Nerd Where Will the Wizards and Unicorns Go Now?
posted by on July 18 at 11:42 AM
A scrap between the Washington Renaissance and Fantasy Faire (WRFF) and the Mason County Commissioner (MCC) over some illegally removed trees has forced the WRFF to cancel their annual event.
Last March, WRFF spokeswoman Tracy Nietupski says her group, at the request of the fire department, removed “20 or 30” trees—along with dead fall—to clear emergency access roads along a 50 acre plot of land in Belfair,Wa. Nietupski also says some trees were removed to create space for a parking lot.
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) found out that WRFF had uprooted trees without a permit, and put a freeze on their event license until the case could be reviewed. “It was a bit of a misunderstanding,” Nietupski says. “We had not at that point applied for a permit to remove the trees. We didn’t know we needed one.”
This would’ve been WRFF’s eleventh year, and Nietupski says nearly 80,000 people were expected to attend the three-weekend event, and Nietupski estimates the fair’s merchants and performers, will lose close to $250,000 because of the cancellation.
While WRFF could appeal the DNR’s decision to withhold their event permit, the process would take three to six months and the fair was scheduled to begin the first weekend of August.
This is what Paul Constant will miss this year:
This is BULLSHIT OF THE HIGHEST DEGREE! I was actually looking forward to this!
The wood nymphs and dryads were displeased by the upheaval of their homes, therefore they summoned Falcor to alert Ye Old Knights of the Square Table to put the peasants on lockdown.
/go every year.
//one of these days will wear star trek outfits there
All unicorns are leaving anyway, to join the Obama campaign.
(see jibjab).
They have no problem with nerds in full armour holding joust tournaments, but demand licensing for SSP wrestling?
Oh! It's the trees that they have a problem with....
Verily, PC, thou slayest me!
Geeze, they'll need a team of Spell Removal Technicians to clean out the DNR central office building in Olympia.
I got about 15 seconds into the video, hit "Ye Olde" something or other and hit stop. Seriously, fuck that shit.
I used to do SCA and renfaires and all that. And then I went to university, got a real job, and got fed up with all Ye Stupide Peoplee. It's not "ha ha they're nerds," because I'm one too; it's that none of this shit has changed or innovated since the 1960s, and I tend to enjoy forms of geekery that have at least grown a little bit since I was born.
You mean you "hit stoppe"
bellevue! my excess pounds are waiting!
STM, one day, i promise.
Ye Olde Curley Fries?
Real Wizards don't need parking lots.
Cow,
new people get involved in ren faires and SCA every year. Concluding that because you're in "been there, done that" mode that the other people who are currently are involved are stupid is....well, stupid. People get bored of all kinds of hobbies. Your boredom is not some kind of statement on the value of said hobby. It's just you being bored. Enjoy your new hobbies, whatever they may be, and leave practitioners of your old hobbies alone.
So, let me get this straight. The flooding last December was exacerbated by the DNR letting Weyerhauser clear cut unstable slopes with impunity, but take out 20 or 30 trees at the request of the fire department and to create a parking lot and they're right on that, baby. My head is going to explode.
Yes, there is much about the Ren Faire that is utterly lame. Still, it's a hoot and people look forward to it every year. There is a lot going on behind the scenes of this train wreck that smacks of County political machinations, combined with an earnest but sometimes gormless event owner. Like the Titanic disaster, bad many bad decisions have gone into the current state of affairs.
However...it's not the end.
Things don't have to be innovative and new to be enjoyable. It's the experience that's wonderful, not the newness of it all.
"Reading? Psh. People have been passing on stories the same way for AGES. It's so lame!"
And please don't assume that people involved in the SCA and ren faires are children in grown up bodies. Most of the people I know there have gone to university. There are engineers, writers, doctors, all types of majors with real lives, and this is what they - we - do for fun.
Also? It's reenacting history. History doesn't change (yes, yes, our perception of it can, you get what I mean). People dress up and have fun. They sing songs. They put on shows. What innovation are you looking for?
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