Cigar Tube bodice Chillers

[gypsylakat]

in elementary school we had to learn to play the recorder, which they make a strap for that comes with a little rubber washer that slides up the recorder neck and then attaches to a strap.
I'd worry about the metal being too cold, but what about the little drinks they call tooters? they're little plastic test tubes that have a screw top
http://www.tooters.com/5-in-blank-plastic-test-tube-shooter-p/2000-cs.htm
you can buy them at the liquor store filled with drinks... so you can drink them and save them lol...

http://www.watercrystals.com/crafts.htm

[LadyStitch]

We decided that we are going to do the ice chips method and change them out as needed instead of freezing them. I had a girl go down during a performance same time last year.  She was wearing full french revolution garb.  I do NOT want that to happen again.  One of the girls just finished a show where she was drinking 4-20 oz bottles of water during th 2 hour performance and never once needing to use the restroom she was getting so dehydrated because of the lack of AC.  Thankfully this theater does have AC but there is only so much you can do when you have lights pointed down on you all night, and are in stuffy dressing rooms with 10 other people.

As for the ideas at faire,  I was curious if you could get the plastic flasks from licquior stores and have  way to freeze those and keep them in under your arms some how?

[Merlin the Elder]

Depending on your garb, the most effective spots to place "cooling units" are going to be on your wrists, your neck (jugulars), or your femoral arteries (which may be easiest to hide, but the least comfortable), and your head. These are areas of maximum surface blood flow.  (The hat idea is super, by the way!).

Frozen metal against your skin is no good at all. You can kill the tissue! You should maintain at least a little insulating fabric regardless what you use. It will cool you without injuring the skin.

[Dayna]

www.50degree.com.  You want the helmet chillers.  They look similar to a breast implant, and a few minutes in ice water freezes them.  They last quite a long time, and even after melting continue to pull heat off the body.  They go down to 50 degrees, so there is NO OMG GooseBumps shock to the system, but a pleasant "Ahhhhh".

Many of the women at Bristol in Kenosha WI swear by them (including me).  We put one down the bodice over the heart/lung area, and when it's really hot, one over each kidney.  I keep extras so I can swap them out over the course of the day.