Who: Everyone is welcome!
What: An all-day festival in honor of our living history club‘s 47th year! This year the theme is 16th century pirates. Long before Blackbeard sailed the Carolina coast, sailors dreaded the Barbary Corsairs, pirate queens like Grace O’ Malley and Sayyida al-Hurra, and state-sponsored privateers like Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake.
When: Saturday, November 11, 2023 from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM
Where:
American Legion Post 305
7678 Snow Camp Rd
Snow Camp, NC 27349
Why: Cheer for tournaments and battles, play games of skill, enter art contests, shop for arts and crafts, enjoy a commedia dell’arte performance, applaud the award winners, sit down for a lavish banquet, then stay late for singing and dancing.
How:
- Online registration is open until November 7th. You will need a free account at SCA.org. Or simply pay at the door.
- This is a costume party. Wear a pirate costume, some other historical costume from before 1600, or pick one from our rolling costume closet.
- Camping is available.
- You may bring your own food and drink. All state and local laws concerning alcohol and contraband will be strictly enforced.
Tournaments
Tournaments are open to adults who hold current SCA authorization cards. If you are interested in free martial arts lessons with the SCA, contact the Chatelain (greeter) for your local club.
Rapier and Armored Melees
Be a pirate and raid a town for booty!
Fighters, archers, ax-throwers, and even artisans can join crews, contributing to an overall team score. Armored and rapier fighters run the same scenario!
- Be a citizen and defend your holy place, tavern, and mayor’s house, while your Archers of Doom ruin the pirates’ plans. Defenders get points for all the items they keep.
- Attackers get points for booty that they get to the ship. After booty reaches the ship, it is unrecoverable by the defenders.
- Crews take turns to be both defenders and attackers.
- To resurrect, pirates must return to their ship to reach a resurrection point.
- Non-combatant by-standers hurl insults at the pirates as they return to resurrect. If the team does not respond, that counts against their score.
- The Archers of Doom are invulnerable (they’re stationed in insurmountable guard towers), and available only to the defenders.
- Times may vary based on the number of fighters, but each scenario should last a maximum of 10 minutes.
- Pick-ups will be available while the scenario is being run by the opposite discipline.
- Combat archers and rubber band guns welcome!
Activities
Free and open to everyone!
Target Archery
Bring your own longbow or recurve, or borrow one of ours. (Compound bows are too modern.) We’ll have some targets just for fun and some for competition. Target archery competitors can declare for one crew or another. Their points are tallied as part of the final win or loss. The top target archers win prizes.
Axe or Knife Throwing
Grappling Hook Toss
Children’s Activities
Beware, Mateys, young and old! The Dread Pirate Mor is sailing into harbor at Buckston’s Buccaneer Birthday, and she is looking to shanghai some crew members! She is looking for anyone of any age to add to her crew (parents are welcome to participate, but if the child is 4 or under, a parent needs to stay for activities). There will be a cannonball toss, walk the plank (hunker hausen), capture the shark, a treasure hunt (yes, the Dread Pirate Mor has a chest full of Pirate booty!!) and games to end the day.
Ring Toss
Knotwork
Dancing
Bardic Circle
Bring your own, or borrow some of ours. We’ll have some targets just for fun and some for competition. Thrown weapons competitors can declare for one crew or another. Their points are tallied as part of the final win or loss. The top thrown weapons competitors win prizes.
Just for fun, can you heave a weight with a line attached and hit the target?
Can you master all these naughty nautical knots?
After dinner, we’ll do an assortment of fun Renaissance dances from England, France and Italy. All will be taught and called, so no experience is necessary. If you have ever done square dancing, contra dancing, or ECD, you already know most of the steps!
Sing pirate songs and tell stories around the fire.
Contests
Free and open to everyone!
Wanted Poster
Costume Contest
Brewing
Bring us your best homebrew to sample!
Make up a Wanted poster for any actual 16th century pirate, privateer, or corsair. For example, Spain could want Walter Raleigh for theft and murder even though England thought him a hero. Extra points for cool historical details, artwork, or additional supporting information (“documentation”) about your pirate.
Strut your stuff on the runway! Separate prizes for the most authentic 16th century outfit, the most pirate-y, and the cutest kid outfit.
Pricing
- Adult SCA members $15 …Interested in membership?
- Adult Non-members $20
- Children 6-17 $5
- Children 0-5 FREE
- Feast, all ages $15
Music by the Motley Tones
Schedule
| Saturday | |
| 8:00 AM | Setup. Staff arrive. |
| 9:00 AM | Gate opens. Rolling costume closet opens. |
| 10:00 AM | Opening ceremonies (“morning court”) |
| 10:30 AM | Authorizations |
| 10:30 AM | Armor inspection |
| 10:30 AM | Games |
| 1o:30 AM | Morning children’s activities |
| 10:30 AM | Drop off contest entries in the Hall |
| 11:00 AM | Archery, thrown weapons, and grappling hooks open |
| 11:00 AM | Battles |
| 12 Noon | Lunch for sale ($5) |
| 12 Noon | Motley Tones perform first set |
| 1:00 PM | Motley Tones perform second set |
| 1:30 PM | Afternoon children’s activities |
| 2:00 PM | Costume contest |
| 2:00 PM | Brewing contest |
| 2:30 PM | Motley Tones perform third set |
| 3:00 PM | Commedia dell’arte performance |
| 3:30 PM | Pick up all contest entries |
| 4:00 PM | Award ceremony (“evening court”) |
| 6:00 PM | Feast! |
| 7:30 PM | Dancing! |
| 9:00 PM | Campfire stories and songs (“bardic circle”) |
| Sunday | |
| 1:00 PM | Everything packed up and off site |
Shipwreck Special Lunch $5
First come, first served. Cash only.
