" Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." - W. Buffett

[anastasiav]

I've been toying with the idea of going to Coronation "just for the day" on the cheap. And by "on the cheap" I mean leaving Maine at 5am, driving the 5 hours to Kingston NY, attending the event, then driving home. No hotels, and driving myself so I can leave when I want and not be at the mercy of anyone else's travel schedule.

Visited the website for the event today. Was shocked to learn that the day fee is $12! Ok, there is an extensive day board but I'm not a big fan of Middle Eastern food, so I doubt I'd eat much of it ... even if there isn't a half-hour wait in line, which I suspect their would be.

Checking, I see the fee for Mudthaw (which I cheerfully paid) was $10 in advance and $12 at the door. So, I wonder why I'm balking at paying the same for Coronation? Maybe because we were going to Mudthaw no matter what for a very specific reason and Coronation is sort of just a ... a whim?

*sigh* I miss $6 events where there was bread and cheese and apples and water and not much else.

Comments

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

I've been looking at the 3.5 hrs each way, in the rain, and the $12 and asking myself whether this is really something I want to do. I'll probably waffle right up til breakfast time on Saturday.

[marysdress.livejournal.com]

I miss events where there was no day board, the fees were cheaper and we all just shared what we brought.

*harrumph*

I figured I'm biased because I would have to pay for food that more than half my family can't eat - but maybe not.

[dreda.livejournal.com]

I am curious about this, because I think about it a lot when I prepare for events. I like dayboards because it's one less thing for me to think about, but I don't tend to eat much and I sometimes miss puzzling out how to make a medieval lunch. But most of the time when I bring lunch, I don't see sharing except by prearrangement. I do note that I have to account for the fact that I am brutally shy even with people I know, so the idea of sharing lunch with strangers makes me whimper, but is the sharing something that can scale up past an event small enough for everyone to know each other?

(I like the idea, but it's hard for me to do personally, so I'm asking about other vantages.)

Relatedly, I know that one of the reasons I am very loath to autocrat another event is wrangling the cost of local sites, which translates down into fees that make people aggravated. The lottery keeps failing to pan out and allow me to fund whole events, though, which is vexing.

[marysdress.livejournal.com]

Dealing with sites is a major stress. One the reasons I recently ran a non-SCA event that was a fundraiser willingly was that it came with a site for free. We just had to pay the custodian. Huge win.

Back when there weren't usually dayboards and we all brought food (*creak*), you'd pull up a piece of floor space or chairs to eat. Someone else you knew would sit down. People usually brought too much either because they made or they bought too much. Someone would offer you their liverwurst or you'd offer your pickles and it was all very informal. It wasn't a potluck - just an "I've got more than I need of this" in a neighborly sort of way.

Mind you, the food we brought for lunch was frequently simple stuff like that - liverwurst, maybe chicken, store bought bread, pickles, apples, store bought shortbread - but it tasted better because you were sitting with people and passing it around.

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Wow - that is a huge win! (Ask me in about a year how dealing with finding wedding sites gave me vexing flashbacks to finding event sites...)

What you describe was mostly what I was envisioning. It makes me think - the last couple of times I've been to a small event, it was mostly schmoozing and hanging out with people I liked very much, and each time I thought, "if I were new here, I would last 30 minutes." I don't have good ideas that flow from that - I left the chatelaine post for a reason - but I still think about it a lot. We have great systems for people who already know each other.

(I like all those things except liverwurst. Euw. ;)

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

But most of the time when I bring lunch, I don't see sharing except by prearrangement. I do note that I have to account for the fact that I am brutally shy even with people I know, so the idea of sharing lunch with strangers makes me whimper, but is the sharing something that can scale up past an event small enough for everyone to know each other?

I've never thought of you as shy.

But I will make it explicit: If you see my family with food, feel free to have some. We always have too much. Someone might starve, you know. :-)

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Thank you. ;) (I have good camo, like many introverts, and the classic thing where I can come across as standoffish when in reality I just can't quite figure out how to talk. ;)

[mollyrazor.livejournal.com]

But you can also do it on the cheap AND not have to drive 10 hours in a single day. Don't forget that part. We have room for you. And I am bringing chocolate cake. And I like seeing you. And, and, and, I sound like I'm begging. :) Do what makes you happy.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

And I would like to see you, too!

See? Two redheads, begging. Isn't that a sad sight to see?

[baronessv.livejournal.com]

I'm not a redhead, and I don't beg, but I would also really like to see you :D

[lanome.livejournal.com]

I'm not a redhead either, but I also vote to see you!

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

See? Two redheads, begging. Isn't that a sad sight to see?

I suspect that depends on the context. :-)

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

I might even make cheese. I've found goat milk.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

I'm about 90% sure I'm going.

What time are you leaving? I have to work the entire day so the earliest I could be in Kingston if I left after work would be 11 pm or so.

I like chocolate cake!

[mollyrazor.livejournal.com]

We're leaving sometime in the afternoon, it is dependent on our passengers (vairavi and fishheadned), since A and I both have the day off. But trust me, showing up at 11 or midnight is not a problem. V and I might just be a little extra happy. ;)

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean--I feel a bit like the apocryphal frog in the stockpot wrt event fees ("Jeez! When did this get so expensive?!?"), even after a baker's dozen or so years in NYC (the Land of Expensive Sites).

We have some musical work to do, so we'll be there (although we might try to sell our feast tix--not feeling the love for modern Middle Eastern food at a "medieval recreation"). We'll be happy to see you if you show up, but we'll understand if you don't. Hope you get to have some fun this Saturday, whatever you decide to do :-)

[goodscagirl.livejournal.com]

I paid 15 last weekend with no dayboard. It kills me.
I charged 10 for our last coronation and had a full dayboard.

[kuzu-no-ha.livejournal.com]

I feel that it has gotten really expensive in the last few years. And I get annoyed at how expensive it is and a dayboard I have to pay for and can't even eat.

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

Hm. I would think that the majority of the cost for Coronation would be for the activity rooms in the High School-- given all the extra activities they are having at the event.

Presumably (ok, I *hope*) the $10-$12 per head for Mudthaw was all site cost; it appears that $10-$12 is the normal day fee these days for events with or without a dayboard.

But I guess I'm working from my experiences of trying to rent schools and budgeting for dayboards. (My experience is that for $3 per head you can do an amazingly extensive dayboard for 100 people, and given the economies of scale, I expect the Coronation dayboard would come in at significantly less per head.)

[lumineaux.livejournal.com]

The Mudthaw site alone costs about $5000. So yes, a $10-12 site fee is what we need to break even, given the chance of bad weather.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

Heh. "In the old days" I used to run GNE for the entire weekend for $12; now the day fee for GNE is $10 too, so I guess I'm just old and out of touch.

Mudthaw was really fun, BTW. Wish I'd been able to get inside more, though.