#parf finale main season

[parf-fan]

2024 raw footage: Finale in Song (main season), feat. what I believe to be the real-time birth of the scootching

Saturday August 24th – Pyrate Invasion

Raw footage 5/119

Additional note: this is that version of Pippa breaking the scepter.

[fanfiction-haven]

People always looked at me strangely.

When you are born, you have eyes from the color of the season your spirit is from. Summer for golden yellowish , autumn for red, blue for winter and green for spring. It is easy, and it has been like this for thousands of years.

It all began when I was born on a really foggy spring morning. I was born with the sun; in this spiritual universe,everybody thought that this is a good sign. People who represent a new day, resurrection, awakening. Most of the good men and women of the history were born along the sun.

Everybody was happy, waiting for me to open my eyes. The whole room, even my mother who was exhausted from giving birth, sat up and waited.

Waited, but at the first moment I saw the light of this planet, the sun who was happily smiling outside now, everybody froze.

That’s how I’ve been on Earth for a long time. The struggle of my two personalities, stuck between something painful, that chase away love and friendship from me.

But God chose this way to me. Since my birth, doctors were trying to figure out why I have two different eyes. One part of me didn’t resist, but the other wanted to rebel. That parf of me told me that I was better that anybody, that my eyes show how unique I am and how much power I hold. It drove me crazy.

After my 13th birthday, after seeing the worry and terror in my parents face, I just locked myself inside my room. Voices fought in my head. I was born with two different spirits and they wanted to kill the other. Slowly, I started losing my sanity. Hallucinating; out of this world scenes, scary pictures of the world destroyed, voices telling me to kill myself... I was seriously, mentally ill.

People didn’t care. I couldn’t have gotten therapy; or medical treatment, because they wanted me to die. That’s how humans treat the different. Slowly, I started listening to the voices. When they told me to get a blade and start cutting my skin, I did that. Silently. I heard the pleasure of spirits in my head. When I looked into a mirror. I had a cut on my face, and my eyes were glowing strangely, sadly, behind a curtain of tears. Those red and green eyes wich killed me inside.

My 14th birtday. Nobody even remembers me. I ran away afted the government decided that I must be liquidated, because I am dangerous to everybody near me. But they weren’t right: I was self-destructive, but I didn’t want to hurt anybody. My main fetish became the little peace after I successfully accomplished the spirits wish.

But the government said that I died. They wanted people to feel safe from the weirdos.

I was in the woods for a year now. I lived along animals, I woke with the sun. Suddenly, I realised that there is nothing left to live for.

The spirits came and went. Sometimes I felt sane, that’s when I made a campfire. Sometimes I turned into someone else, and threw myself into the flames. The spirits gave me that mission. I must complete.

The day I finally did it, and took my own life, was a foggy spring morning. My instincts knew that the time has come.

I held a self made knife to my chest. Because that’s how humanity treats the different.

On that day, I woke up with the rising sun, but I never fell asleep with it. Becauss that’s how humanity treats the different.

I shove a knife to my chest. Because that’s hiw humanity treats the different.

I bleed out in a forest, looking at the sun and smiling, because I finally got rid of my demons. Because that’s how humanity treats the different.

People’s souls represent a season which their personalities reflect. Summer souls are joyful yet tend to have a short temper, autumn souls are reserved and caring but tend to be cold at times, winter souls are bitter and tend to be cold, but are very intelligent, and spring souls are outspoken but high maintenance. There’s never been a case of a person possessing two different seasons in their soul, that is until you were born.

[parf-fan]

2024 raw footage: Finale in song (main season)

Saturday September 7th – Viking Weekend

Raw footage 15/119

We sat in the backmost row for this Finale to alleviate claustrophobia; as such, the sounds and visuals both are somewhat unclear. Because we were in the very back, my friend and I chatted quite freely, and much of our conversation is audible in the recording (albeit not always intelligible). Wind picks up after a few minutes, enough to subtly shake the tripod. I believe there is more of a risk of motion-sickness in this video than any of the camera-winging ones. Finally, the Rogues' number is interrupted. Explanation is provided at the interruption (by way of lackluster voiceover).

[parf-fan]

2024 logistical edit: Finale in Song, main season

Comprised of footage and audio from: August 24th; September 8th, 21st, 22nd, 28th; October 5th, 6th. Despite using footage intended for cinematic edits, this edit is pieced together not with an eye for drama or cinematography, or even storytelling; rather, with an eye for that which is indicative of the overall or “average” version of the show. Remind me to go into the behind-the-scenes of editing this one sometime, 'cause I'm really proud of it.