You receive (1) a hoagie roll with your choice of meatballs, bbq chicken, or veggies (peppers, onions, and mushrooms) (2) a cheese stick, (3) pretzel stick, carrots sticks and celery sticks, (4) gilded cookies, (5) you choice of punch, water or tea.
Tudor Feast $15
First Course: Appetizers
| Modern Name | Gluten Free | Milk Free | Nut Free | No Red Meat | Vege- tarian |
| Cookies | x | x | x |
Second Course: Charcouterie Platter
| Modern Name | Gluten Free | Milk Free | Nut Free | No Red Meat | Vege- tarian |
| Italian Sausage | x | x | x | ||
| Liver Sausage | x | x | x | ||
| Smoked Fish | x | x | x | x | |
| Zatarain’s Creole Mustard | x | x | x | x | x |
| Country Ham | x | x | x | ||
| Pickled Green Peppercorns | x | x | x | x | x |
| Garnish | x | x | x | x | x |
Second Course: Bread and Cheese Platter
| Modern Name | Gluten Free | Milk Free | Nut Free | No Red Meat | Vege- tarian |
| Roasted Whole Garlic | x | x | x | x | x |
| White Bread | x | x | x | x | |
| Quince Paste | x | x | x | x | x |
| Green Onion Tassels | x | x | x | x | x |
| Gluten Free Option | x | x | x | x | x |
Third Course: Pies and Salad
| Modern Name | Gluten Free | Milk Free | Nut Free | No Red Meat | Vege-tarian |
| Steak and Ale Pie | x | ||||
| Spinach Pie | x | x | x | ||
| Mushroom and Cheese Pie | x | x | x | ||
| Mixed Salad | x | x | x | x | x |
Fourth Course: Roast with Sides
| Modern Name | Gluten Free | Milk Free | Nut Free | No Red Meat | Vege-tarian |
| Turkey Sausage Links | x | x | x | x | |
| Cornish Hens | x | x | x | x | |
| Garlic Chard | x | x | x | x | x |
| Leeks & Turnips | x | x | x | x |
Fifth Course: Dessert
| Modern Name | Gluten Free | Milk Free | Nut Free | No Red Meat | Vege-tarian |
| Stewed Apples | x | x | x | x | x |
| Bread Pudding | x | x | x |
As far as possible, everything in this feast will be made from scratch–absolutely no canned broth, bouillon, or anything containing modern flavor enhancers. The same goes for dyes. We may not raise all our meat, vegetables and dairy, but they are the purest we can afford. The bread flour is organic from Lindley Mill in Graham, NC. Honey is from local bees. In particular, we check all our meats to ensure they are not “enhanced with a solution” of God-knows-what. We have the containers if you want to read the labels.
We do our best to segregate meat from wheat and dairy, but everything will come out of one kitchen. Dust and crumbs might travel.
Fowl will be prepared separately from red meat, so there won’t be pork juice on your chicken.
We have no soy or soy products in any of our dishes. We have no shellfish in any of our dishes.
Could there be sulfites in the wine or dried fruit? Yes.
We don’t use canola oil. We are cooking with light olive oil or butter. If you are sensitive to olives, please let the kitchen know and we’ll advise you on what to avoid.
Staff
| Position | Name | SCA | Contact |
| Autocrat | Ingrid Towey | Lady Odile de Strasbourg | ingrid@ib-ent.com |
| Head Chef | Brian Towey | Lord Charles Fleming | cbt@ib-ent.com |
| Marshal in Charge | Mark Burnette | Baron Rufus Barbarossa | rufus.barbarossa@gmail.com |
| Registration | Catherine Y. King | Adair of Makyswell | adairofmakyswell@gmail.com |
| Gate | A. Pennachi | Lady Ríoghnach inghean Uí Clérigh | birthdayres@buckston. windmastershill.org |
| Hall Steward | Ruth Harris | Mistress Caitilin MacDonoghue | caitlinofbaelfiredun@yahoo.com |
| Newcomers | Bonnie Helmink | Lady Isabella Bourchier de Lovaine | paradisebeach48@yahoo.com |
| Arts & Sciences | Sharon Walker | Lady Benetessa | benetessa@gmail.com |
| Children’s Activities | Mary Kearney | Baroness Mor the Merry | baronessmor@yahoo.com |