Event location discussion

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Event location discussion

Postby Azus » Mon Feb 01, 2021 10:08 pm

From Etah
Hey guys, Etah here.
I assume most of you know me, some of you might not. I am the current Rules Representative for the Kingdom of Westmarch but that’s not why I’m writing this message.
As myself, a member of the Kingdom, I’d like to start a conversation on the future of Amtgard events in the state of California.
Over the years, I have run and helped run several Kingdom events. The biggest struggle in those events has been finding not just camping, but camping adjacent to bathrooms and showers and a fully functioning Kitchen or arranging a kitchen alternative.
As much as I loved King City, that site is no longer reasonable for us. Their price point has been raised fairly high and the team we worked with for so many years has experienced 100% turnover. Their fee schedule and their administration is unstable. You can ask anyone that’s worked with them since the turn over, King City is simply no longer practical.
I have personally spent hundreds of hours searching for new event locations with the above range amenities that was within our price range and found none. Efforts to use other sites like the Sacramento site and the Rio Vista site did not bear fruit. There are locations in San Jose and San Luis Obispo that would work but are out of our price range.
So we are going to have to talk about either eliminating event food service, or increasing the price of attendance.
We have tried for the better part of a decade to keep the ticket price to $30 or $35 at any given event. I think the highest we’ve had has been like $40 or $45. In order to keep serving six or more meals per event as part of the ticket price that will have to go up and I couldn’t guess by how much.
If the ticket price increasing is not something we’re interested it then we have to look at the possibility of the event not offering meals.
Not having to have a kitchen increases our site selection exponentially and keeps our ticket price within reason, but the downside is that each of us will have to worry about our own meals. That might be a boon to companies, households and lands though as we organize group meals. I’ve seen this work at larger Amtgard events, as well as Belegarth events.
This is a separate discussion but pertains to food and events but I think we have also had difficulty keeping up with alternative diets at the event level. We have tried to have vegetarian alternatives but haven’t always been successful and we’ve never been able to have vegan or low carb meal plans. So people that eat that way have had to pay full ticket price and still cover their own meals. Not having event food would eliminate that disparity.
So what makes the most sense to you, not offering food? Increasing the ticket price? Or a third option I haven’t considered?
I’d like to hear from everybody. Not just people that have held office or crated events but everyone. This discussion affects everyone who might or will attend our events in the future.


If there's interest I'll snag the conversation
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Re: Event location discussion

Postby Ubrik » Mon Feb 01, 2021 11:34 pm

I personally like the concept of having meals, I think it will enable more focus on the camp aspect of events, If ren faire people can do it so can we. this also becomes much less of an issue if the site is close(ish) to a market of some sort. $40 is still an insanely cheap price for a 3 day event without food let alone with.
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Re: Event location discussion

Postby thistledown » Tue Feb 02, 2021 8:48 am

I'm also fine with paying more to have meals. But I dislike King City.
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