[parf-fan]

Masterlist of recent PARF videographers

Inspired by a comment on my update of sorts in which the commenter stated that it had never occurred to them to see if anyone had filmed PARF, I present to you a post I have been intending to make literally since starting this blog.

● Michael Ulrich – PARF footage as far back as 2004, hitting stride around 2015, stopping at the end of 2022. Most of the older stuff is scattered in amongst the 2018 footage and again between 2020 and 2021. An excellent source for a one-off example of most in-house shows each year. Quite important for reviewing the Megan-Zach-Mary 'verse. Some of the highest-quality footage. ● Renaissance Road Trips (formerly known as maddog015) – PARF footage as far back as 2007. More out-of-house stuff than in-house, though they've been expanding to include a little more in-house in recent years. Contains footage from many different Faires, so sifting will be required if you are exclusively interested in PARF. Divides shows up into many pieces, which is handy if you want to reference a specific moment, but cumbersome if you want to just watch a whole show. Footage quality is perfectly reasonable, though not professional-level. Home of THE Halloween Finale of 2017.

● PARF Performers (formerly known as wavking) – PARF footage from 2011 through 2021, excepting 2014 and 2020. Filming is somewhat scattered and not systematic until around 2016. Occasional videos from NJRF and from non-Faire events taking place on PARF grounds. Overall the best source for Finales and an even selection of everything else for 2016-2018, petering off in 2019. Indispensable for reviewing the Megan-Zach-Mary 'verse, though less so the Mary part. Footage quality is perfectly reasonable, though not professional-level.

● Steve Kossor – PARF footage as far back as 2013. Very little in-house stuff; mostly focused on the artists who fall under the heading of “musicians of the shire”, both individually and as a whole. Plenty of stuff from other Faires, too. Most videos are clearly labeled. If you never got to witness the actual Pub Sing from the Before Times, this is where to look, particularly 2019. Very fancy filming, often including multiple cameras at different angles on the same day (goals tbh). Occasional interviews and such. Scattered throughout are videos completely unrelated to Faire, 'cause he's gotta put 'em somewhere.

● MerlinWinchestr – PARF footage as far back as 2013. Hits stride in 2016 (I think), at which point she carefully archives one example of each main-season plotline show, and sometimes Halloween, as well as scattered highlights. Literally the only person besides me to actually bother with non-Halloween plot before 2018, for which I owe her a small portion of my soul. Indispensable for reviewing the Megan-Zach part of the Megan-Zach-Mary 'verse. Nothing from PARF in 2018 or 2019 due to moving to a different state, but filmed stuff from other Faires in the interim. Picked up again in 2020, and expanded the number of shows filmed. Recent videos are carefully labeled. Footage quality is perfectly reasonable, though not professional-level. Scattered throughout are many clips from various unrelated concerts and cons and sometimes reenactment, as well as quite a lot of fandom edits of (predictably) both Merlin and Supernatural.

● Joseph Germano – PARF footage as far back as 2015. Almost entirely in-house; largely storyline, combat, improv. Initially filmed things exclusively for himself and his family, not listing the videos publicly for years. As such, the quality of camerawork can occasionally leave something to be desired (though much less, in my opinion, than he claims), hence his playlist called “MeadVision”. Filled the void left by PARF Performers's petering off, and is owed a small portion of my soul for archiving so much Disasterpiece in 2019. Footage quality is perfectly reasonable, though not professional-level. Chronology is a mere suggestion until 2021.

● PARF fan – If you're interested in 2017 plotline and combat, I've got everything I filmed up on the YouTube except for Halloween Joust and Halloween Finale. I've also got loads of raw footage of in-house stuff from the first half the 2020 season over on the Facebook. Effort is made with cinematography, though it sometimes backfires. Videos are carefully labeled, but only in the titles, not the thumbnails. Footage quality is perfectly tolerable, though far from professional-level, and the sound is sometimes bad (didn't have a fancy camera until the 2022 season). Indispensable for reviewing 2017, frankly.

● PA Renaissance Faire – PARF footage from 2018 only. One each Court, Melee, Bloody Best, some of the main-season individual Chess fights, Halloween Court, Halloween Chess, and a whole bunch of in-house songs from sundry Finales, many of which were not archived in any other form elsewhere (that I know of).

