[MR] War of the Wings and encampments

[Glynis Knibb (Glynis Gwynedd)]

I had such an awesome time this weekend at War of the Wings. It was
well worth the drive down, and the hotel room was wonderful. Whomever
bribed the National Weather Service for such perfect weather deserves
some recognition.

I heard a lot of complaining from various people about people cutting
through their encampments. I thought to myself how horrible that was,
and how I would certainly never do such a thing. Saturday night, after
court, after dark, however - I wound up doing exactly that, by
accident. I turned down a nice straight row that was a good 15 feet
wide, and passed about 3 pavilions that were lined up perfectly in a
straight line before finding a large open spot with a great many
people in it. I was mortified to discover that I had unwittingly
walked right into someone's camp. I turned around to leave, turned
left down the road... and was perplexed... because it STILL didn't
look right. Not only had I wandered into someone's very large camp, I
had turned down a road within their encampment while trying to leave.
I had a nice chat with a lady who was sitting on the front porch of
her tent about how I was pretty sure this wasn't a road, and if it
wasn't, I apologize. She graciously confirmed that it was not, in
fact, the road, but didn't give me a hard time about it. If they
really wanted to make sure people didn't wander into their
encampments, they'd have had a rope wall or sheet wall up, I'm
certain. (For the record, I have a very difficult time getting around
in the dark, and would not normally have been wandering without a
light, but we were leaving, and had found two people's armor under our
pavilion as we were tearing down, and I couldn't find a light.)

It was dark, and I had no light. There were no ropes up, nor was there
a gate. I feel this was an honest mistake, and I do apologize
profusely to whomever's camp I invaded that night.

But there were also people who were climbing over ropes to go through
encampments (near the gypsy camp), and complaining about tripping on
the ropes (including threatening to find someone to sue if they
tripped and fell while climbing over the ropes at the back of the
encampment where the woods were). People, those ropes are there
because that is someone's encampment - their private space at the
event. Climbing over those ropes is just like climbing over your
neighbor's fence - it's just bad form.

I implore you all to please keep these things in mind for future
events. I was absolutely appalled that I myself had wandered into
someone's camp uninvited, but I am even more appalled by the sheer
refusal of people to just "go around" someone's encampment.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled discussions.

Glynis Knibb
aka
~Lady Glynis Gwynedd, Finsterwald Pursuivant
Kingdom Clerk of Precedence, Atlantia
Webminister, Atlantia Pennsic page
Webminister, Deputy Herald, Thrown Weapons Marshall, etc - Barony of
Highland Foorde
"Have you hugged a harp today?"
--
"We accept that we cannot satisfy the mentally deranged, those
experiencing dementia or hallucinations, the chemically imbalanced,
those under the influence of alcohol or mind altering drugs, genetic
mutants, those possessed or hearing "the voices," those seeking
government surplus or inferior quality, chronic complainers, the
illiterate, former spouses, and the IRS." C. Rake 1995