WHAT A PARTY! We arrived early Thursday for load-in and setup, everything went very smoothly. Paul Cashman and all the hotel and tech staff really had their act together...we were able to get all our sound equipment, instruments, stock, etc. tucked away and ready to roll (our "sound goddess" Cayce was running sound for all the concourse bands this year, so we had a lot to tote!) Thursday night was relax, meet and greet time. Friday we had our table set up early and started selling CD's and band "stuff" almost before we could get it unpacked! We were delighted to find all the great folks we'd befriended last year showing up again to say hello, and pick up our latest CDs "Celtic Crescent" and "Rants & Rambles". We played a short set to open the Art Show over in the Marriott at 1PM -- the art gallery was bigger and better than ever, which was saying a LOT! That evening, we set up to play the great "Evening at Bree" party, which turned out to be conveniently located in the ballroom right next to our band table!! Great party, over 600 people, awesome costume contest, and nobody left unhappy! Once again we had a huge group of hobbits, elves, rangers, ringwraiths and more doing the "Macarena" to our song Merry Mayfolk -- how this got to be a tradition we've no clue! Saturday morning we spent at the band table and flying around our new "toy" the Emerald Airship (a 3' diameter radio-controlled helium "dirigible") -- people seemed generally delighted with our small air force, even if it did have a tendency to get sucked into ballrooms and escalator eddys ;) Starting late afternoon, things got REAL busy. We played a well-received concourse show at 5:30pm, and we'd been invited to play the Pern Gather that evening at 8, so we immediately packed up and toted sound gear over to the Pern room. After watching a thoroughly entertaining Pern costume contest (the winner, Monica, actually came as "thread") we played a really fun and well-received show to the Pern folks. As an added bonus, Anne McCaffrey herself showed up just before our show started, and was able to hear almost our whole show! It was a real honor to meet this great author and have a chance to showcase our music to her. Finally, Arthur and Larry paid a late-night visit to the filk room, where they played Arthur's newest Star Trek filk arrangment, "T'Pal, won't you rub me down with disinfectant gel..." -- to a pretty uproarious reception! Sunday morning we actually managed to drag ourselves out of bed before noon, then play a 2:30 concourse show -- though we must confess we weren't running on all mental cylinders. We lost most of our remaining neurons later that night when we attended the Klingon's Galacticon room party along with our musical pal Voltaire. Entirely too much hospitality accepted in the form of bloodwine and Romulan ale! But we survived and by all reports Voltaire also squeaked by (though it was a close thing). Monday, parting is such sweet sorrow. But we'll be cruising the 'con circuit during this coming year, and of course looking forward to that "Mac Daddy" of cons, Dragon*Con 2004!
Emerald Rose at Dragon*Con 2003
"Vampire Girl From ORN" |
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