Posted on by Tony Padegimas

London Bridge did not fall down

In the end, it was not a disaster, but for a while, it looked like it had all the makings of one.

In April of 2024 UnObtanium Bazaar appeared at the London Bridge Renaissance Festival in Lake Havasu City, AZ. In the past our biggest environmental challenge on this site has been heat. This year it was wind. And some rain. And reports of golf-ball sized hail.

Hail would have been the end of it. I was never able to confirm the hail reports, and while we had some rain, we had no hail on the rodeo grounds. The morning after proved bright and clear.

Photo from LBRF – Perry Smith

Very bright – there is not a blade of grass on the rodeo grounds where they hold this thing.

Why rodeo grounds? Jousting! Featuring the Knights of Mayhem.

Photo from Clan Darksail

Also – Clan Darksail could fire off canons.

No matter how many times a day you hear them, the last two blasts will startle you.

Finally, a peak backstage as we packed it all up Monday morning.

We plan to return next year.

Posted on by Tony Padegimas · 1 Comment

Two Rivers Renaissance Faire

Our Booth at Two Rivers during a respite from the wind…

UnObtanium Bazaar appeared at the Two Rivers Renaissance Festival in Yuma AZ last weekend [2-4 Feb 2024].

We loaded in in the rain, and the first day featured gale-force winds. As those winds blew the rain elsewhere, and temperatures warmed a bit, the crowds came out, and we had a good Faire.

As we often do, we camped onsite, though this sort of camping is nothing like a quality wilderness experience. Participant camping is under a canopy that shelters livestock during other events. While we appreciated the dry, soft dirt surface, they pack us in there, creating more of a cheap motel experience. However, we could barely hear our neighbors conversations over the grating whine of some nearby agro-industrial complex whose product seems to be annoying noise.

The jets from the nearby marine air field drown out all of that, of course. Not all of the time, but often enough to remind humble merchants the cost of empire.

But they had coffee in the morning, a good mix of folk wandering about once the weather cleared and reasonable beer prices (until they ran out).

We plan to return next year.