Festival Preperations


I gathered with others waiting for Airmid to arrive with instructions for the Festival. Salmar and Sontaro kept the snowballs flying while others asked of events to come and brought food for the masses. The Festival is made up of all volunteers and many people are involved. There are those who run the events but also those who gather the prizes, make the books, build the garden, and gather gold and leather. Most of those who arrived early were volunteers, and all recognized each other by name if not by acquaintance.

Before too long Airmid and others arrived with Festival clothes for event hosts and gaters specially crafted by "Del Summer Festival". Festival colors were teal and purple beautifully arranged by each wearer into their own unique outfit. I was lucky enough to receive a white elven robe, which I will treasure for years to come. As people roamed about talking and deciding what events to attend Dennar gave out 6th year anniversary bags filled with cake, a bell and best of all, a fireworks wand. He commanded us all to"use the wand", so we did.

Fishing, Taming and Crafting Expositions


The first events to take place were Fishing demonstration, Crafter's Exposition and Tamer's Exposition. I chose to visit the crafter's exposition where Rhiannon waited in Zoot's Hammer Smith's Shop ready to assist. She helped me find the perfect skill building weapons for my sister Stheno and made a set on the spot for no charge. I tried to notify other festival goers of this great deal, to little or no avail. People today have little appreciation for the Smiths of yesterday who played such a huge part of every player's life in creating and repairing armor that everyone could afford.

When I arrived at the Tamer's Exposition many beasts and people were milling about. Lady Windsong offered to tame creatures for members of the crowd and several called out that they wanted reptilions! The tamers managed to get several beasts, after much death and effort. I'm not sure the new owners knew what to do with the beasts once they got them. If you happen to see a few extra reptilions running about you'll know who caused the death of many a tamer on the night of the festival.

The Ferret Races!


After the Expositions we were off to the Ferret Races at the Winner's Circle Race Track in Yew. The center of the track filled up with observers as tamers, ferrets and squirrels lined up for the race. When the fireworks were let off the contestants burst out of the starting gate for their run around the track. Somewhere in the middle of the race a tamer's white wyrm joined in the race when s/he heard "all follow me", s/he obeyed and followed.


This didn't slow down the race one bit as the crowd urged them on, contestants approached the finish line. Kindra with Fuzzybutt crossed 1st. In the second round of the race Seva Wallis and Fuzzytush took 2nd and Wysteria and Sandy the squirrel took 3rd. All spectators agreed this is an event they would like to see more of in the future!

Some of the other events occurring at this time were the Bag Decoration Contest, the Treasure Hunt,and a Dungeon Run. I tried the bag decoration without much success. It's a fine art that requires careful handling to prevent collapse during recall! Winners of the bag contest were Lady Charity 1st, Crimson-AR 2nd. Please brng in your bags if you have them for pictures!

The dungeon run of course had great death in the mines of Tokuno and the T-hunters found their treasure! There was more than one full night of events to attend and they were not easy to choose from.

Festival Gardens


A highlight of the evening was the Festival Garden. It covered a long stretch of path that ran from the Tailor's Shop to the mountains. Xenom designed the gardens and pond and friends helped him build it. The pictures here represent only and 8th of the total garden size.

Costume Contest

The costume contest was an informal affair hosted by Lord Kaylor McKlarin. Contestants milled about, being sure they had been noticed by their host. Some contestants were never quite sure where the contest was or when, but if they were in costume they were seen. The winners of the contest were:

3rd place Anorexic Unicorn
2nd Cyrus Elmarel
1st Superman/Almighty

If contestants send in their pictures we will be happy to post them for you!

Bajillions of Nets Tossed!


Can you believe it? And this was only just after the beginning of an evening full of tossing frenzy. There was death everywhere and many rezzers there to bring the dead souls to life. Maps, bottles, gold, and other goodies flew through the air in great profusion. I sure hope the hosts of this event have a few more nets cause I want to see this event more often! Be sure to come next year if you attended other events this year, the colorful design of the carnage is worth the effort!

Let's Make a Deal!


The last event but not leastl, was the game show "Lets Make a Deal" hosted by Athena, Airmid and Landric. First order of business was to select a contestant for each round of play. Members of the audience had to find the object Airmid selected and be the first to reach her to win a chance to play. Some of the objects Airmid chose were and Event Program Book, Bottle of Ale, a Sewing Kit, an Arrow, a Pie and a Bench, a Lantern and a Fish. The lantern was the most difficult of all the items requested, while the Event Books seemed to be right on hand.

Once the contestants were selected they had to decide between three terribly colored bags such as; dead apple green, granny lips pink or tainted water purple. Then it was up to the crowd to urge the contestant on in their choice of bags, which they did, with gusto! Sometimes the bags were filled with treasures that the player wanted to keep such as a spring decor item. Most of the time players opted to trade,hoping for a better deal. The crowd yelled out "KEEP IT, TRADE, you'll get a plant,anything is better than what you have now!" until the player decided to Trade or Keep. Xenom got the same prize twice, a hair restyle deed. Tia went from a hanging studded tunic to a tainted water purple bag with a 120 swords. Rasmataz chose a Grandma Skin Cream Color bag with a +10 stat scroll and traded down to an obnoxious purple bag with 5000gp in it.

There was no guarantee that the items contestants selected would be desirable. The Orcish Monk, who looked like turtle man with an attitude, chose a Blood Red bag that had books in it. He didn't like to read so traded for a So Boring Bag with a Phillips Steed which he couldn't even ride. Talk about frustration! Mad Cow's first choice on the screams an encouragement of the crowd selected the Oh I Can See Myself Gold bag which had a Staff of Power that he already owned. "WOW!" The game show hosts exclaimed, "That's really nice" With beaming smiles on their faces. It didn't take much urging from the crowd for Mad Cow to decide to trade for the Dark Purple bag with what in it? A PLANT!!! What a letdown, and still the hosts smiled and said "Wow!, that's really nice". Those poor game show hosts were getting pretty tired and must have been making their deals in a fog.

After 8 contestants, and a full day fit into a three hour evening it was time to bring the Festival to a close. All agreed they'd had a great time and couldn't wait for next year, with many thanks to Airmid and all volunteers involved. If you couldn't make it this year, now you know what you missed and you can be sure to be at next year's Festival. And with that the hosts ran off to hot baths to soak tired feet and settle in for a long well deserved sleep.

*glances over from Feluccia* sniff...sniff.....

That is the most beautiful write up of all our festivals. Thank you Branwilde for covering it so well and with pictures too on top of helping to host the archery contest! Your one of a kind, no one will ever own another festival tagged white elven robe is well worth all your time and effort.

*hugs*
Airmid