Today was the first day of the Ravenswood Faire at Hawes Farm in Anderson, CA, which I arranged for the Western Circle to provide a sword fighting exhibition in the style of previous Arata Farms events. I could and should have been better prepared. It was very windy so we were unable to erect the canvas walls for the blind nor the awning to cut some of the copious Redding sun, and the fighting arena was not actually ready when we arrived, nor anyone in charge available. None the less, we got the hay bales arranged and started the fighting, running a set of steel melees, some wood, and a few final steel matches for the crowd that had gathered. Brennan, Dave and Faith had come in the day prior, and most of the Redding students were present. After the first set, Head Kaiden Gad arrived with Vea, Steel Wind, and Kris, bolstering our steel numbers to 8 (with Sal and myself) for the afternoon sets of melees, and for the bokken melees we had Steven, Jesse A, Jesse B, Elijah, and Chris join us. Faith, Sabrina, Mary Ann and Antonio helped out with logging, video, cameras, and crowd management.
After the exhibition, we returned to the Redding Dojo for a feast and to recoup.