Fellas, we can beat this one into the ground.  Bill I do think your points are on the money, but for our members, just what exactly is a "good" mainstream event?  I'm not asking for myself, I'm asking for the sake of conversation for our members.

Have at it.

PS-Dan, would you like me to put an avatar up for you?  I have a few pictures of you.

Quote :

How much is enough ; how much is too much?  Push out one group because we want a bottom line standard, but push the other away because we're not going far enough.

Mark,

Yup, and the crowd that pans the six classifications just eats this up. More chaos works in their favor.

As mentioned in another thread, the real three headed dog of a quandry is whether to invest full effort at a mainstream event, knowing full well you won't break even, invest nothing and just sho-n-go -- enjoy the funnel cakes and have a good time, or skip the heartache and do that E-word we love so well and have a good weekend with history. Each option has pros and cons.

Jim, I hear ya. Perhaps with some of the forward momentem gained in the past week, we can eliminate most if not all of the adjuncts, carpe eventums, and stand alone FMA efforts from what once was a very tight grouping. But, that's fodder for conversation elsewhere.

Quote :

Ken Cornett wrote :  just what exactly is a "good" mainstream event?

Ken,

I'll start. From my perspective, any events, across the authenticity spectrum, are good; if the rules and standards are intelligently enforced and the participants have a common goal of making the event a success.

As you can see, I'm pretty easy to please. The terms good, better, Farbfest, Campaign, etc. are all subjective. My six year old Grand Daughter, who's an ANV Insurance Card carrying three year reenactment veteran, thinks the event at Hibernia Forge is as good as it gets. Who am I to say she's wrong?

Some folks have taken to referring to their events as "Better". That's fine, but they're certainly not better for everyone. We seem to have this desire to put events, units, and even individuals into nice neat categories. IMHO, almost an impossible task. Everytime we come up with new code words for what we do, the definitions quickly get diluted in one way or another. Why bother?    

 

Quote :

Everytime we come up with new code words for what we do, the definitions quickly get diluted in one way or another. Why bother?

Bill,

I really can't buy that. The collection of classifications we use today have held up well for the past ten years with only one slight modification to the suffix of one term. Two of those classifications have been in use for over forty years, which is impressive in itself, and another pair date back at least 20 years.

The problem comes along when folks try to make their events out to be more than they truly are, or try to stretch labels to pimp their group or own impressions further along. Now, that's a hobby within the hobby.  

I know I play "devil's advocate" sometimes, but it truly is to see what folks are thinking and what their opinions are regarding the future o four hobby.  Y'all make valid points about middle of the road events. It seems clear with the NSA model that it won't ever do enough for the c/p/h crowd and it has driven away the farbs who refuse to accept any enforced standards.  I first  knee jerk response is tell the NSA to stay the course and continue to improve and let the farbs go away. However, the numbers then drop. When the numbers drop enough, why should a c/p/h person go? We have our own circuit of events with lower numbers and higher standards. Also the farbs have events they can go to instead and have their funnel cake and be happy as well.  It seems that we c/p/hers can be a bit uncompromising at times (mainly I believe because we have been burned in the past and are careful about how we spend our weekends), but clearly, much of the mainstream seems to be defiantly, heels dug in, uncompromising. Based on that then we go back to the TWO distinct hobbies with the divide growing wider, not closer. I am still willing to attend NSA efforts, but attendance could wane as I usually follow where the c/p/h masses go or at least where quality trumps quantity.

Jim Butler

Quote :

Jim wrote : I know I play "devil's advocate" sometimes, but it truly is to see what folks are thinking and what their opinions are regarding the future of our hobby.   Jim Butler

Yeah Jim, me too!

As I see it, there is a hierarchy of events, going from the most authentic, where impression guidelines are strictly enforced; (Charles, you'll notice I said guidelines and not standards!) and people do their best to live the life of a Civil War soldier for the entire event. This does not include Living History. If you spend the day talking to spectators, you aren't living the life of a solder. The other extreme is the so-called Ham & Yam Farbfest, where almost anything you want to do, or not do, is accepted. Funny, it's been my experience that events on both ends of the spectrum get about the same number of participants, maybe 300 people at most.

Please feel free to contradict me, but it seems the really authentic events are few and far between, maybe eight or ten per season, nationwide. The majority of reenactors, no matter what they call themselves, are attending all those events that fall somewhere between super authentic and Farbfest.

This middle ground is where all the fights take place. Is the event authentic enough to be considered "CPH" or is it a Mainstream, Authentic or Farb event? Funny thing, everybody thinks their event is more authentic than it is and nobody ever produced a Farbfest. I'm as guilty of that mindset as anybody  who's ever been involved with putting on an event.

I know nothing about the events or units west of the Mountains. But, unless things are very different, the individual reenactor is going to attend the events that suits him and his friends, no matter what his leadership might say.