● Ren Faire with Rose – PARF footage as far back as 2018. Nigh-on exclusively in-house. Mostly highlights rather than entire shows. Features occasional streetwork, particularly from 2019, which is beyond value. Mostly chronological, but 2022 and 2023 and 2024 are intermittently jumbled. Tbh, I haven't gotten around to watching enough of their footage to comment on the quality of camera or camerawork.

● Dan Gualtieri – The newest member of this “team” (none of us actually coordinate or otherwise work together, though we should). Videos from 2022, 2023, and 2024. Mixture of highlights and full shows. Has already filled several gaps. I haven't actually watched any of his videos yet, so I cannot provide comment on camera or camerawork.

[parf-fan]

2017 – Dumbshow (partial) – Autumn Harvest – Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire

Recap of the day's events on Autumn Harvest weekend.  Please note that this Dumbshow is only partial, as it was shot on a camera with a basically-full memory card.  This short clip is nevertheless of historical interest, as I know of no other footage of any of Autumn Harvest Finale, Dumbshow or otherwise.

Recorded by yours truly on  Autumn Harvest Weekend (Saturday October 7th).

[parf-fan]

Miscellaneous short videos today.  1/3

2017 – Dumbshow (partial) – Pyrate Invasion – Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire

Recap of the day's events during Pyrate Invasion.  Please note that this Dumbshow is only partial, as it was shot on a cellphone with very little memory left.  It also skips twice, where the phone gave up.  Full versions below. Recorded by yours truly on Pyrate Invasion weekend (Sunday September 17th.)

Description contains links to alternate recordings.

[parf-fan]

Hello! I'm going to the faire in fifteen days (I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED) and I was wondering what shows there are not to miss this year? I already know I'll be at all of the jousts, queen's court, and finale, but was wondering if there are any other shows that I shouldn't miss?

AAAAAAAAAAA I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU TO BE BACK!!

First off, I suggest going both days of the weekend if you’re able.  In order to thin out attendance at any given show, they’ve structured the schedule so that most super cool performances are competing with some other super cool performance.  For example, Disasterpiece is at the same time as one of the two in-house music groups this year.  Likewise, Teatime is at the same time as the other in-house music group.  All four of these acts are right before a Joust, meaning that you will have to leave one early in order to get to the other on time, or risk being late for the other.

My personal recommendations?  Well, as you said, Queen’s Court is a must.  And be sure to get there in time for the whole thing, pre-show and all, because to be quite frank, the pre-show is generally more entertaining than the main show, or at the least as entertaining.  I don’t believe that there is anything resembling Boons and Favours this year, so there’s not even anything competing with it.

Just after Queen’s Court is the Gaming Joust, which is an innocent joust in which nothing goes wrong (as far as I know), and is thus not a plot show, which is something to be aware of.

I am notorious for caring very little about out-of-house acts at PARF as compared to in-house acts, with a few exceptions.  The archetype of this exception, Rowan and the Rose, is not present this season.  However, the other duo of which Rowan Thorn (Arthur Rowan, head writer) is a part, Two Bard Party, is, in fact, there this season.  Now, I don’t know whether you’re going the weekend of the 10th and 11th, or the 17th and 18th, because I wasn’t looking at my askbox often enough to be able to tell when this arrived.  If you’re going the 17th and 18th, you may be out of luck as far as Two Bard Party goes, as that is the one weekend they are listed on the website as not being present.  But the Daily Writ for that weekend does list them, so plans might have changes and website not updated, which would be on-brand.  Regardless, I recommend this group most highly.  Geeky folk music at its finest.  Rowan in particular has an incredible knack for writing songs about very specific things in specific stories and telling them so well and with such good music (often courtesy of the group’s other member, Randal Piper) that one does not need to know a damn thing about the subject of the song to be completely blown away by it.  If they’re present your weekend, super duper mcfreaking recommend.

Whose Jest Is It Anyway was my favorite non-plot show back in 2012 and 2013, and I never quite forgave them for getting rid of it (well, the real issue was the lack of an improv-track show through which to get to know those characters, and that was solved with the introduction of Disasterpiece, but the point still stands).  But now it’s back!  It’s a half hour of short-form improv, somewhat filtered through characters, and it’s just a lot of fun.

For something quiet and small, Mags Cockburn at the picnic grove is lovely.

