Getting Ready For Faire. What do you do?

[Scotsman]

Pack the cooler and hit the ATM ...

[ladyhawke]

Pack the cooler and hit the ATM ...

LOL...that is what I was thinking!  Ok, I might double check to be sure I have clean underwear and deodorant for the next day...

[jinx]

It's pretty basic, as I usually only attend ORF (would have changed if I'd not run into snags before KYHRF).  Once the season ends, if I have no other events in October or November (I will have a Harry Potter movie release this year), I start planning what I will need the following season, and how I'm going to fund it.  I make lists, obsessively.  There's the "Garb List," which is always the longest and rarely gets completed.  It includes everything from "Red bodice--too big" to "Black Skirt--fix hem" to "Chris' garb--wants Wizard stuff."  Then comes the accessories list, which includes pouches, belts, etc.  The "Special Events" list, which lists all the weekends that I've made plans.  This year, it includes such exciting events as "Ren Virgin Weekend" and "I'm 1/4 of a Century Old Weekend!"  I always plan my birthday around closing weekend, as it falls within just a few days, and spend half the year inviting people.  Somewhere around April or May, my best Ren Friend and I get really antsy and usually get together and wear garb to do really random things...like walk up and down the road, making up elaborate stories and singing songs.

When Faire time actually comes, I'm pretty good to go on the accent, since I drop into it at random times throughout the year anyway, but there are a few things we do before leaving for Faire every year.  One being the organization of showers.  Depending on the number of people going with me (and staying at my place), I'll get up anywhere from 2-3 hours before we have to leave.  I shower, put on some 'danes, and hit the kitchen to wake everyone up with the clanging of pans and smell of breakfast.  Breakfast always includes either French Toast or Eggy-in-a-Basket, bacon, veggie sausage, and potatoes O'Brien.  Someone makes a coffee run, sometimes two people if there are more than 4 people at my house.  Once everyone's fed, the girls gather in my room to get dressed and laced two at a time.  (Like, Courtney laces me while Ellie laces her.)  It works out surprisingly well.  Once we leave, we normally stop at the gas station to get more coffee and other essentials for the 45-minute drive, then we're on the way.  Basically, I have to have chaos before I leave for Faire in the morning.  xD

[VIII]

Once Faire is looming on the horizon, I start super-hydrating myself, starting about Wednesday.

Drink
Drink WATER
Drink WATER untill you pee
Drink WATER untill you pee clear!

[ladyecho]

     We start with ME making new garb and fixing old ones. Trying to budget what we're going to spend money on while we're there. Watching faire-ish movies. And packing my belt.

     One of my faires is only 20 min. away. So I get dressed and drive down there.

     The other faire is 3 hours away! So we pack what we want to wear the night before in the car , wake up EARLY the next mourning, go get breakfast, make the 3 hour tour. . .  I mean drive. Stop at the closest gas station to the faire and get dressed in their restrooms (which are very clean!) Then off to the faire!

     Then beg my sister to drive the 3 hours back home so I can sleep in the back seat!!!

[Will Gamwell]

Once Faire is looming on the horizon, I start super-hydrating myself, starting about Wednesday.

Drink
Drink WATER
Drink WATER untill you pee
Drink WATER untill you pee clear!

A general rule of thumb that I always tell people.  If you haven't hit the privy in the last hour or two, you aren't drinking enough water!

Charlotte:
I have actually added in a workout that I do just about every-other-day as well.  All without weights.  Each exercise is done for a duration of 60 seconds.  Calf-raises, standing squats, lunges, side lunges, situps(various types), pushups and some light work with those exercise band thingies.  It is working great so far.

On the topic of music.  Doin't have CD's of any of the music, most of it is just bouncing around in my head.  "All for me grog" is almost constatly replaying itself.

Sean

[Lady Christina de Pond]

Once Faire is looming on the horizon, I start super-hydrating myself, starting about Wednesday.

