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goin back to Bristol
Aug. 12th, 2006 09:05 pmWe were up there to play for a wedding, and for the fact the EACH made as much in 3 hours as the faire used to pay the entire group for a whole day.
The wedding itself went quite well - we played all the stuff they wanted in the right places and the timing worked out pretty seamlessly. Main problem was that somone had stolen the "Private Event" sign from the gate of Costwold Commons, so patrons kept just wandering in. We weren't actually playing during the ceremony so after I noticed one guy wander in, take a bunch of pictures and then wander off (that's how I realized he wasn't a guest) I went and stood in the gateway and shooed people away. Total for the day ended up at 41 -vertant or inadvertant party-crashers.
My other big excitement was the great dog-capture. At some point after the Court headed up for the parade, we saw the falconer's dog come racing out from under the backstage gate, alone and trailing her leash, and go tearing off towards the joust field! She anged away from us, so there was no way we could have caught her. But about 5 minutes later, I saw her come trotting back, and realized I could intercept. Managed to tackle her as she paused on the footbridge(remembering in mid-air of course that I am in fact allergic to dogs), and was looking about for a convenient place to tie her till someone came for her when one of the photographers came us and told me she knew where she belopnged and offered to take her back. I got back to my place and got one verse into the song when I see the anxious falconer come thru scanning the crowd, and quickly cued John & Josie to vamp for a bit so I could go tell him where she had gone.
Our music was well-received, and we sold a CD to the preacher. We sang "Irish Blessing" to the couple before we left. Got paid, got our "wedding favors" (really enormous and rather silly plastic trumpet-horns), ate cake , and then dumped the instruments for the best part of the day - SHOPPIES!
Spend the rest of the day wandering and touching base with friends. Never did get to any shows. Bought a new inkle-weave strap for my bodhran (my old one broke last weekend), some nifty sprays and powder from Cream City Soaps, some of the wonderful English Toffee, a package of cranberry scone mix, and some of the only incense I've ever found that doesnt set off my asthma. Saw the new "pirate ship" - which is a ship the same way the Empress Casino is a riverboat. Got to play "who bought their shop" noticing all the new vendors, and told some of our favorite ones about WiRen and White Hart (depending on where they are based).
None of us wanted to hike up for closing gate, so we were out the side entrance by 7 and in the car by 7:15. My contacts spent most of the afternoon trying to crawl up into my head,so I couldn't see much in the car - they were so goopy when I took them out that they were translucent! But now for a resty evening, for tomorrow we PACK!
The wedding itself went quite well - we played all the stuff they wanted in the right places and the timing worked out pretty seamlessly. Main problem was that somone had stolen the "Private Event" sign from the gate of Costwold Commons, so patrons kept just wandering in. We weren't actually playing during the ceremony so after I noticed one guy wander in, take a bunch of pictures and then wander off (that's how I realized he wasn't a guest) I went and stood in the gateway and shooed people away. Total for the day ended up at 41 -vertant or inadvertant party-crashers.
My other big excitement was the great dog-capture. At some point after the Court headed up for the parade, we saw the falconer's dog come racing out from under the backstage gate, alone and trailing her leash, and go tearing off towards the joust field! She anged away from us, so there was no way we could have caught her. But about 5 minutes later, I saw her come trotting back, and realized I could intercept. Managed to tackle her as she paused on the footbridge(remembering in mid-air of course that I am in fact allergic to dogs), and was looking about for a convenient place to tie her till someone came for her when one of the photographers came us and told me she knew where she belopnged and offered to take her back. I got back to my place and got one verse into the song when I see the anxious falconer come thru scanning the crowd, and quickly cued John & Josie to vamp for a bit so I could go tell him where she had gone.
Our music was well-received, and we sold a CD to the preacher. We sang "Irish Blessing" to the couple before we left. Got paid, got our "wedding favors" (really enormous and rather silly plastic trumpet-horns), ate cake , and then dumped the instruments for the best part of the day - SHOPPIES!
Spend the rest of the day wandering and touching base with friends. Never did get to any shows. Bought a new inkle-weave strap for my bodhran (my old one broke last weekend), some nifty sprays and powder from Cream City Soaps, some of the wonderful English Toffee, a package of cranberry scone mix, and some of the only incense I've ever found that doesnt set off my asthma. Saw the new "pirate ship" - which is a ship the same way the Empress Casino is a riverboat. Got to play "who bought their shop" noticing all the new vendors, and told some of our favorite ones about WiRen and White Hart (depending on where they are based).
None of us wanted to hike up for closing gate, so we were out the side entrance by 7 and in the car by 7:15. My contacts spent most of the afternoon trying to crawl up into my head,so I couldn't see much in the car - they were so goopy when I took them out that they were translucent! But now for a resty evening, for tomorrow we PACK!
