I met Xandriel, (noteworthy AFR personality), early on Saturday, May 23rd, and was able to give her some of my Loki, (strange, alcoholic brew),and have a taste of her adult beverage as well: quite tasty! Unfortunately, I really didn't get a chance to see her again, as our personal commitments seemed to conflict (can I use that excuse for every time I don't meet someone?).

Zeke the Irishman who works Medieval Moccasins found me wandering into Pecan Grove, and tapped me to show off his new venture to add to his kiltmaking: lace work. So I spent Saturday with a lace jabot on, thereby giving me a bit of a noble look from the knees up--and quite lesser stature from the knees down. Note: When wearing a lace collar, lace cuffs are a must!

The Rookery Cookery took place Saturday night at the Ramada Inn, a couple miles from the site. It is one of the few chances that cast and patrons in the know (playtrons) have a chance to get together after hours for a bit of fun. Unfortunately, some of us didn't know in advance, and were stuck in garb for the night. That'll teach me to leave mundane clothing at home! After consuming copious amounts of ale from the keg (which was claimed as everything from Shiner Bock to Guinness), and several burgers of the size and texture of hockey pucks or breakfast sausage patties, I wound up at the pool, where someone woke me up at 4am in time to see a nude male climbing out of the hot tub. At that point, I decided that it was time to seek the comfort of my car for the remainder of the evening/morning!

Woke up Sunday morning, May 24th, in quite a daze, misread my watch, and thereby showed up at the site at approx. 7:30am or so! That first hour and a half were quite a long wait indeed.

Opening finally rolled around, and the day started off quite well from the standpoint of the Scots, with us providing five or six guards for MacThud, King James' messenger. The grounds were quite quiet for the first couple hours, which was not surprising, given the previous night's activities! I did my part by providing a community Iced Cappuccino from the Palace of Pasta.

At the 1pm parade, we marched the short route, and had an impressive turnout of Scots--approximately 20 or so-- quite nice given the events immediately following. There was a prisoner exchange: a Scot who had killed and eaten a couple dozen of King Henry's cattle in exchange for an Englishman who had killed a (one) Scottish duck. Upon questioning the Englishman, it was found that he did so under the orders of our dear friend Seymour. Scotty tried to have Seymour turned over to us, and I think that the Regiment got a tad out of hand when he started calling for Seymour's head (this was "not in the script"), but things worked out in the end.

THE BIG SURPRISE! At the daily knighting ceremony, the King and Queen were just about to relinquish the ceremonial swords, when they were paid a very unexpected visit, by none other than...THE FAIRY GODFATHER! Yes, you know him, you love him (although some loathe him for unknown reasons): the bald man in the pink tutu from Hawkwood showed up with all of his subjects. It was quite obvious that Shannon (Queen Anne) had no prior knowledge of this event. I don't think I've ever seen such a look of shock: her jaw practically hit the stage, while Richard (King Henry) chuckled and seemed to take things in stride (as usual...beam me up Scotty). The Godfather was knighted, and then Seymour had to rear his ugly, bloated head and tell the fairies to bugger off...At which point they all turned and chased him off stage and a considerable distance away from the gathering!

Traffic was absolutely horrible, so I ended up sticking around the front gate for an hour or so, before finally driving home. Missed the spaghetti dinner on Sunday night, mainly due to not wanting to run the security gauntlet for not having a participant pass, and figuring that after Saturday night, I'd leave the cast to themselves...

Lady Druantia (aka Ivy) commented:

Hey James! Were those Hawkwood Fey out and about on Sunday at Scarborough? The costumes were GREAT! And I had my camera on me and forgot to get it out.... ack! I missed the Royal Reception of the Fey: I would have loved to see that as well... But just seeing them mill around all day was a lovely thing... Just wait guys... These costumes are fabulous, and full of personality... Not at all like the fairies you typically see at the occasional event... The costumes are incredible!

To which James Echols, General Manager of the Hawkwood Medieval Fantasy Faire replied:

If you are referring to the group that descended upon the king and queen at the knighting ceremony a couple of weeks ago, they were indeed led by our very own Fairy Godfather, he of the great pink. Unfortunately, nobody never tells me nothing, so I was completely unaware of the events and did not see them. As I understand it, though, his group was constituted of fey from everywhere: Scarborough, Hawkwood, and just those visiting. I understand that many of them will be migrating to Hawkwood to be his brute squad, but this may just be rumor.

(Editor's Note: the "Special Report", (above), was originally submitted by MarQ Kaplan to the newsgroup alt.fairs.renaissance following his 1998 Memorial Day Weekend visit to Scarborough Faire near Dallas. Additional commentary by the Lady Druantia and James Echols followed. MarQ's report was originally entitled "Scarborough Report 5/23-5/24 Missed Memorial Day", while the comments of Lady Druantia and James Echols were part of the thread "Hawkwood Fey (Re: Faire plotlines...)". The full text of their articles may be read by searching the full archives of Deja News).

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