, and it seems like we would be auditioning as an "act", and would actually get paid. I think. I didn't in a quick look see how one becomes a vendor. I'm not sure.
If it seems like a few clubs are interested I'll do more digging. What y'all think?
Kevin
Brazosport Fencing
PS Hey, come fence this Saturday! We need people!
The clips from the RenFair on the current front page of the Rogue Site have got me thinking of something I was thinking of a while ago, but have not been thinking of recently, until I saw the clips, whereupon I starting thinking of it again. Which is to say;
Why don't we have an actual fencing tournament at the RenFair?
It could be a regular tournament run as we would usually run it, or it could be some kind of 'demo'; for example, we could decide it's to our advantage to only have impressive and pretty fencing, so we could restrict it to Cs and up, or Ds and up, or just pretty fencers in the opinion of the coaches sending them, or whatever we like.
If we restrict it to only As and Bs and make it a demo, then rather than go through pools we could just random draw for places on a DE chart. If this doesn't meet USFA requirements we could make it a remote practice for a local club, so that the club's insurance would cover the fencers. Outdoors, of course. Epee, of course, since foil and saber are incomprehensible. Er, to non-fencers. And me. But I digress. Outdoor epee has a long and storied tradition, it's simple, it looks like sword fighting.
Objections:
In the mud?
Well, sure. Or on a strip, a wood strip, say. Raised up some distance. Might still be a good idea to forgo foot shots, you could cake up your tip pretty quick.
Electric? Standard Leon Paul boxes don't look RenFair-ish.
True enough. That's a solvable problem, given how loose the RenFair is with authenticity. I can pretty easily, for example, work up a box that has a toy dragon sitting on top that roars and points to the fencer that got the touch. Seriously. I think making it some kind of electronic scoring is a good idea, though. Dry epee sucks, we are none of us used to visual judging and we're not very good at it. If the point of the thing is to advertise local fencing as done in the USFA, that's not very much like dry epee. We can come up with some kind of box arrangement that would work.
In white uniforms?
Well, that's a good point. It might be necessary to sacrifice a few cotton uniforms and masks to dye/paint jobs to look the part.
In return, what would we get?
Publicity. Tons of it. Loads. Acres. Lots of people watching. Every club that sends two fencers gets to have a guy wandering around with painted boards on the front and back and flyers. You could give beginner group lessons right there on the spot between bouts.
How would one go about this?
I have no idea. It's just a thought. I assume there's a process for getting a booth at the RenFair. It might be expensive or otherwise out of reach. Anyone know any more than this?
Ok, I've looked at the Ren Fair site, and it seems like we would be auditioning as an "act", and would actually get paid. I think. I didn't in a quick look see how one becomes a vendor. I'm not sure.
If it seems like a few clubs are interested I'll do more digging. What y'all think?
Kevin
Brazosport Fencing
PS Hey, come fence this Saturday! We need people!