IronFest 2014 and two great coves

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longbowinfected
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IronFest 2014 and two great coves

#1 Post by longbowinfected » Mon Apr 28, 2014 9:32 am

Spent the last week preparing for and attending Ironfest 2014. The most politically incorrect open to the public [separated from coin] fun space in Australia. World War II tanks, armoured cars, soldiers in battle full sound of blanks; Napoleonic battle; Full tilt jousting; Birds of prey demonstration, Floggings, beheadings, dis-embowelling, Medieval battles, medieval camp, blacksmiths, knife makers, vendors of archery equipment and our little club doing a Come n Try [no sights, only one wheelie bow], display sheets about archery old and new, displays of ELBs, Asiatic bows [thank you John McDonald], lots of arrows [Blue moon's flu flus scored 6 out of 6 hits, 4 in the deer heart/lung zone in an extreme crosswind at 45 metres] as well as a couple of old blokes with some SCA contributors] putting on a challenge shoot demo with longbows in extreme wind to the cheers of the crowd and the delight of the hundreds there with cameras. Grahame we were busy......not many photos.....no time.....no power to recharge phones

Two special coves.
Cove number one my great mate Roadie. Well done and thank you. I shared the second cove with him and a couple of others. I will let him describe that component.,
About 6,000 people a day came to the festival. By my estimation over a thousand people paid to have a go at archery. A few hundred folk were given free entry as they were either re-enactors, ambos, fire fighters, emergency services, first aiders or gendarmes.
Thousands watched archery in action, took pamphlets or were directed to their nearest association, independent archery club. Lots of folk asked about suppliers, bowyers, fletchers and were directed to folk on here. Lots asked about building techniques and were directed to this great place.

Met quite a few shoot at home archers now thinking about joining clubs. Saw a lot of guys like Rob Moore, folk from Penrith City Archers, Sydney Bowmen and quite a few more from all over, wish I had more time to chat.

People get really excited about archery at these shows. I recommend clubs look closely at becoming part of shows and engaging with the public.

Over to Roadie.
never complain....you did not have to wake up....every day is an extra bonus and costs nothing.

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GrahameA
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Re: IronFest 2014 and two great coves

#2 Post by GrahameA » Mon Apr 28, 2014 11:43 am

Ho Kevin.
longbowinfected wrote:.... Grahame we were busy......not many photos.....no time.....no power to recharge phones ....
You could have at least spent a few minutes coming up with new excuses. :roll:
Grahame.
Shoot a Selfbow, embrace Wood Arrows, discover Vintage, be a Trendsetter.

"Unfortunately, the equating of simplicity with truth doesn't often work in real life. It doesn't often work in science, either." Dr Len Fisher.

longbowinfected
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Re: IronFest 2014 and two great coves

#3 Post by longbowinfected » Mon Apr 28, 2014 12:19 pm

Grahame, why??? It seems to be ok for you to have the same objection :biggrin: :biggrin:
I did get to walk around away from our camp twice.........to go to the loo. I wanted to go at 9 am ish but got to go around 4 pm.
both of us only had time to think when we were doing demos. The rest of the time folk were asking questions or asking to take photos Ask Roadie....we were totally shagged before each day was finished. We hardly had enough energy to raise a glass at the end of each day. Being the shy types we found all that attention very taxing :lol: :lol:
seriously the flow was constant. Never been this busy. It gets bigger and busier every year.
The number of paying customers 'frocking up' has greatly increased too.

I did take 5 or 6 photos on my phone before it died. One guy there has a flying robot with mounted camera and I think his footage and a lot of other stuff will appear on their website. Roadie and I were also photographed from every angle during our last shoot off and by their official photographer. he told us the shots would be on the website.

Kevin
never complain....you did not have to wake up....every day is an extra bonus and costs nothing.

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GrahameA
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Re: IronFest 2014 and two great coves

#4 Post by GrahameA » Mon Apr 28, 2014 1:49 pm

Hi Kevin.

Yep, It will end up like Abbey - thousands of people and at the end of a couple of days one is exhausted. Get organised so things are not clashing with ANZAC. etc. and I will attempt to get there. How did the Hornmaster go - looked busy???
Grahame.
Shoot a Selfbow, embrace Wood Arrows, discover Vintage, be a Trendsetter.

"Unfortunately, the equating of simplicity with truth doesn't often work in real life. It doesn't often work in science, either." Dr Len Fisher.

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Roadie
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Re: IronFest 2014 and two great coves

#5 Post by Roadie » Mon Apr 28, 2014 4:38 pm

Afternoon All, Have just arrived back at our friends property near Premer. Left Lithgow at 1600hrs Sunday just before the Rain although as I drove up the Mnts I was in Rain and Fog, until I reached the out skirts of Sydney, then in Rain until Gosford. I stayed with Nick Lintern (NORSEMAN BOWS), and his wife Louise last night.
Now to the Coves that Kevin has mentioned, One was a bottle of MALT WHISKY, called Sullivans Cove from Tasmania. This whisky was voted the best Malt in the world and apparently only 500 bottles were produced. So they are quite rare and rather expensive now, I really can't believe that we opened it and proceeded to demolish it. We did leave some for another great mate who said he was coming but couldn't make it. Steve I did leave some for you to sample, Honest, But Kevin has the Bottle, so chase him up for your share.
Not to sure about the other Cove, unless he is referring to the 2 long bowers, one a Celt and the other a Frank.
What a weekend. only took 2 pictures my self, hope fully the Ironfest website will put then up.
Will be back next year, some unfinished business to take care off. Cheers Roadie.

longbowinfected
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Re: IronFest 2014 and two great coves

#6 Post by longbowinfected » Mon Apr 28, 2014 5:45 pm

I hope by "unfinished business" you do not think that bottle will have anything left in it for next year do you? Think evaporation.
I bhave 3.5 litres of that nasty plain Chivas we can use for foot wash and mouth gargle/anti freeze.
two mates who with me had never tasted malt so their first taste was pretty exceptional. Might be hard to please them in the future.

