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Aug. 31st, 2007 10:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
king_pellinorThis was a bit of an odd Summerfest for me, as rather than doing my normal thing of just playing, with occasional bits of helping out, I spent most of it working.
It was very good to meet Louise again, too (and her celebrity husband). Is it really about 15 years since Oxford? Didn't feel like it.
What with being Treasurer and fairly interested in there being some good beer there, and with no-one else volunteering to do it, I found myself running the bar. Now I used to work behind a bar back in the OTC Mess 15 years ago, and I've occasionally helped out at other LARP or dancing events, but I'd no idea how to actually run one.
So the plan was:
- Ring a brewery and find that they can provide barrels of bright beer on demand
- Ring Moniack castle and get some mead sent down to LadyofAstolat's work
- Ask for volunteers to help man the bar
- Nip out to the supermarket to fill in the gaps
In the event, this seemed to work pretty well. The main things that came up were:
- Asking people to help works, but needs a bit more structure to it if you want time off yourself - I spent most of the weekend in the bar itself
- Provide real ale, and people will drink it. Even if they're the sort of student you expect just to want fizzy lager. The wheat beer was very popular, and the porter a good plan too
- One can never have enough Moniack
- Plastic cups just evaporate. You can buy 200, and when you look round the site there will be 3 left discarded somewhere.
- Red Bull sells well before lunch
- Steak pie sells well any time at all
- Wine is pretty much unnecessary, really. I don't think anyone would have missed it, especially with fruit wine available
- The way to make friends and influence people is to wander out on a hot day with a basket of Red Bull, a plate of pies, and two big jugs of water
I also have a rather better idea of what people will drink, so next year I can hopefully get away with fewer trips out to the shops. For the record:
- nearly 7 barrels of beer
- 6 slabs of lager (Carling sells faster than Stella)
- 95 bottles of cider
- 3 boxes of wine
- about 24 bottles of mead, though kept running out and I could have sold more
- probably about 8 bottles of fruit wine
- 5 or 6 bottles of port
- 6 slabs of Red Bull
- 50 2l bottles of coke, 6 of lemonade, maybe 12 of diet coke
- 10 cartons of apple juice (ran out); 30 or so of orange juice
- Something like 24 steak pies, 8 cheese & onion slices and 32 sausage rolls in a single day - sold out early on, could have sold far more.
- Mini-pringles and crisps ad lib
We made a small profit on that, selling alcohol at £1 a go (£2 for port or mead) and soft drinks for 50p a pint.
As for the actual adventuring side: it almost got in the way, really, though having a few good fights was fun. Gisbourne is not a good choice for barman: he's too grumpy, so I didn't really want to stay in-character behind the bar. Next year, play someone friendly :-D
So the plan was:
- Ring a brewery and find that they can provide barrels of bright beer on demand
- Ring Moniack castle and get some mead sent down to LadyofAstolat's work
- Ask for volunteers to help man the bar
- Nip out to the supermarket to fill in the gaps
In the event, this seemed to work pretty well. The main things that came up were:
- Asking people to help works, but needs a bit more structure to it if you want time off yourself - I spent most of the weekend in the bar itself
- Provide real ale, and people will drink it. Even if they're the sort of student you expect just to want fizzy lager. The wheat beer was very popular, and the porter a good plan too
- One can never have enough Moniack
- Plastic cups just evaporate. You can buy 200, and when you look round the site there will be 3 left discarded somewhere.
- Red Bull sells well before lunch
- Steak pie sells well any time at all
- Wine is pretty much unnecessary, really. I don't think anyone would have missed it, especially with fruit wine available
- The way to make friends and influence people is to wander out on a hot day with a basket of Red Bull, a plate of pies, and two big jugs of water
I also have a rather better idea of what people will drink, so next year I can hopefully get away with fewer trips out to the shops. For the record:
- nearly 7 barrels of beer
- 6 slabs of lager (Carling sells faster than Stella)
- 95 bottles of cider
- 3 boxes of wine
- about 24 bottles of mead, though kept running out and I could have sold more
- probably about 8 bottles of fruit wine
- 5 or 6 bottles of port
- 6 slabs of Red Bull
- 50 2l bottles of coke, 6 of lemonade, maybe 12 of diet coke
- 10 cartons of apple juice (ran out); 30 or so of orange juice
- Something like 24 steak pies, 8 cheese & onion slices and 32 sausage rolls in a single day - sold out early on, could have sold far more.
- Mini-pringles and crisps ad lib
We made a small profit on that, selling alcohol at £1 a go (£2 for port or mead) and soft drinks for 50p a pint.
As for the actual adventuring side: it almost got in the way, really, though having a few good fights was fun. Gisbourne is not a good choice for barman: he's too grumpy, so I didn't really want to stay in-character behind the bar. Next year, play someone friendly :-D
It was very good to meet Louise again, too (and her celebrity husband). Is it really about 15 years since Oxford? Didn't feel like it.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 11:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-03 11:22 am (UTC)Remind me to remind you about it next summer :-)
no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-03 11:25 am (UTC)