I definitely enjoy the music of the out-of-house group Wine and Alchemy, and my mom enjoys it even more, but their fusion world music doesn’t seem to be for everyone.  Or maybe the masses just don’t care about music in languages they can’t understand.

Judging by the timing of your move from PA, the show you’re likely least familiar with is probably Disasterpiece, although that’s surely not giving you and your youtube-watching enough credit.  If you haven’t watched any previous Disasterpieces, here’s a handy playlist of all the ones that made it on the magical Tube of You.  It’s the spiritual successor to Rumple’s tragic backstories, taking a modern story that’s at least moderately well known and adapting it for a half-hour slot in Faire-style telling, but with an added element of everything going wrong.  This is the show that, starting in 2018, fixed the issue of a lack of shows through which to gain an understanding of the improv track characters.  In 2019, it also had an overarching plot throughout the season, which was SO COOL, but of course the individual performances could still be appreciated as one-offs.  There’s an overarching plot this year, too, and videos of these shows can be found on the parf-fan facebook (because I haven’t gotten to cross-posting them on here yet, and I’m not putting ‘em on youtube until my previous years are all up because I will NOT be mucking about with chronology and organization in such a manner on that platform).  Really super duper hecking recommend.

At the same time as Disasterpiece is Mags to Rich’s, the in-house asterisk group this year.  It’s a duo, and if you’ve ever enjoyed an in-house asterisk group recently, you’re sure to enjoy this.  I’ve only seen them once, because same time as Disasterpiece, but I wish I were able to see it more.  If I were able to go more than one day a weekend, I would.  Jules and Leigh Ann are so good.

Variety Royale is the Chess stand-in, and a good show for witnessing interaction between the characters.  It’s an in-universe competition between a bunch of out-of-house acts, largely non-musical, and the lineup changes weekly.  It’s enjoyable, though I do usually feel a little nervous about proximity, as there’s little else going on at the time to thin out the patrons.

Teatime is a MUST.  It’s Sir William Pickering as portrayed by Jonathan Handley and Sir Walter Roderick Kensington as portrayed by Alex Stompoly sitting on Swashbuckler stage throwing shade and talking shit for thirty minutes.  It is GLORIOUS, it is HILARIOUS, it GIVES ME LIFE, and I love them so much.

At the same time is Music With Her Majesty, the other in-house music group.  I have not yet attended this show, more’s the pity, because Teatime is different every week, and I want to film it as much as possible.  But I know the group is wonderful, for two reasons.  Once, they’ve performed at Finale in Pub Song a couple times, and have been excellent.  Two, they’re a in-house music group at PARF, which means the OF COURSE they’re excellent and highly enjoyable, that’s how that works!

Ultimate Joust is also a little nerve-wracking as far as proximity goes, and I’ve thus only attended twice.  I’d very much like to go a little more, though, because it is Absolutely Necessary to the plot and character stuff this year, but in a completely different way than is usually is.  I’m not saying anything else, but you really do have to experience it.

And of course, the closing show, which I have been calling Finale in Pub Song, which has not been catching on which is some serious bullshit because hello it’s perfect.  As my name for it indicates, it is a blend of the Pub Sing (which I have never experienced personally before, as it takes place at the same time as Ultimate Joust, and I’ll wager you’ve never experienced it either for the same reason, so here’s a channel the content of which is approximately half Pub Song) and Finale in Song.  It is not the traditional Finale as we know it, with a host(s) from the cast and an overarching theme or conflict (NOT THAT THERE WAS AN OVERARCHING THEME OR CONFLICT AT ALL EVER IN 2019 FOR SOME UNFATHOMABLE GODFORSAKEN REASON WTF) that changes every week.  Rather, it is hosted by the Musicians of the Shire, and closely resembles Pub Sing, but does have a few non-music out-of-house acts, and sometimes an in-house music group, too.  I do like traditional Finales as we think of them more that this, but this makes sense for the season, and is certainly enjoyable.

Pro tip, after Finale in Pub Song ends, just hang around in the audience are a for a while until the exiting crowd thins.  Otherwise, six feet will be utterly impossible.

If you let me know specifically which day you’re attending (probs via messaging), I can tell you what I’ll be wearing and you can come say hi to me if you want.  I would love that!  You’re the only other Faire youtuber who seems to care about main season plot, and your videos have filled an important and specific niche, and I appreciate them so much, and also ur tumblr is cool.