I have one of your poles Roadie. Find out what the damage is and the club will fix you up for the pole and the tarp.
Thanks again matey.
The re-enactors asked to join in the demo next year in a bigger way.

Kevin
never complain....you did not have to wake up....every day is an extra bonus and costs nothing.

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Re: IronFest 2014 and two great coves

#7 Post by longbowinfected » Thu May 01, 2014 9:53 am

I apologise for the poor quality phone images but this is the best I could manage.

The flu flus in the box of arrows and used to shoot the deer at 45 metres in the extreme 40 kph cross wind were made by Tony at Blue Moon. I did shorten them and put on screw on adapters so I could change between blunts and target points. Even though it was very windy I used these mainly so the public could see them and partly to be fair to Roadie as I was using a bow with sight window and he was shooting off the hand. Honours even on the day. He nailed me the first go, I got him the second go. Pretty impressive his use of an ELB.

Little bit of ribald interplay between the competitors got the crowd in. No pressure shooting in front of a large number of people who expect you to hit every time courtesy of TV and Film.

Kevin
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Last edited by longbowinfected on Thu May 01, 2014 10:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
never complain....you did not have to wake up....every day is an extra bonus and costs nothing.

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Re: IronFest 2014 and two great coves

#8 Post by longbowinfected » Thu May 01, 2014 9:56 am

I tried to post this with the first lot but it disappeared
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Re: IronFest 2014 and two great coves

#9 Post by longbowinfected » Thu May 01, 2014 10:22 am

Grahame, the Horn Master was doing very well. A re enactor had bought a Holmegaard bow from him and came to practice with us and also shot in the demo. He spoke very highly of John. His stall was very professional and in quiet times he did a lot of personal contact visits.
I have noticed that a lot of the re enactors are getting more serious about their archery skills.
We invite all the re enactors, workers and stall holders/vendors and special services staff to come and have a shot before and after the crowds come. We also shoot on after the evening meal for a few hours under flood lights before we open up the anti freeze.

They always put this on close to Anzac day. Every so often it is on the Anzac day weekend and then it is a three day event.
During the day I give anyone who smiles or dresses up three or four extra free shots. I calculate that the punters shot over 10,000 arrows on the weekend. Only one arrow rest needed replacement. It was an old stick on......the only one on the 40 bows. I put screw in arrow rests, new strings and "no gloves" on every bow the week before and for the first time I did not have to do any repair work. They estimate 20,000 people visited the show. and that half of these came and watched the archery. One in ten of those 10,000 had a go either for free or for a small fee.

Hundreds wrote down contact details for clubs near them or took brochures after a keen discussion. Not bad for an Arts Festival
never complain....you did not have to wake up....every day is an extra bonus and costs nothing.

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Re: IronFest 2014 and two great coves

#10 Post by GrahameA » Thu May 01, 2014 11:51 am

Hi Kevin.
longbowinfected wrote:.... His stall was very professional ... ... I have noticed that a lot of the re enactors are getting more serious about their archery skills.
His stall is a tad more than professional ...... there would be very people in the world who have a setup as good as his.

WRT Archery Skills. A decade ago the standard distance at such events was 15 paces and the skill, bows and arrows left a bit to be desired. Nowadays the the bows are better and people are shooting a greater range of bows and amongst the serious people there are modern bows or should I say that from a distance they look the part. The arrows are better and the skill level of archers has gone up greatly ...... and maybe a bit more.

Now if you could only start taking some decent photos .......... :mrgreen:
Grahame.
Shoot a Selfbow, embrace Wood Arrows, discover Vintage, be a Trendsetter.

"Unfortunately, the equating of simplicity with truth doesn't often work in real life. It doesn't often work in science, either." Dr Len Fisher.

longbowinfected
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Re: IronFest 2014 and two great coves

#11 Post by longbowinfected » Thu May 01, 2014 12:11 pm

Struggling to be an archer.......never said I was a photographer. You are the only person ever able to get me to take pix let alone post them.

well it is hard to take nice photos when some of the subjects are so gnarly looking like the old tired Celtic warrior.
it is an I phone 3 and I was racing to the dunny and then hurrying back to keep the old guy awake.......the quality of the help you get ..... I even tried top top shelf refreshments but that only makes them more tired the next morning.

There were a couple of really old but active lady photographers who took a lot of photos of toy boy Sir Grantham de Eagle.

a professional photographer took a lot of images when Grant and I were shooting. Some from behind right into the deer. One day I hope to see them on their web site.

Kevin
never complain....you did not have to wake up....every day is an extra bonus and costs nothing.

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Roadie
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Re: IronFest 2014 and two great coves

#12 Post by Roadie » Thu May 01, 2014 12:22 pm

Thanks Kevin, it was a Great Weekend. Cheers Roadie.

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