Middlefaire - LARP friendly renaissance festival

[cjacksonii]

I posted last year about trying to do a large-scale LARP event at Middlefaire in Hillsboro, TX and that it really didn't work out because nobody showed up for the LARP. (Unfortunately, there were conflicting LARP events going on.)

I wanted to forward information on the upcoming festivals at Middlefaire and to mention that instead of trying to put together a LARP event to be attached toa festival, I decided to make it so that larp combat could take place anywhere in the festival (within some hard safety rules) after a liability waiver is signed.

The first festival is our Pirate Festival which is actually next weekend (May 7-.

The second festival is our Medieval and Magical Fantasy Festival, which will be held the weekend of September 24-25.

Our third, and main renaissance festival will be held for five weekends, starting the weekend of October 29-30, and running through November 26-27. (Yes, we know this competes with another major festival in the state, but these dates were chosen because of weather conditions and how they affect the festival site, and that other festival is at least four hours from ours.)

I have actually had my cast director position changed and split between myself and another person at the festival. Personally, I like that idea because I get to focus on the fantasy genre and LARP activities for the cast, and the other cast director focuses on the courtly genres.

I am also working on a few little projects for this particular year and am going to post about them here as well.

The fantasy festival weekend will be the debut of our mud show, in theory, and I am still casting for it. There's not much of a script to the show, will be much more of an improvisational style show, barbarian-themed, and parts of the show will involve LARP (Live Action Role Playing) game combat and foam/latex weaponry (so the cast will be relying on their own skills which will make the show more interesting in my opinion.). There will not be much rehearsal time for this show, mainly because of my normal job as a over the road truck driver, which keeps me away from the area most of the year and I will be one of the major parts of the mud show. [Note: The concept of the mud show is subject to change at any moment!]

During the fantasy festival weekend, I would also like to put together a large primitive style barbarian horde for the fantasy festival. Initially, I would be playing the leader of that horde (disappearing when I need to be in the mud show), unless we have a person much more suited, and better built, to play the part than I am, which will possibly make things easier for me. Ideally, the barbarian horde will be more fashioned around the fantasy stereotypical loincloth clad barbarian and prehistoric caveman image, but this is open to discussion between those involved. LARP Foam weapon combat may be involved with this for those that want to do some safe sword or axe combat during the weekend.

If anyone is interested in being involved with any of these projects, please get in touch with me either by private message on this board or via email at clayton@terabites.com [Please put Middlefaire Cast in the subject so it will not be confused with spam.] Of course, we will welcome anyone that wants to be on cast as any other type of character of almost any historical category....we can always use more pirates, peasants, and royalty!

Have a great weekend!
Clayton Jackson
Cast Director at Middlefaire