Events – Stórfréttir

Iris Festival and Iron Comet Challenge on Sunday May 24

Salve Accolens,

Coming on May 24th the Debatable Lands Iris Festival and Iron Comet Challenge event. This year’s event will be the 5th Iris festival and 15 year anniversary of the first Iron Comet Challenge. The Iris Festival is a Japanese themed event. It may include martial tournaments, A&S competitions and displays, classes, equestrian competitions, and/or guild workshops. The activities need not be Japanese themed. This year the Iris Festival hosts both the Iron Comet Challenge and the Iron Skillet dessert cooking competition.

The Iron Comet Challenge has independent tournaments for heavy fighting, fencing, archery, thrown weapons, and Arts and Sciences for adults. For youth there will be archery, thrown weapons, and Arts and Sciences. There will also be an A&S display for those who prefer to just display rather than compete. In addition, there is the combined Iron Comet Challenge:

Here are words from Laerifadir Jorundr hinn Rotinn who ran the first Iron Comet 15 years ago: We challenge all martial participants to show how well you do in the disciplines of Heavy Combat, Fencing, Archery, Thrown Weapons, and Arts and Sciences. All entrants in the Iron Comet Challenge must participate in at least three martial forms and provide an entry for the arts and sciences competition. If you participate in all four martial competitions you get to drop your lowest score for your final ranking. This competition for fun and glory shows just how multi talented our members are.

The icon skillet dessert competition is being organized by Lady Arthes MacLeod. Details will be coming soon. Please email arthesofbmdl@gmail.com for to participate.

All this fun will happen Sunday May 24th and the site is the Barn at Old Economy Park, #5 Forcey Drive, Baden, PA 15005. Here is the location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/1K2ZTiw4uqRvNu8i9. The site opens at 9 am and closes at 7pm. The autocrat for this event is Hara Shonagon , Sharon Booth, 1105 Shady Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, 412-441-1607 sbooth@sbooth.net. This is a land-line with an answering machine. Please leave a message. No calls after 9pm.

Accessibility Information:
The site is hilly. The site has a large outdoor field next to a barn. There is a second field behind the barn. There is limited parking next to the barn and a large parking lot a short distance from the barn. There will be reserved handicapped parking in the lot next to the barn. There will be outdoor changing pop-ups. The barn has two floors. Each floor has it’s own entrance. Each entrance has a step. The restrooms are accessible from the outside on the lower level and there are no steps to get into the restrooms.

There is a scrumptious boxed lunch planned to keep with the Japanese Iris Festival theme. The cook is Lady Oyama Michiharu: mirakat60@gmail.com. Lunch is an additional $6.00 for youth or adult.

Event Cost:

Adult Event Registration: $20
Adult Member Discount Event Registration: $10
Youth 17 and under are free
Optional Bento Box lunch: $6 – you must fill out pre-registration form to reserve a bento box.

Make checks payable to SCA PA, Inc. – BMDL. The reservations clerk for this event is Forveleth Dunde, Miranda Gavrin, forveleth@gmail.com. Please pre-register using the online form, especially if you want to reserve a bento box lunch. However, we ask that you pay at the door.

Here is the barony event page: https://debatablelands.aethelmearc.org/events/2026-05-24%20Japanese%20Iris%20Festival.php. It will be updated when we create the schedule, and details have more details about Iron Skillet.

12th Night A&S Championship

As is traditional, we had the Baronial Arts and Sciences Championship at the Debatable Lands 12th Night event yesterday. We had 8 excellent entries, and I do not envy them having to choose their champion from among the entrants.

In the end (and after some argument), Michiharu’s Kimchi of Various Styles was chosen by the Baronage as their favorite entry, and Oyama-dono was named as their new Arts and Sciences Champion!

Baronial Arts and Sciences Championship

Baronessa Violeta and Praetoria Prima will select their next A&S Champion at the Debatable Lands Twelfth Night on January 25, 2025!

Please bring an entry that represents your journey as an artisan.

Documentation is optional but encouraged.

North Park Lodge, N Ridge Dr, Allison Park, PA 15201

Entry Photos from Today’s 7 Pearls A&S Competition

Arts and Sciences on Display at Debatable Lands 12th Night

Here are photographs of more than a dozen entries in this year’s Debatable Lands 12th Night Arts and Sciences Display and Baronial Championship Competition (DL12NANSDBCC for short). My apologies if I missed your entry! Please contact me if that is the case. In addition to these excellent objects, many entries were accompanied by excellent research articles.

