Location: local indoor Astroturf park
- This gives a pretty good sense of the event.
Event type: ‘Star Wars Day’: kids activities, Chewbacca contest, costume contests, dodgeball, lightsaber ‘academy’; etc.
Although the event wasn’t really a good fit, if I had thought ahead of time, I could have reserved a table and laid out a display of survival gear. Ah, hindsight!
A few local organizations that did have tables:
-‘404th Legion’: one ‘trooper’ showing off his homemade droids. I guess when you don’t feel like rising to the standards of the 501st, just make up your own homegrown legion? He donated some stuff for door prizes; I appreciate his willingness to share.
-ORCS (Ohio River Cosplay & Prop builders)
-local city parks & rec
-Louisville Jedi Academy—it’s a martial arts school, plus lightsabers. Pretty cool, but I wish their instructors put some focus on their outfits, it would really help sell what they’re doing.
With any public event like this, there’s always plenty of walk-ins—whole families of new-with-creases polyester Reys, Vaders, and Kylos.
Besides these, a handful of costumed participants appeared for the costume contest: one or two spotless generic Jedi, an old Han, a blue Twi’lek (with goatee and female lekku), a Kylo, a blonde donut Leia, and a LARPy Sith or two. Plus the radio-controlled, freshly-polished R2 from last event showed up about halfway through.
A couple folks asked me why I didn’t participate in the costume contest; I said that I felt it would be cheating (since my stuff is just functional gear and clothes I wear normally and not a costume), so they probably think I’m an elitist snob (but who says I’m not, in these kinds of activities?). What I meant was that I’d always heard it was gauche to wear one’s reenacting kit to say, a Halloween party. Mix-and-matching, however, is always fine.
It was pretty surprising however that this event couldn’t even merit a single 501st stormtrooper from the area, especially since the local chapter from across the river had a squad escorting their kriffing 1:1 hovertank in the Pegasus Parade literally the day before:
As a result, I was the only one representing either an Imperial or Rebel faction. Pretty sad. However, I soldiered on (pun!), kept it in-character, passed out a big stack of Declarations of Rebellion, while continuing to try out new things to find What Works: this time around, I debuted my new and improved embroidered (reversible!) armband:
I also paired my Sulon Rebel kit with a set of plain purpley-grayish coveralls (or a ‘generic utility suit’ in GFFA-speak); it was the closest thing to a flightsuit I had kicking around:
Plenty of public took selfies with me, but I haven’t seen any yet…this is the best I could find.
what worked:
-I found out that even though it isn’t the best for holding my blaster rifle, the Hoth-style tubular holster works GREAT for holding pamphlets! (with blaster slung over shoulder)—perfect for when you have too many pockets and pouches but none are easily accessible under your y-straps/belt.
-one youngling thanked me for my ‘service’!! 😀
-having something to hand out can act as a kid magnet.
What didn’t:
-I slung the plastic canteen from my AgriCorps kit, instead of the WW2 steel one on my belt. As a result, my equipment belt was almost too light.
-I got many ‘I love your costume!’ compliments. At first, I replied with my usual “Costume? These are just clothes!” Eventually I decided that when dealing with the non-reenacting public, “It’s just a uniform” probably works better…even though the whole point of the Olis persona is that it’s intentionally partisan-hodgepodge.
-While it’s always nice to get out in public in kit, these kinds of kidshit free-for-alls are Not my scene. Passing out Declarations is a fun engagement hook and it gives folks a souvenir, it’s not really recruiting…I really need a more interactive or educational aspect for my time to be well spent. Which is what summer camps are for…
Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy 