Funfecht 2022 a success!
May 27th 2022 marked Hilt and Helm’s first sponsored event: Funfecht 2022. For those who don’t know, Funfecht is an event held each year at Levertine (The HEMA Manor) on Memorial Day weekend. It is three days of camping, free sparing, catered food, and family friendly events. Where as other HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) events focus around tournaments where you only get to fight the people in your pool and a few others after eliminations start, this event was intended to let all participants fight as many other people as they want for 3 days straight. Levertine comes with amenities such as bunk beds, full sized and queen sized beds for those who don’t want to camp outside, showers, and even a hot tub! Anyone is welcome to come regardless of age, the gear they have, or combat experience.
The event itself predates this club and the previous club that had sponsored it for the past 3 years, but this year Funfecht was in jeopardy of not occurring after the previous club decided not to sponsor it. Thanks to the help of our donors and volunteers, we were at a position to consider hosting it ourselves. After a meeting with Pete May (the guy who actually owns Levertine), we found out what needed to be done to keep the event happening and decided to step up to the challenge.
First there was the challenge of creating the event page so people could buy tickets and submit information such as allergies and such. Someone had mentioned doing so on Eventbrite and I’m glad that they did because the website makes hosting events extremely easy. Although it would have been nice to be able to have ticket buyers submit files along with the order (which would have made validating everyone’s covid vaccination status a lot easier), I had zero complaints about the service. They even allow you to download excel files of attendance statistics. As a former reporting analyst that really made my day.
Next there was the task of finding teachers to run classes and seminars. After the fallout with the previous club I was expecting to have a much harder time finding anyone to staff the event, but thankfully those fears were unfounded. Camilla Fraizer hosted a wonderful “Whirls and Twirls” class in which she taught lessons in Fiore Longsword.
Camilla Frazier teaching her “Whirls and Twirls” Fiore Longsword Class.
Nick Bulan’s “Hitting the Books” sword and buckler class received rave reviews from those who attended. Sword and buckler manuals are notoriously difficult to parse, but he went over techniques for approaching sources easily to better encourage creativity in one’s interpretations of the source.
Nick Bulan observing his students putting his lesson into practice.
Kaitlin Kerr’s HEMA Boundaries class discussed the importance of sharing with your sparing partner what you are comfortable with. Kathy’s HEMA first aid class taught students how to treat injuries that can occur in HEMA matches. Ben Houck explored a new ruleset for polearm recitations and Ryan Assi gave a demonstration on how to knock an arrow without looking at it; allowing archers to keep their eyes on their target and shoot arrows faster and with better accuracy.
Kaitlin Kerr showing people how to set boundaries in sparring.
A big surprise came from Christian Buttner and Nick Hinton who lead classes on montante (great sword) and small sword respectively without even being asked! Suffice it to say that when we asked for help, we got it!
Nick Hinton giving a small sword lesson
Christian Buttner showing people how to swing a great sword.
Next we had to come up with other ways to fill Memorial Day Weekend with fun things to do. Although we may be HEMA enthusiasts, not every event revolved around swinging weapons. We’re also huge nerds! I ran a D&D one shot for 8 attendees where they got to slay Xanax the Calmer, a ferocious Ancient Black Dragon that had enslaved the town of Hiltenhelm with his magical potions called “Vigors” that embue the drinker with fantastical magical powers, but are also highly addictive and turn any who do not keep up the habit into horrible psychotic splicers. And if you’re wondering if I stole the plot from Bioshock … yes. Yes I did. My favorite two moments from the one shot were when Holly Barton (aka fantasy Dolly Parton) allowed the party to bypass two fight encounters by just being famous and well loved. I even played a Bardcore remix of Jolene when she mesmerized everyone in the night club while the rest of the party investigated how to ascend the tower. My other favorite moment came when Jenny’s daughter October played her beast master ranger companion, Tumbles the Otter. It was all cuteness and eating clams on her tummy until they had to defeat Steroid Steve and Tumbles bit his face off. Wasn’t expecting that kind of animosity from a small child, but hey Dungeons and Dragons is surprising like that.
The Jarl of Hiltenhelm running a one shot D&D game for his subjects!
