London's Frost Faire

[Francis "France" Bonnefoy]

[herpaderp, starting a planning thread that will be edited. Hun, care to chime in?]

Some ideas of my own...

Schedule of Events:

Day 1 ~ Opening ceremonies, performances, ice-skating
Day 2 ~ Exhibitions of water/steam technology along the banks
Day 3 ~
Day 4 ~
Day 5 ~ Sports on the ice, like races and hockey!
Day 6 ~
Day 7 ~ nighttime masquerade and closing ceremonies and crowing of the Winter Queen, fireworks over the river

Throughout the entire event there will be vendors selling hot things: exotic cocoa coffees, cinnamon tea, spiced cider, iced pastries and crystle sugar cookies, steaming buns and dumplings, strange things on a stick, and more greasy Londinium fried fish and potatoes than you should ever really want to be in your stomach at one time; all the souvenirs you could ever over-charge for, and little trinkets of modern technology and classic winter beauty.

May the most lovely win!

[Arthur Kirkland]

I think we also talked about how one or two days could be reserved for Cultural Exhibitions. One day perhaps to feature the "mysterious and exotic wonders of the Orient", and another day for cultural exploration for India and Egypt. I could see them shipping in sand and forming a 'desert' on some chunk of the ice so that people can marvel over seeing something that they will never travel to see. Plus camels, exotic foods, pyramid replicas and more spitting camels.

Those might take two days of the events up. The Cultural Exhibition of the Orient on Day Three; then Day Six for the one featuring the wonders of India and Egypt.

Day Four could be a day devoted for women. There might be a fashion show demonstrating the latest trends, exhibitions on cooking, new technologies for the domestic Londinium household, embroidery competitions, bake-offs and other things to better train those Victorian women how to better please their current or future husbands. (Because that's what would be expected in Victorian times.) That might also be a lead in for women to return and compete in the Winter Queen competition.

I think we had also discussed the visual idea of having airships that are also water-stable (like England's) landing at either end of the Faire grounds as a border to keep everything localized to one area. And that there would be large banners and colourful flags perhaps tied between the masts of the ships so that people throughout Londinium might see them from some distance away. (Though even as I write this, Englandmuse is cursing me for offering to take his ship out of commission and therefore lose on some precious income while the Faire takes place.)

Since this is Victorian era, it seems that there should also be some shadier part of the Faire for people who want to take more 'risks'. With freaks on display for iron-stomached Londiniumers to marvel at, as well as a section featuring exotic animals from all over the world. And some manner of petting zoo for England the children to enjoy.

Those are just my thoughts about it, based off what we talked about in CBox plus the ideas that have crossed my mind since.

I think we also agreed that this event would be run and financed by some committee of merchants, with some military presence.

[Elizabeta Héderváry]

I actually don't have anything to add to this discussion after reviewing my notes. These ideas all sound rather brilliant, as would be expected of you two ^-~.

Adding onto Hat's idea of using water-stable airships to create the boundaries for the fair (which I assume would be either privately owned or military vessels), I think it would be interesting to have tours of the airships for the public. I doubt a the common citizen would have been inside an airship before, and he would probably have a great deal of fun roaming around and learning about how such a machine works.

Some 'shadier' exhibits such as freak shows or gambling tents would be a good idea. Anything exotic or dealing with the supernatural was quite trendy during this time period.

I assume that the merchants and store owners would be responsible for the events during the fair. The city might help fund part of it but most of the exhibits and stalls are privately funded. So, basically what was already said. Sorry I couldn't bring more ideas to the table!

[Alfred F. Jones]

I know this kinda goes against the setting just a bit, but Wild West Shows were really popular around this time. So maybe they'd have something like that. Trick roping, barrel racing, sharpshooting, other stuff like that. I just kinda wanted to throw that out there, not really expecting anyone to take it seriously. Also not sure if the event's been all planned out yet or not.

[Yong Soo Im]

*just so he has something written here too~*

Ko: HEY! I want to teach everyone in Londinium how to make Kimchi~ I'm sure Al won't mind his ship being a cooking room right?

[Yong Soo Im]

Something serious for once. How about a captain's moot for the empty day? it could be a conference for captains and their crew to get acquainted with themselves and the new innovations in airships and equipment?