The dominoes, they fall...

[luscious_purple]

Now it's the summertime events' turn to go away.

Pennsic fell on Thursday. It wasn't a surprise, really, but still, a number of my SCA friends reported (through Facebook) that they cried. Pennsic 49 will now take place in 2021 and there will be a year-long gap in the numbering of the wars. I wasn't even sure if I was going to go this year, but still, it feels like a big gap in the year.

A local (well, Maryland) media convention called Shore Leave, which is normally held in the summer, has been canceled for the year. The big Lithuanian dance festival, Sokiu Svente, that is held once every four years? That has been postponed for one year, until 2021.

No word on when baseball will resume, or when the NBA and NHL playoffs will take place, or anything like that.

Protesters call for the economy to resume, but the "curve" of cases and deaths is still on the way up. Maryland just had its worst day in terms of deaths from COVID-19. We're NOT ready to reopen yet.

So much sadness.

Comments

[cellio]

Yeah, it would be reckless to hold large events in the next few months. I assumed a few weeks ago that Pennsic would be cancelled. 10,000 people in that amount of space? That's asking for trouble. It's sad, but necessary.

[luscious_purple]

Large events will be the last things to be allowed.

[gorgeousgary]

It occurs to me you could almost hold a virtual Pennsic where everyone just sets up their campsites in their backyards and you do online sessions for classes or other things that could go online. It wouldn't even be that unusual for those Jewish SCAdians who are used to spending Sukkot sleeping outdoors.

(Says the Jew who latched on to David Buskin's song "Jews Don't Camp".)

[luscious_purple]

Our local Kingdom, Atlantia, has embraced the online thing. "Virtual Atlantia" has lots of classes and online storytelling and even some online rapier practice (probably form and style issues, not actually stabbing at people who aren't there). There is also an interkingdom dance challenge -- video-edited dancing to "Safety Dance" and "Stayin' Alive," etc. I am sure that many virtual events will happen around Pennsic.