4 player characters piling onto Xanax in the final battle
The “Quest for Cards” is the signature event of Funfecht. When you register, we give everyone a playing card from a standard deck with the Hilt and Helm Logo on the back (which by the way will be for sale in our store very soon). For example, if I drew the Ace of Spades, I would get a deck full of nothing but that card. Throughout the weekend, each fighter would challenge other fighters to a match with any HEMA weapon:
Longsword
Shortsword
Greatsword (Montonte)
Saber
Rapier and Dagger/Cape
Sword and Buckler
Dussack
Lightsaber (hey … it comes from long ago in a a galaxy far far away so it counts as historical)
Win or lose, both fighters exchange cards and the fighter with the most other cards wins the grand prize, the Funfecht Sword. Before you get excited, its a wooden sword with the event name and our logo on it. This year the prize went to Kevin Bough! We also gave out prizes for places 8th through 4th (who got a choice between either Hilt and Helm playing cards or a Hilt and Helm patch) as well as 3rd and 2nd (who received free Hilt and Helm t-shirts).
The winners of Funfecht 2022's Quest for Cards biting the hand that feeds them by attacking the event organizer!
And boy would I be remiss if I omitted The Grand Melee. Everyone submitted their cards to be drawn randomly to be sorted into one of 5 teams: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, or Pink. Then they drew another card to be given a random foam weapon. Some of the weapons were awesome, like the great sword. Others, like the teeny tiny foam dagger left a lot to be desired. They were then sent to separate corners of the field and told to go to begin the battle! If you got hit, you were out until the round was over. Whichever team had a member left standing at the end of the round won! We used foam weapons so all of the kids could get involved. Check out the gallery below for highlights. Also check out the showdown between Sheradan Crow who wielded a great sword and the Jarl who wielded a sword and shield! He won, but it was still an epic duel.
Now you may be wondering, “But Chris! This sounds like a great weekend, but I don’t have any gear! Is there any loaner gear at Funfecht?” To which I’d reply, yes! Absolutely. We set up a registration/merchandise/armory table. Want to buy a t-shirt? We take venmo, paypal, and cash. Want to borrow a full kit? We’ve got 2 of everything sized Small to Large. Several guests that had their own gear, but they didn’t feel like going all the way back to their tent to get it just checked it out of the armory. Or better yet, when they saw something cool that they wanted to try out could just borrow it from the armory. We even painted this attractive sign for the event.
All gear is color coded by size for easy identification. Yellow is Small, Green is Medium, and Blue is Large. That applies to jackets, gloves, and helmets.
So now that we’ve discussed what Funfecht is, who is welcome to attend, when it is, why we’re running it, and what there is to do, lets discuss how it went: fabulously! Although there were lots of fights, there was no conflict. Attendees were treated to 6 catered meals thanks to Pete and Jennifer May as well as Jaydens Catering Monroeville. Below is a photo gallery of some of the best fights from the weekend.
Lastly I’d like to start thanking people, starting with the guy who deserves the lion’s share of the credit: Pete May. When we first started this club, we were fighting with pillows because we had no swords. Then he got us 8 foam swords that carried us through our club’s infancy. Then when we got 10 fencing masks donated to us, he took it upon himself to outfit them with kydex back of the head protection. For the enormity and the timing of his generosity, we gave him the title: First Thane of Hilt and Helm. This is an honorary title we give to people who go above and beyond to bring honor and prosperity to the club. Him being the first sets a pretty high bar, but we’re sure others will live up to his example. Next because he and his family opened up their home to us to have our first ever sponsored event and they did an excellent job feeding everyone, we’ve given him a second title: Earl of Levertine. Unlike the first title, this one is hereditary and applies to his entire family. Because we could never hope to repay them for their generosity they no longer owe dues. Each and every member of his household may attend our lessons free of charge so long as they do not bring dishonor to our club. And lastly, because of his indelible impact on our club, we’ve chosen to offer him a position on the Hilt and Helm Small Council as the Master of Coals. Basically this position gives him a seat at the table when Hilt and Helm matters are being discussed an a vote in all matters that require Small Council majority approval to be passed. We are beyond pleased to have him as part of the team!
Honorable mentions include but are not limited to:
Jayden’s Catering Monroeville - For providing some excellent food for Saturday' night’s feast.
Beer City Blades - We bought a set of Rapiers and Sabers from them and they got great comments from everyone who fought with them. Their stuff is very affordable and well worth the price.
Purple Heart Armory - We bought almost all of our gear from them. Their customer service is absolutely outstanding. Very communicative, great selection of equipment, and a one stop shop for HEMA materials.
Joe Leszcz - Who brought 30 dozen eggs!
Lauren Hughes and Necromancer Brewing - For providing delicious beer for the event.
Katy Doyle - For taking some truly amazing pictures.
All of the volunteers - For making this event possible.
