Time at festival vs. time spent at campgrounds?

[Hercules]

I've noticed much of the discussion lately is focused on the camping portion. Aside from folks who work there, how much time, percentage wise, do some of you spend at campgrounds and how much time is spent TRFing? 

Planning on being in festival grounds from opening cannon to closing fireworks. Will I miss anything? 

[Laird Fraser of Lovatt]

That's only 9 hours or so...  o' dark thirty is when everything gets going...

[Hercules]

So if i get my 8 hours of beauty sleep I'll miss everything?

[Laird Fraser of Lovatt]

pretty much.  stock up on red bull or monsters.

[Yrose]

Monster and vodka is a good thing!

[Rapier Half-Wit]

Faire grounds are great, a significant part of the fun, but it's the people that you hang with that are the best part.

And you don't want to miss the after-party.

[bellevivre]

we usually get inside by about 10 or 1030... we wake up when the birds start talking (usually 730ish for me) make breakfast, clean up, then get dressed. Hubby actually tends to take longer than me- then we get on all the extras (belt, etc) and head in...

we're always inside till fireworks or after... so, I'd say it's more like 5/8 faire/camp ratio

[Lady Laura]

We're at camp (awake) for roughly 31 hours and faire for appx 9 hrs.  Here's how it breaks down:

We get to the campgrounds at 9:00 a.m. Friday, set up 'til around 1:00, then kick back and relax or walk around visiting friends the rest of the day and night.  Bedtime is somewhere between 1:00 and 3:00a.m.

We get up Sat. morning at 6:30-7:00, move the van to row 2 general parking (so we don't have to stagger back to camp after faire), have my friend who followed me in her car take us back to camp where we eat, dress, and get into the faire around 10:30.  We stay until twilight, then get back to camp to eat dinner and relax by the campfire/visit friends until we can't party no mo.

Sunday, we're not as rushed so we generally start packing around 10:00a.m. and get out of there by 1:00.

We go 3 weekends.

[bellevivre]

yeah, sunday, we try to pack up as much as we can before we head in, usually only leaving the big things (tent, awnings) to take down after we leave faire- usually leave come back to camp around 3 or 4, and are on the way home by 5pm..

[Hercules]

I've taken Monday off so I'm planning on leaving Sunday evening (hopefully after the rush).

I've done the Jager-Bombs (JM and Red Bull) before and they help but oooooooooh when those things wear off the fall ain't pretty....I'd prefer to allocate most of my energy to the fair but ya'll really have me scratchin my head. 

[bellevivre]

so do it! this is YOUR time at Faire, not anyone elses. If you dont want to go to the quiet family camping, then bring some earplugs and/or some ambien... No one is going to fault you for turning in early- i dont think we've ever been up past 1AM at TRF (except one opening weekend where I had a bottle of loki to myself... and i dont want to talk about that....)


BUT: so everyone knows, I am not a fan of energy drinks but OMG, Monster Irish Coffee is the best thing in the world. Tastes like irish creme. I may be getting some for TRF

[RenRobin]

Monster Irish Coffee?  How do you make?

[bellevivre]

oh no- you BUY!!!

It's the Monster Brand, but thier JavaMonster type- in Irish Blend- green can...


would be great with vodka, or even khalua or MORE IRISH CREAM!!

[Breandan]

looking at all of these wake-up times, I can only say- lucky bastages! I am up and in the forge starting the fire to get the coal lit around 0730, and I have the fire fully coked and ready for the day, am fully dressed, and have had breakfast by 0845.

[bellevivre]

BUT, Breandan, YOU get to sleep right there- I'll gladly trade you accomodations and start times!!

[eloquentXI]

Depending on when I get into camp on Friday afternoon/night, there is all of that time spent pre-faire.
Get up around 7:30 or whenever the breakfast bell rings  , warm up by the fire, get dressed, head in not too long before or after cannon. Depending on several factors- (heat, blood sugar, amount of sleep, etc, etc), I usually stay until dark. Last season, when I didn't know my thyroid was the cause of my exhaustion, I would head out to camp around 4 and sleep for a few hours so I wasn't getting tired when the party started out with the Clan. Yeah, yeah, I know, the whippersnapper can't hang with the old fogies.

This season will probably different, depending highly on which group of friends are out of faire and the amount of time spent hopping between circles and Clans. Probably get to bed by 3, wake up Sunday, pack up all that I can, go into faire, have fun, leave inside around...3 or 4 and hit the road back to Denton.

[midnightferret]

In the past, I've been a "Faire from cannon 'till fireworks, party all night" person. (And we didn't HAVE no fancy schmancy "energy drinks!" We had to make do with Mountain Dew, bourbon, and fellowship! And we LIKED it!) [/grumpy old woman voice] Hehehe.