Drink
Drink WATER
Drink WATER untill you pee
Drink WATER untill you pee clear!

A general rule of thumb that I always tell people.  If you haven't hit the privy in the last hour or two, you aren't drinking enough water!

Rofl i can drink and drink and drink water and not hit the privy until i get home but then i have a big blader too

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

Any recommendations on pub song CDs?

Goodness, we try to buy a CD from just about every musician at our home faire and also for the musicians at other faires we attend.  Where can I begin?

Seelie Court, Mollie & the Tinker, Jock Stewart (Jessie Linder), Owain Phyfe, Tartanic, Empty Hats, Michael O'Quinn, plus a friend (yea, Nyte!) made me 3 CDs of various artists for the Winter Exchange, which are marvelous.  They include musicians that we don't have at any of our local faires, so we have an even greater variety of music.  Felix the Bubble Man sent us some wonderful CDs as a gift, because I had asked about Cast in Bronze.  He sent us their CD plus several others as a surprise.  Plus we have the Celtic Women CDs, and another CD called Celtic Woman 4, which isn't the same as the group of Celtic Women.  Instead, it's different individual Irish women each singing 1 song on the CD.

We also play CDs in the car both ways, and with a 3 hour drive each way, we hear a lot of music while driving.

[Lord Finger]

I grow a goatee a couple weeks before opening day and pull out the kilts to make sure they're free of wrinkles. I also have to track down some stuff (now where did I leave that penannular?).

[Lady L]

I really start right after the faire ends, for the following year. Then in May, I plant flowers in their pots, to take to the shop. I have been watering them every evening since.

Last weekend, went to the shop and whacked weeds, swept out, washed and freshened up the floor, sprayed for wasps, checked everything to see what had to be repaired. (Better than I was expecting to find) Soon, will be taking the furniture, plants and displays down, putting up the sign and setting up the products. I hope I have them finished in time, which also requires packaging, pricing etc.  Today, I finished making a new banner for the parade.  I still have garb to make.

Then, there's the packing up misc. stuff: bags, paperwork, passes, towels, clothes, shoes, cameras, accessories, shop broom, fire extinguisher, cooler, flashlights, first aid, etc.

[Pinn]

Pull out all the garb to see if it still fits of course. Make any repairs that need to be made. Start hounding D/H to pull all his garb out to see if it still fits or needs repairs. Plan any new garb months in advance. Start listening to pub songs. Try to get my daughter in gear to get her garb made that she wants or help her make it.

[wyckdblyss]

Other than the usual packing of the millions of items that will be needed in the course of a weekend of camping @ TRF, the night before I leave for my first weekend, I watch Monty Python's Holy Grail movie. It was a ritual my younger cousin and I started several years ago, and I have to continue it, even though she no longers attends with me.

[groomporter]

This weekend it's out to take all of the furniture and display stuff we leave in the back shed and was the dust off of it. Evict the wasps, sweep out the leaves, weed whack the weeds that have been growing between the bricks, fill in under the bricks along the south wall where the ground squirrels have probably been digging. Put the canvas roof up on the booth. See if the back exterior wall needs a fresh coat of paint, trim the wild grape vine out front, hang the shop sign out front.

Next weekend it's bring out the rest of the signage, furniture and display fixtures that don't get left in the booth in the off season, and any other last minute repairs or touch-ups that we noticed this week.

[Dallan]

For home faire, MDRF, not much but when traveling to faire we learned a lesson the hard way. No matter how sure we are that we packed each set of garb away in its entirety the last time it was worn; we now pull it all out and inventory everything, then repack it so it can go into the car. It was a real bummer to be two states away to find we had over looked a couple items.

[Welsh Wench]

Wash and iron the garb, throw all the accessories in the corner of the bedroom.
Throw all the beach stuff in the back seat, put gas in the Bug.
Throw on some Lynyrd Skynyrd and head for I-275!

I do alot of throwing, I guess......including the prerequisite hissy fit.