Faire & SCA Folk, what do you carry?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Inspired by Skald’s pocket thread. What do you carry on your person as you wander around the shire?

For Pirate Faire:
On my belt I’ve got a pouch with my camera and usually sunscreen (otherwise the sunscreen is at the guild site), my knife, a dagger, my sword (which is going to get moved to a baldrick sooner or later), and my money pouch. In my bodice I have my flask. Over my shoulder I have my water canteen.

For RenFaire:
Large pouch with camera & sunscreen, possibly a small knife, money pouch, water canteen, maybe a mug. The joys of being a peasant. I’ve got a basket I can put on my belt too, but I usually end up leaving it at the Guild site.

2

Ren Faire: my belt holds my fan, my mug (via a nifty mugstrap), a small hand mirror, a small kaleidoscope (good for entertaining the kiddies when I worked there, never took it off as a patron), a small lady’s knife, a leather “pouch” (really one of those rectangular boxish things with a flap) which holds my cell phone and my “wallet” - a zippered silk coin purse I keep my ID, cards and cash in; this is my all-the-time wallet, not a Faire thing. I also carry a basket with a “silk” zippered pillowcase in it. Inside the pillowcase are three diapers*, some wipes, a camera, sunscreen, a change of clothes and some gluten free snacks for the kidlet (even beef jerky has gluten! Wah!!!) and whatever little tchochkes I buy or she collects. The pillowcase is useful because when I inevitably knock over the basket, stuff doesn’t scatter.

I don’t think I have any pictures of my belt or basket, but I’ll use any excuse to post a cute picture of my daughter in garb!
*ETA: Which we didn’t have to use even one of this year! She used the privies like a big girl. Ever teach a 3 year old how to piss around a farthingale? Yeah. Not fun.

3

My belt holds
a mug via a mug holder
a small pouch that’s big enough for cash, ID, and a few cards
a sword via a frog
(I hope to replace that broadsword with a rapier fairly soon, which would be joined by a main gauche.)

My [del]wench[/del] wife has far more stuff.

4

At this very moment, since this is how it was all arranged yesterday when I took it off…

On my left side, there’s a drawstring deerskin pouch that was made for me by a friend, an iron key and a tankard strap. I’m not sure why I keep the tankard strap - its intended cargo is normally containing a beverage and thus unsuited for being carried around like that without spilling the contents. On my right side is two more leather pouches. One’s rust-brown with a loose flap, and almost deep enough to hold a beer bottle. My gate pass lives here. The other’s made of thick black bison with a velcro closure that holds my wallet. Oddly, I originally made the black one to hold wirenuts, but that has nothing to do with Faire, and it’s better suited for holding the wallet. The nice thing is that I don’t have to mess with pulling ID, cash or whatever out of the wallet and forgetting to put it back at the end of the day. On the other hand, if I forget to pull my wallet out of the pouch on Sunday night before going home, I’m pretty well screwed until Friday evening when we get back to the Faire site.

Front and center is my nuts. It’s a small pouch containing a pair of acorns. This is the “insignia” of a small honorary group known as the Coxwells.

I don’t carry any knives or weapons.

  • Technically, the group is not a guild, but it’s also not an operating department of the Faire either, so nobody knows how to describe it. Best anyone’s come up with is “membership organization.”
5

I’ve learned that I don’t like fiddly bits hanging off my belt. So it’s usually my nifty pouch with the three small dangling suns in splendor. It holds my wallet and keys. If I’m carrying the phone, that’s there, too.

I have a knife and a pomander ball, but don’t wear them either one often.

6

That’s pretty interesting. Isn’t that what they used to call a “codpiece”?

7

Typically, I go with a hard leather belt pouch about as big square as a CD case. It’s good for carrying CDs, obviously, but also small vials and other bits and pieces. I wear a belt knife, and occasionally a brace of knives on a baldric. I also have a gryphlet (baby gryphon) shoulder puppet for entertaining kids and confusing drunks.

Sometimes I’ll add the piratical paraphenalia–a cutlass, a replica flintlock, and an eyepatch–but only for pirate-themed days, or when the people with me are going pirate. On very rare occasions (because it’s a nuisance), I’ll leave the flintlock and take a hook, so I can do the “Arrr, well, it were me first day with the hook” joke.

8

I’m okay with looking like a turkey, so I carry my AmEx & Visa cards, $100+ in cash, DL, insurance cards and sunscreen in a fanny pack. If I could fit into any of my old costumes, I would participate in a more colorful manner.

I would like to be in a place, with the time, where I could participate again. At the moment, I’m not, so I may as well embrace my current role as observing consumer, there by encouraging the continuation of Faires with my purchases and enthusiasm.

(ETA: I was a MARVELOUS peasant wench. Marvelous, I tell you!)

9

Everything.

