[Artemisia] [Fwd: [black_unicorn] 40 year site]

[Jacquie Ziegler]

Passing this along for those who might be interested in learning more about
40 Year in An Tir.

Shauna

-------- Original Message --------

Hello, my friends!

Here is some more intel on 40 year - sounds pretty promising.

C

I thought this may be of interest to all of you. This is info about the
40th year war site.

Vulrik

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan S. [mailto:wyddershin at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 9:32 AM
To: Dan S.; antir-marshals at antir.sca.org; antir-fighters at antir.sca.org;
steps at antir.sca.org; summits at peak.org; Northern Road;
madrone at antir.sca.org; Cathedral; chivalry at antir.sca.org; Rivers
Subject: [antir-fighters] What I did on my not Summer Vacation

Greetings,

So last weekend I did a walk through of the new site being built in
Randle 
Washington for the 40th Year Celebration (and Autumn War at least).

I thought it would help to get an unbiased view and impression of the
site 
from someone who does not have a financial stake in the success of the 
project. I'm now the MIC for the event so I wanted to see how things
looked 
for myself.

So first off, the drive in.

>From the South, I-5 to  HWY 12 is your best bet. From the north, I went
down 
to the site on Hwy 7 but came back up to Seattle via  I-5. I would say
that 
HWY 7 is the faster (and prettier) drive but if you are pulling a
trailer 
maybe not.

The road into the site proper is paved for the first mile but the last
mile 
or so is dirt. Currently, logging trucks have ruined it from when the
site 
owners graveled and graded it last fall, but a new round of gravel and 
grading is scheduled the week before the event so that shouldn't be a 
problem.

Second the location.

The view from the site is breathtaking. It is surround on all sides by 
gorgeous mountains, but not so tall as to block any sunlight to the
site. My 
Cell phone worked just fine from there (Verizon). There were two bald
eagles 
working their way up the adjacent river and there were a lot of fresh
tracks 
of Deer, Elk and Coyote. the river flows by incredibly slow, the rule is
no 
swimming but I think on a hot day I suspect that rule might be waived in
the 
future. (Ultimately that is the site owners call).

Parking.

Parking will be expansive and clearly separated from the rest of the
site. 
The owner is VERY serious about no cars in the camping area for more
than 3 
hours. He is paying to have a tow truck on site and is not screwing
around 
about this. Unlike Orting, there is probably room for about 3000 Cars at

least so there will be no excuse not to park away from the main area.
(This 
is a personal bugaboo of mine, and I was happy to hear about it)

Camping.

The site is huge. Gargantuan. Hathawulf, Kane and I sat down and
calculated 
that the area designated for camping for 40YC could probably support
5000 
people with room to spare. That is NOT including the War Field, The 
Equestrian Area, The huge Archery Range, Erics and Merchants Row.

AND THAT is only with less than half the hayfield converted to camping
this 
year. In the future this site could probably handle 10-20,000 people if
the 
entire site was developed!

The owner dug a well on site, is installing water tanks to build
pressure 
and is running water mains out to the site in about 20 stations so you
will 
never be more than 100 yards from a water station. (probably less). They

also have purchased at least 200 or so port-a- potties (or maybe more I 
didn't catch all that part of the tour) so they will be cutting costs by

just having them pumped rather than paying rental fees as well.

There is a permanent building that is being rebuilt in wood with a tile
roof 
on site called the Great Hall with a kitchen and a store on one end and
a 
feast hall throughout most of the building. I would estimate you could
sit 
300 in the feast hall with no problem.

Fighting Fields and other uses

OK, let's be honest, this is what I came to see,  :-)  The open field is

expansive .It will be about 200yds by 200yds by my estimation. (We will
have 
BAO's castle and are in negotiation to have Stromguard bring theirs up
as 
well).

The WOODS BATTLES WILL BE FANTASTIC! There are HUGE (like 8 feet in 
diameter) cedar trees with some smaller trees beneath making for open
woods 
with a large gully running up the middle. There are a LOT of fallen
cedar 
Trees, some almost 10' in diameter and 75 feet long scattered about as
well. 
I say this without fear of contradiction, I have never seen a better
broken 
field battle area EVER (and that includes the old Broken field at
Estrella 
before they covered them with baseball diamonds) with skill, 100 men
could 
pass within 50 feet of your position and you may  not even notice them,
but 
the forest is open enough that those 100 men could move at a trot!

In the future the owner is going to build permanent castles in the open 
field as well. Permanent equestrian facilities are also in the works and
the 
permanent archery ranges should will be ready for 40YC.

The negatives.

Overall the big *potential* negative here is the owner. People are VERY 
leery of entering into a long term relationship like this. Watt Kidman's

legacy and shadow looms large over this entire project and whether
people 
want to admit it or not, that is at the root of a lot of peoples
misgivings.

It is really Emiel's battle to win or lose. So far he has played all his

cards right and if he keeps up in this manner, we could be looking at a
site 
for a west coast version of Pennsic in just a few years.

There is a fair bit of construction to go on the site as well and as
long as 
the projects are finished on time (the road, the great hall and the
water 
system) things should be looking excellent.

The last thing to talk about is the site fees. The 6-7 dollars per night

camping fee is on par with what it cost to stay in a national park or a 
state park these days. At 40YC if you are there for 10 days that is 70$.
Go 
to Yellowstone park and try camping that cheaply? It's 25$ just to get
in 
the park and then 17$ PER NIGHT to camp!

Additionally, by using a system where the camping fee per head is
charged 
and the SCA charges an addition 5 or 10 dollars for the entire event,
the 
SCA is actually PROTECTED from losing money. Any autocrat will tell you,

that the big expenses for an outdoor event come in three parts. The
overall 
site rental, the toilets, and Garbage removal. Generally 70% of the
budget 
is taken up by those three line items.

No matter how many people show up at this event, the SCA collects either
10$ 
or 5$ per person depending on when they show up. We don't have to pay
for 
garbage, we don't have to pay for biffies, and we don't have to pay the
site 
rental fee. All the risk is assumed by the site owner, the SCA makes
money 
no matter what.

That is a leap of faith on the owner that we will like using his site
enough 
to come back again. We are taking a leap of faith he's not out to screw
us 
(and seriously, does spending 750K to steal 10K makes sense to you??)

So far my sense of faith is holding firm. All we need to do now is just
show 
up and have fun, that shouldn't be too much to ask?  ;-)

In Service,

Sir Daniel
MIC 40YC 

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