Thanks to a good friend, I did in fact venture into the eccentric and eclectic world of the SCA for one evening this past weekend. Estrella War is this gigantic gathering where people take a week out of their lives, pitch up tents, camp, and dress up/talk/act like they imagine people would in the 12-1400’s. This involves exotic clothing, armour, robes, swords, shields, and horribly fake cockney accents. One really cool activity is large scale ‘battles’ with upwards of 1000 people in full armour beating the scyte out of each other with sticks for hours on end. With any kind of large gathering involving a few thousand people, there was of course a multitude of different things to purchase so you could be more ‘authentic’.

Now, one would expect to see about a 80/20% nerd male/female ratio at such an event, but it was actually more like 60/40%. There were also tons of insanely hot women. These women of course had an entourage of hopeful suitors chanting the likes of ‘m’lady, a kiss for your honour’ or something in the hopes of actually getting some form of action. I was surpised at the fact that there was a complete and diverse mix of all types of people.

The one night I did go (last Friday), is the night of the ‘big parties’. A lot of my friends go to these SCA events, so they helped organize a large party near their camp. There was probably 300 or so people crammed into this little area. There was an open bar, games, and of course, the ‘bucket’. The ‘bucket’ is a homemade drink that consists of a variety of things usually mixed by my good buddy. I believe it contains vodka, sprite, vanilla stuff, fruit, and tons of ice in a large steel bucket. Normally someone goes around from clique to clique at this party and offers everyone a drink of ‘bucket.’ Me being the hospitable fellow I am, as well as being TOTALLY destroyed thanks to a friend’s Ouzo offering less than an hour before and some mystery drinks from the open bar, I decided to be a ‘bucket’ bearer. Despite my unbelievable inebriation (I am seriously not a big drinker to be honest), I managed to take this bucket around yelling at everyone I saw to ‘Try some bucket!’ (in my worst English accent of course). I came to find that the ladies especially loved this drink. They loved it so much that I actually had some following the bucket in hopes of getting another sip. I remember threats of being ‘goosed’ if I didn’t ‘give up the bucket.’ Others were seriously grabbing my junk so I would not walk by without offering ‘the bucket’. It was very surreal.

The next morning I felt fine (amazingly) and spent the day wandering the shops in the hopes of finding some cool things to bring home. Just like the Renaissance fair however, there was not much variety from shop to shop and most things were grotesquely overpriced.

All in all I had a great time and would definitely go again. This may make me a horrid nerd, but you know what they say. If the shoe fits, wear it.