No, really. Sunscreen, bug spray, hand sanitizer, comb, hairpins, scissors, pliers, wire snips, extra jewelry findings, ribbon, Krazy glue, Neosporin, aspirin, ibuprofen, Tylenol, Dramamine, Benadryl, safety pins, small sewing kit, bandages, finger cots, pen, paper, business cards, bottle opener, keys, phone, wallet, glow-in-the-dark skull-shaped shaker, a can of V8 and a granola bar, “feminine hygiene products,” tape, clear nail polish, toothbrush, toothpaste and dental floss, mints, cough drops, saline solution and a contact lens case, reading glasses, eyeliner, guitar strings and a nail file.

That all goes in my tote bag. Then on my belt I have my goblet or mug (with strap), my muckinger (handkerchief), my fan, my “brag rag” (a wide ribbon with “favour” pins) and sometimes my tambourine.

10

Never been to a Pirate Faire, unless you count this. Been to the Renfaire almost every year though.

At both places I’m usually carrying this, or this.

Oh, like that’s anachronistic… matches the jeans and T-shirt. :smiley:

11

I carry the Belt of Three Pouches.

In the black cloth pouch that I very carefully did not wear when I got approved by Frieda: Flask, filled with something yummy to drink and share. Harbor Lights if I can get it - ahhhh I miss the days when it was easy to get! but if not, vanilla vodka or a good whiskey. This belt goes in front, right hand side, for easy access for drink & share.

In the tan & green cloth pouch - random stuff that might not fit in the blue pouch, spare biggins, Faire finds, and other low-security items. If it’s in the tan & green pouch, I might be upset if it got lost but I wouldn’t be too put out. This pouch wanders toward my rearend usually.

In the blue square Oberon pouch - my gate pass, ID, money, and a credit card, plus my cell and anything else that is Very Important. This is the pouch that closes the most securely, and is always kept near the front of the belt, on the left.

Depending on my activities of the day/moment, I might or might not also strap my 8R knife, tankard holder, and bowl/spoon. I don’t generally carry a tankard because I often find myself in unexpectedly physical gigs, and landing on a tankard hurts a LOT. However, if I’m going off for lunch, I’ll definitely grab it.

12

Hehe… Frieda’s reputation is nationally known, not only through general faire gossip, but also via the Minstrels of Mayhem song Hot Whiskey, which contains the line "still wearing velvet tights and Frieda is freakin’ "

13

Nope. It’s a small cloth pouch about as big a a golf ball. Just large enough to hold those two acorns.

Funny about the Frieda references. I almost said how the pouch is of such an obnoxious light blue/pink/yellow plaid that Frieda would never approve its existence, but didn’t think anyone would know who I was referring to.

Back when we were an REC faire, she did our costume approvals, and earned a most unflattering (but not undeserved!) nickname for her fussiness.

14

I restrict myself to the medicne pouch I [del]stole[/del] borrowed from Michael Twoyoungmen’s corpse. Everything I need fits inside.

15

We were REC, too - we had Stacy, then we had Kate. They both had the same nickname as Frieda.

16

I’m fortunate that my Guild doesn’t go to any fussy Faires. Ojai had a ‘guild’ of fairies one year that marched in procession (they worked for one of the vendors). The only people I have to get by are the costume mistresses in the Guild and they’ve already approved of me crossdressing next year at Pirate (I probably could at Ren too even).

I’m ashamed of how long it took me to remember who that is…

17

I have several small baskets and pouches, but I rarely carry a whole lot with me. We’re SCA, and have a period pavilion, so in general, our “house” is close-by enough to leave most things inside.

When I am wearing Middle Eastern garb, I have a small bag that holds my cup and my wallet. When I am in Norse garb, I generally don’t wear a belt or pouch, but I carry a lidded basket with essentials inside. When I am in 14c garb, I carry the basket. When I am in later period Italian or Tudor/Elizabethan I have a feather fan attached to my jeweled belt, but I carry nothing else (at that point, I usually put my stuff in my husband’s pouch or bag). As I said, the essential inside are my cup and my wallet. Everything else stays in the pavilion.

18

What’s this got to do with the SCA?

19

Faire:

Belt pouch 1 holds keys, cash, foreign coins, lip balm, pass/entry token.

Belt pouch 2 holds, camera, cigars, pipe, 'baccy pouch, horn spoon, cellphone.

On belt: small knife, firestarting kit, mug on strap, bottle opener, dirk, various danglies that strike my mood.

SCA:

Much the same as above with variables.

Depends on charactor, if Roman I’ll wear Roman gear, if Scottish, Scottish gear, Irish… Viking… Norman… you get the picture.

Pirate:

Belt pouch 1: Same as above.

On belt: small knife, dirk, dagger, belaying pin, cloth.

On baldrick: Cutlas.

Japanese:

I’m working on this now, I’ve got a pouch and netsuke, bamboo cup, fan and tanto.

20

SCA:

Two belt knives. Two pouches- one small with cash, pocketwatch and “danglies”.

One large with flintfirestarter, Swiss knife, lip gunk, a few minor 1st aid items, sometimes a small btl of suncreeen. Reading glasses, spoon.

Keys and wallet depending.