On (not) attending K&Q Bardic

[eveglass]

For those of my friends not in the East Kingdom of the SCA, this weekend was an event to select who will be King's and Queen's bard for the next year. Two of my good friends were serving this past year, but I don't know either of the two people who were selected for the year to come. The event was in Maine, a 6-hour drive away, and I didn't go.

It's funny: I've been in the SCA for 12 years, and heavily into bardic for 8 of them, and I've never been to a K&Q Bardic Competition. Usually it's because they're too far away, though sometimes it's been from scheduling conflicts.

I think I've come to a realization. Despite loving bardic (and my next two months will probably be *extremely* bardic-intensive), I have no real desire to be a royal bard. Oh, it would be cool. But I don't think I'd be able to fulfill my office properly. Being a royal bard means going to royal progress events, and most of our recent royalty have been from the Southern or at best Central region. Which means most of the events I'd be going to would be a 6-7 hour drive away. I just can't do that every weekend, even with the free time I have from only working one day a week at present. (Hopefully I'll soon be working more days per week.)

One day, it might be fun to be royal bard. I think if I put some more period and period-oid pieces into my repertoire, I'd have a chance of winning. But the day I compete "for real" is a long way off. First, I'll hope that the event is held close enough that I can make it.

Comments

[hotspurre.livejournal.com]

I would say that if one wants to be a royal bard, you should be ready to make a sincere effort to make it to the following:

Coronation (the two that will be within your term)
Crown Tourney (the two that will be within your term)
Pennsic
At least one other RP.
The K&Q Bardic where your sucessors are chosen.

Now, speaking for myself, I missed one Coronation from my first term as a Royal bard, and one Crown Tourney from my second. I do think any one of these is miss-able, but you should probably substitute something else that's big (Mudthaw, Birka, 12th Night, another Champions Event,) I think you should probably end up with attending an average of one event a month, maybe drifting down to every other month in the slower times. Aoife and I came up a bit higher than that, I think, but we went a little nuts. Also, we were able to travel together, which helps a lot.

That being said, from where you are, that still is a hell of a lot of events for you to be traveling south, most of which are in that 6-7 hour range you noted. I do think you're probably making the right decision here, but I also think you shouldn't hold yourself to too high of a standard if decide to do it. We have had royal bards who were absent from a number of the above events, even their stepping down. There were good reasons, but it has happened.

[eveglass.livejournal.com]

I appreciate that, but I don't really have people here to travel with, and I utterly hate driving at night on unlit highways. And 6-7 hours for a one-day event is just too far for me. I've done it under exceptional circumstances, but I try to limit myself to 5 hours for a weekend event (at MOST) and 2.5 hours for a one-day event that I'm day-tripping.

It's an unfortunate truth that most royalty is from the southern or central region, which means most of the events they're going to will be more local to them and consequently far from me. The only northern royalty I can think of in the last, say, 10 years are Darius and Alethea in 2008 (and I think Darius was still south or central) and Throson and Svava in 2004. There haven't been any Northern Shores royalty as far back as I can remember. And even if there were, Ruantallan (Halifax) is effectively twice as far as the Southern Region for me.

I'd still love to make it out to a K&Q Bardic. (And a coronation, for that matter, which I've also never attended.) But I don't see myself competing for a while.

[hotspurre.livejournal.com]

I understand, I just didn't want you to hold yourself to too high a standard. :)

I agree regarding your bit about the unfortunate truth. I imagine its true in other kingdoms as well, I hear that Aethelmearc, for example, has some culture differences between its south west and its north east (relativelly speaking, I mean) portions.

Darius is from Southern Region, yes, but Alethea is from Glenn Linn, so we did end up dragging the center a bit north for a while...

[reyl.livejournal.com]

Caldrithig isn't that far ;) You should come get your bard on with us soon! Our next big event is Practicum, a day full of classes and fun. I tossed you a FB invite for the details :D

[eveglass.livejournal.com]

I'll probably be going. Finding out that Heather Dale would be there was a major temptation factor. *grin*