Sonora: Sonora Celtic Festival - March 12, 13 & 14, 2010

If I had to use a word to describe Sonora it would be … crazy!

The school event on Friday went very well. We managed to have enough time to set up the pavilion and the shade canopy, pull out the rugs, the chairs and the trunks before the day began. There were lots of kids, but it wasn’t packed. According to Marti on Saturday morning we had 1,000 kids, but they certainly didn’t make it down to our neck of the woods. We were all alone down south.

The sky was overcast, but it wasn’t too cold. On our end we had Orion, Gavin, Gwen, Detta and myself for the entire thing, and Don Juan for much of it (he had to park the trailer at the RV place as there was no street parking for it, so we lost him for about an hour or so). We had the traction treb set up and were using water balloons for ammunition. Early on Orion was the counterweight with Gwen loading the water balloons and Detta bracing the base. Once Don Juan came back Orion & he were pretty much operating it.

I was either firing Orion’s treb with the kids, loaded with golf balls, or filling water balloons with Gwen & Detta’s help. As I said, crazy. Gavin was being sweet and would fetch the balls for me some of the time. Otherwise he kept himself entertained, which was a big help.

Around about 12:30pm the rain came in, we kept thinking it was going to go away, but it decided to stay. Fortunately for the crowds (and for us), most everyone was in the stands watching the joust. I must say I’m pretty impressed that the Knights of Avalon continued to perform even in the rain. We decided to call it a day at 2:45ish, as the rain wasn’t letting up. We decided to not remove anything else from the trailer and to deal with it in the AM.

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Saturday arrived quietly. The rain stopped during the night and the sun was out. It was very cold, though. Upon arriving at the faire site we found that the shade canopy had collapsed during the night. It had been heavily saturated with the rain and then when everything froze over during the night, the wet ground released the stakes and the entire thing fell. Detta, Merrick and I had the pleasure of trying to move it to the back of Don Juan’s truck. It was nearly solid. When I say ‘frozen solid’, I mean literally.

At this point the ground was starting to thaw, and it was getting really nasty. Our green carpet got the worst of it, I think. We ended up with a large puddle underneath the carpet between the chairs and the pavilion. You didn’t really notice it to look at it, until you stepped there and the carpet would pool. We unloaded some more of our things, but not nearly as much as usual, so it was a weird weekend in that we didn’t have all of our ‘stuff’ to occupy our time. We did get the kitchen out, which helped fill out our encampment (as well as Killian’s chain mail ‘guys’) this really helped since we looked so plain without our shade canopy.

The way things played out we had Detta and Merrick for half the day, Killian, Kieran, Robin, Don Juan and myself. Sir Guy stopped by on Saturday (he’d come for the cardinal-ing of Chris Morgan, however that has been postponed until Tulare) with his grandson and his two daughters.

Lord Bothwell (from Saint Andrews) came up with a gig where he was going to have gentlemen together for lunch in their encampment to throw food at the kitchen staff (or something), however he didn’t limit it to members of St. Andrew’s as it played out he ended up absconding with four of our members (Don Juan, Killian, Kieran & Sir Guy). When we only have eight people in attendance, this was insane. So, I discussed it with him…particularly after I had found out that he was planning on doing the same thing on Sunday! Everything worked out in the end and I got the queen on Sunday…

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Sunday was beautiful…if cold starting. We arrived on site at 8am and were loathe to get out of the truck it was so cold. Eventually we did and trekked up for some hot chocolate and some hall shopping, as I was wearing hoops I knew I wouldn’t be welcome in there later on. Detta was with us all day, which was terrific. One more body is always nice.

At meet and greet I was taught a new dance by St. Genivive’s (however you spell it). I started calling it ‘An Ode to Sonora’ as I taught it to folk later on. I was planning on teaching it to HRM’s Mary’s alas the only one in attendance in our encampment wasn’t adventurous enough to fully try (she gave up after the 'mud' refrain). But that’s okay, later in the day I challenged Dame's Brittah and Annabel and they both bucked up amiably and took the challenge. It was quite fun. Ask me about it and I can teach it to you. I’ve even added two verses...er refrains...er whatever those things are called!

The first cabbage we threw Sunday morning exploded it was so cool. We really needed to have that on video! We think it was because it was frozen...we'll have to try that again! Whatever the only part that was really left was the core.

As I mentioned before Her Majesty came to visit bringing a small entourage. She got a break to eat and then we were able to dance a bit (Hearts Ease) before the other Mary’s caught up with her.

Don Juan drug me out of the encampment in the afternoon kicking and screaming (okay well maybe not kicking and screaming on the outside). He caught me so off guard I didn’t have my cup, but did have my embroidery with me. We stopped by the beekeepers where I got to teach them the new dance along with my first added verse. They’re really good people I’m sad that there wasn’t more time to spend with them this faire. Then we stopped to talk with Justin (Knightlighting).

We stopped by Obsidian Moon so I could ask them how we could best help them with their business. They seemed intrigued by my question. They said that we should be aware of the patrons around us and step out (as in the way we would speak to the queen, with our body half turned towards her and half turned out towards the audience) if there were a patron there to see their wares. There were a few more suggestions, but I don’t want to put them in writing, as I don’t want them to be misconstrued. This is something we should definitely talk more about.

We also stopped to talk to Joyce Roberts (The Queens Favor) and a new vendor that was set up across from them. We got the new vendor hooked up with her to discuss her faires. Last stop we, of course, stopped to talk to New Sterling Arms.

Sunday was hot, I think everyone got sunburned. I’ve still got the chills from mine.

Tear down went well, we’ve got some items that will need to be dried more (like the rugs), but otherwise it appears as if everything weathered the weather okay. We have some new red streaks down the sides of the pavilion, but it held tight through the worst of the worst.