Shasta '25, A Fantastic Weekend

MORTALS—I write ye, weary & fulfilled, after the long journey back from Shasta. We played six shows, entertained a couple hundred fine folk, & tasted incredible meads!

Read on for more sights & memories from Day 2:

Over 8,000 souls attended the Shasta faire this year! Nearly a thousand more than last year—but with the new expanded grounds, ne’er did it feel crowded. With so many new booths, stands, guilds, & shows, one now truly cannot see it all in one day!

We saw many marvelous creatures & costumes—like Twi’Rogue, the Queen of Hearts, many mushrooms, bone-folk, a mysterious cadre of mime-jesters, & at least two satyrs.

The courageous reenactors from Get Medieval fought many melees, with a speed & ferocity that seem superhuman—especially when they pull it off in 95-degree heat. IMPRESSIVE.

We spent much time in the company of pirates, at camp; we shared food & mead. Mead of sorts ye never dreamt of; mead aged 14 years, flavored with rosemary, from blackberry flower honey, so many kinds! ‘Twas generous, & glorious. They tasted the mead we made, & their two mead-masters then provided 20 minutes of advice, guidance, & secrets. Did ye know, ye need a license to make mead commercially, but not to sell it? & that ye can rent a vat at a winery for a “custom crush,” make mead in it, & then legally sell it, because the licensed winery “made” it? ALL THIS WE LEARNED & MORE.

Also, I had an incredible steak & mushroom pie. ‘Twas so good, it deserveth its own line.

We spent time at the royal court & the fae court, & somehow managed to watch several shows! The musical acts at faire are my favorite, particularly ones who play period music from my younger centuries. We were able to watch our friends Mop & Broom, the Story Wrens, & we closed out Sunday with the Wild Thyme Larks. A wondrous range of song & talent!

We recorded our mainstage shows, & hope to prod the InstaGoblins into editing them for thy viewing soon! We encountered many audience members who return to see us each year, which means a lot to us. A couple hundred beings attended our six shows, & we channeled over 40 futures this weekend! At our show on the Castle stage on Sunday, a young gentleman named William wanted to know his future; he boldly strode up on stage with us, breaking all custom & protocol, & sat beside us as we divined what lay ahead for him. When I asked what he wished to do someday when older, he said, “have a big house.”

Summersbane saw a possible future, where he lives in an enormous house but has a tiny car—for he teaches at a local clown college (which, in that future, apparently pays enough to cover a mortgage). I saw something different—a gothic future, where he lives in a dark 50-story tower, with an army of followers, who terrorize the local town, burning down the homes of who tries to build a big house. For William has not just a big house, but the biggest house.

Apparently, this is the future William desires, for he seemed overjoyed at the idea of having a legion under his command who maintain the relative bigness of his house, nodding along & saying “Yes, yes!” AMUSING & ALSO SCARY, YOUNG WILLIAM.

We also garnered perhaps my favorite review; a patron asked another if they knew our show. He replied he did, & “they just talk. It’s great.”

I must now enter the Amœnusleep, & recover my energies. Thank ye for reading—thank ye to all who came to see us this weekend—& we thank especial those mortals who support our works with coin, whether during our streams or right here in the Scriptorium! Having enough resources to cover whate’er we may need for a faire, & purchase upgrades like our new industrial fan, lifts such a burden from our shoulders. For the first couple of years, our faire trips were conducted on the thinnest of shoestring budgets, often to our detriment & discomfort. Now, we rest easier, eat better, & our shows are better for it. THANK YE.

I shall write ye come Wednesday with news of this week’s episode—THE SHOW NEVER RESTS. & the Scriptorium shall, of course, resume its normal delivery time. ‘Til then—be safe, be well, & Zzzzzzzz

Cheers,
Amœnus Franco
Wizard, Writer, Asleep