Now, I find that we do the best we can to get as much Faire as possible. This usually means crawling into the sack between 1-3a and waking up with the birds (and the Ambard) in the neighborhood of 7:30. I find I do okay on 4 hours of sleep, but it's not ideal. I've gotten 6-8 hours in camp before (thanks to better living through chemistry) and not felt like I missed anything, really. I mean, once, I was awakened just after dropping off to sleep at 4am to 2 guys arguing because one of them ate the other guy's steak, then someone else vomiting noisily on the ground. Glad I wasn't up for that.

I can't tolerate energy drinks or other stay awakes (yeah, I got through grad school on will alone, mania, and Community coffee. Whew.) so a lot of times I just pack it in after I've made sure and hugged and talked to everyone. Like the lovely and talented bellevivre and eloquent say, it is YOUR time at faire. Spend it how you want, in the way that gives you the most enjoyment. With so many things to do and people to meet and just general awesomeness, it can be hard to balance everything.

[Hercules]

See I know what to expect from the faire having been through two seasons of Scarborough. But not sure about the camping experience since I'm viginal in that area. So yeah it's my time but I'm not sure what to expect from camping. 

Also I get up at 4:30a to start each day and usually am zombie-a-fide by 9p. If most of fun starts at nightfall I better look at toothpicks for the eyelids. 

[Lady Ann of Draycott]

I've noticed much of the discussion lately is focused on the camping portion. Aside from folks who work there, how much time, percentage wise, do some of you spend at campgrounds and how much time is spent TRFing? 

Planning on being in festival grounds from opening cannon to closing fireworks. Will I miss anything? 

Pretty much what everyone else has said, not much goes on in the campground from cannon to fireworks...it's after the fireworks and everyone has returned to the campgrounds that things begin to liven up there.  You just have to decide for yourself how much sleep you want to get while you are there and stick to that because if you don't want to miss anything either in faire or in the campgrounds, you won't get any sleep at all...sure enough, after you have gone to bed something will happen and you will no doubt hear about it the next day...

[Jinglebum]

See I know what to expect from the faire having been through two seasons of Scarborough. But not sure about the camping experience since I'm viginal in that area.

Faire virgin!!!!!!

In the past, I've been a "Faire from cannon 'till fireworks, party all night" person. (And we didn't HAVE no fancy schmancy "energy drinks!" We had to make do with Mountain Dew, bourbon, and fellowship! And we LIKED it!) [/grumpy old woman voice] Hehehe.

That's pretty much me. Haha At the ripe old age of [almost] 21, I can still do that without feeling it too much.
I normally get in at some point Friday (depending what time I'm off work) and set up. Then walk around, meet new people, see old friends, etc., etc. I get some drinking out of the way on Friday night, walk around, rinse, repeat till about three or four (or Saturday) AM. I normally [somehow] manage to wake up around 7:30-8:00 am, put on my garb, and make my way to the festival in time for cannon. Then spend cannon-fireworks at the festival and exhaustedly stagger walk back to camp for a repeat of Friday night. Sunday when I get home is when I normally crash and don't wake up again till Monday.

[Lady Laura]

Since you rise so early, you might try going into faire as soon as the gates open (is it 9:00 or 9:30 now?), stay until around 4:00 and then head back to camp for a good 2 hour nap.  It's really quiet and peaceful out there at that time and you can be refreshed and enjoy the evening activities much longer!

I've done this myself on several occasions after a long day of heat (ok, and too much ale!) and I was wide awake when everyone came back to camp.

You will learn what works best for you the more times you go!

[Blue66669]

looking at all of these wake-up times, I can only say- lucky bastages! I am up and in the forge starting the fire to get the coal lit around 0730, and I have the fire fully coked and ready for the day, am fully dressed, and have had breakfast by 0845.

Honey, you're lucky. Last year, sleeping in participants, I had to get up at 6am so that I could be at the shop by 7 and fully dressed and ready to go by 8. NEVER AGAIN!

[SirRichardBear]

Pretty much the same here we normally roll into the grounds around 2-3 pm Friday normally walk around meeting people for a hour or so before starting to set up camp.  Then grill dinner do a walk about head back to camp wait for others to do their walk about then repeat till 1-3am.  We don't normally make openning cannon any more mostly get into the faire around 10-10:30 stay till fireworks.  Slowly make way make to camp and repeat Friday night.  Sunday we pack up all the small stuff in the morning leave faire around 3-4 finish packing up leave the grounds around 5-6 for the four plus hour drive home.

[Hercules]

I had to get up at 6am so that I could be at the shop by 7 and fully dressed and ready to go by 8. NEVER AGAIN!

So...just go half dressed next time. 

[Blue66669]

I tried that once- they kind of insist on covering nipples these days...

[bellevivre]

Silly Puritans- Nips are for Kids!!

[Hercules]

Sounds like a lame excuse to me anywho...