SCA West Kingdom 12th Night 2007

Upon first blush, I think Society for Creative Anachronism events are a lot like science-fiction conventions. There are some scheduled things going on, and there’s a dealer’s room. But most of the fun is off in the fringes, what you bring on your own. It’s not like a renaissance faire where the event itself is the main fun, what with a load of scheduled shows and most people really trying to be in character and interact with *you* everywhere. SCA and sci-fi cons are more people hanging out with their own folks, so I see why Sarah wanted to bring her posse to this event. Good call. And, of course, the best possible posse to bring, IMNSHO.

Totally awesome ringleader Sarah, Tudor beauty Katie, wicked courtesan Kendra, and I had been planning to par-tay, and we were joined at the last minute by fellow pink-drink aficionados, Bridget and Diana.

I’d never been to an SCA event, plus I was slightly traumatized by making something to wear in a rush for this one, but it all sorted itself out in the end. I did end up having one mishap. After about two hours, a couple of the crappy little ribbons I’d sewn in to tie on the sleeves tore off on one side. The actual ribbon tore, not the stitching. Well, it was temporary anyway because I knew it wasn’t the right kind of ribbon to use; it was just the only thing I had on hand last weekend, no time to get to the fabric store. Besides, those were temporary sleeves; I’ll make the fancy ones for the feast in February.

Anyway, 12th Night. Wow, it was such a blast! Didn’t really see much of the SCA stuff and didn’t really care. Again, back to the sci-fi con analogy. It’s just nice to know that there’s a bunch of funny-dressed freaks around, that’s good enough for me. Did see a lot of nice costumes. I’ll admit, I had a lot of SCA prejudices. I thought it was all lame T-tunics. But I only saw a little of that. I saw some lovely 16th century garb, including several exquisite court costumes. Though a lot of costumes leaned towards Italian Renaissance Ever After-ish type stuff. Not bad, just a little same-y. Then again, I can see why people would make those — it’s an easier style to do if you want something fancy. A good compromise, one that I might make in the future.

I did peek into one of the several court sessions and saw a knighting. Looked nice, in that ceremonial way. Banners, dim lights, the room was packed, and yep, lots of tall people so I couldn’t see a lot. I’m sure it was very meaningful for those involved; I remember how that goes. I liked how they broke up the court stuff into different sessions instead of one extremely long tedious session like our ren guild would have.

The open feasting room was a little lame though. Very high school gym. Bright lights, no banners, no ambiance at all. People tried to set up tables with feastware, but it didn’t help. They could have at least dimmed the lights like in the court room. Oh and when they re-set the court room for dancing, they turned the lights all the way up, yuck! Again, high school dance, bleh.

The merchants were ok. Didn’t buy anything, didn’t need anything either. Saw some nice tooled leather pouches, pottery, swords, and Realm of Regalia was there, one of my favourite trim and shiny bits purveyors (she’s always at BayCon).

We went back and forth between our hotel rooms and the SCA stuff. We’d stocked the bar in our room, which was popular, ‘natch. We went down to the SCA’s masked ball for a few turns on the dancefloor. Well, the other girls danced, while Sarah and I willingly played wallflowers as we weren’t interested in dancing then. Oh and I’d changed out of my rengown and into random gothy piratey wench garb for kicks and because I was tired of my left sleeve dangling off my arm.

Now I want to go to the SCA Beltane event too. Which means I need something to wear, not sure if I can wear the court gown all weekend. May need to revise my 2007 costume list a bit. And oh yes, I need a persona too! O lordy, what have I gotten myself into???