THL Agnella Iacopi – 16th Century Fur-Lined Short Cloak

Alric Smith was the winner of the Championship competition and will represent the Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands at the 7 Pearls event. The Honorable Lady Lisabetta (“Bess”) de Rossi has agreed to second Smith if he is unable to attend that event.

Largesse at Agincourt

The Honorable Lady Lisabetta de Rossi ran a largesse derby at Agincourt 15 this past weekend. Nominally, it was a competition, but the real purpose was to collect items that their Majesties Aethelmearc can give as gifts to their populace and to other Kingdoms.

Baroness Aranwen Verch Rhys ap Gwalter brought some lampwork beads and clay tokens.

THL Rachel Daliceux displayed some cast resin “enameld” Baronial Comet Award medallions

Ishiyama Shonagon donated some wooden boxes

Kolfinna donated these ginchy stuffed dragons

…and these thread + needle cases with escarbuttons.

Thank you everyone for enabling the Crown to disburse the artistic generosity of Glorious Aethelmearc!

Post Pennsic A&S Report

My report to the Kingdom is due on September first and I need your help!

Did you teach any classes at Pennsic?
Did you complete any projects for or at Pennsic?
Did you participate in the Pennsic A&S Display?
Did you participate in any competitions at Pennsic?
Did you participate in any demos at Pennsic?
Did you personally or as part of a group perform someplace at Pennsic, either in the Performing Arts tent or anywhere else?
Were any scrolls you worked on (for Barony or Kingdom) given out at Pennsic?
Did any guild in which you participate (Brewers? Scribal? Food?) have any activity at Pennsic?
Did you provide any artwork or writing for the Pennsic Independent?
Did you see any of your Debatable Lands neighbors do something so awesome (Can’t spell “AweSome” without A and S!) for or at Pennsic that you thought, “That wonderful person deserves an award”?

Well this is your chance to make sure that that information about your awesome self and your awesome neighbors makes it into this report!

Send any and all awesome A&S information to your humble A&S Minister at ansminister(at)debatablelands.org, please if you can before the end of next week (September 1st). Please! Your friends and I are counting on you.

Iris Festival Arts+Sciences

In addition to the many classes at Iris Festival this year, space will be set aside in the main pavilion again this year for an Arts and Sciences display. Please bring examples of your work in any art or craft. All are welcome. Projects related to East Asia or Japan are encouraged, of course. If you will be wearing your project that day, photographs and short write-ups would still be a great way to let people know about your work. If you have research to present, please bring copies for people to read.

This site is covered but outdoors, so make sure to protect your project from errant breezes and possible stray raindrops. There is also a site restriction of “No glass bottles.”

I had some lovely discussions with last year’s entrants, and they provided great content for my report to the kingdom. There will be no competition and no judging. If you have any questions you’d like to ask a more experienced craftsperson, we can probably find somebody to help out.

Æthelmearc A&S Faire

The Æthelmearc Arts & Sciences Faire 2023 is in a few weeks, and it’s not that far away in the Shire of Nithgaard. This is always a wonderful event, and a good way to display your work and get direct feedback from others. You can even enter virtually if you are still nervous about attending in-person events.

The Queen’s Prize Tourney is limited to entrants not already in the Order of the Laurel, but to enter your work you must be sponsored by peer of the Laurel, or by a Fleur d’Aethelmearc (or foreign equivalent).

If you would like to enter the Tourney, but have not yet lined up a sponsor and don’t know who to ask, please let me know and we’ll get you matched up with a sponsor. You have until April 20th to register for virtual participation, and until April 27th to register for in-person.

Kingdom A&S Champs This Weekend

Their Royal Highnesses, Arnthor Inn Sterki and Ceirech Na Hinnsi, are pleased to let it be known to all that they are looking forward to choose their Arts & Sciences Champions at the Kingdom Arts & Sciences Championship to be hosted by the the Barony of Rhydderich Hael this Saturday, October 22nd.

It’s too late to set up a virtual entry, but you can register an in-person entry if you show up first thing at the event.

The event is from 9am to 5pm, and it’s just a four-point-mumble hour drive up to Sanborn, NY if you want to day-trip it. More information:

https://aethelmearc.org/event/kingdom-as-champs/

Even if you aren’t entering, this is a great event to see what others in the Kingdom are working on, and some of the best arts and research the SCA has to offer.