Lysts on the Lake
What’s that, you might ask?
Put briefly, Lysts on the Lake is a competitive open jousting tournament held in Austin, Texas, which is produced by a’Plaisance Ltd. Open to all “qualified competitors” (I’m not sure what sort of qualifications one needs to present), the Lysts feature events in “Skill at Arms”, “Melee a’ Cheval”, and “Joust a’ Plaisance”. Prizes are awarded to the winner of each event, an overall Champion of the tournament, and the competitor who best espouses the ideal of Chivalry.
This all takes place in Austin from April 29th until May 1st of this year (2011).
Oh, and yes…“Lysts on the Lake is generously hosted by award-winning computer game developer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and space explorer, Richard Garriott and is held on his private estate in Austin, Texas within the ‘Village of Castleton‘…a picturesque, medieval inspired village located on the shores of Lake Austin.”
I don’t know what it takes to register, or what criteria prospective applicants are subject to (all the relevant pages on the a’Plaisance website are presently hidden behind password protection), but if you happen to be in the Austin area at the end of April, you might consider checking this one out!
One thing is for sure: The stink of the hygiene deficient nerds will be historically accurate with medieval times.
Oh, I don’t know about that. I mean, in one sense, you’d think this would be the sort of thing to attract LARPers from miles around…and yet, somehow, I can’t help but think it’ll be a classier affair than that.
Keep in mind that Richard is an SCA member in Austin (Shamino).
David Watson is in the SCA in Austin too! (Iolo)
So is Greg Dykes! (Dupre)…and Jeff Hillhouse! (Geoffrey)
My guess is that all of these folks will be there that weekend.
–and WHAT a photo opportunity! I’ve always dreamed of getting my picture with the 4 of them, all in their midieval garb!
Imagine–Iolo, Shamino, Dupre, Geoffrey, and the AVATAR! (me, of course!) 🙂
You’re quite right; SCA is a classy outfit (although the two people I knew who were in the local chapter were…er…not classy folks at all). I reserve the right to maintain my dig at LARPers, though. 😉
You won’t find stinky nerds hanging around – well, maybe one or two. These sort of things bring groups from around the country to compete.
One such group is called Seattle Knights … no LARPing here, they fight with real weapons and armor and suffer real injuries. http://www.seattleknights.com
Yeah, no nerds in a group that calls themselves the “Seattle Knights”. ^^
Ever see a documentary called “Darkon”? It follows a group of LARPers around and chronicles the characters and the people behind the characters. The documentarians keep a pretty respectful tone as well, only letting the LARPers look silly naturally instead of going out of their way to make fun of them (showing restraint that I would be incapable of). During the battle scenes they employ a shaky-cam to give them a real cinematic feel, and they succeed in lending an epic flair to what is essentially a bunch of middle-aged dudes beating eachother around with foam swords.
I heartily recommend it.
None of them stinky, I didn’t say no nerds. 😉
… and they aren’t LARPers … there is quite a difference
Oh man, Im a member of the SCA in Arizona, but this isn’t an SCA event that I can tell, but meeting Lord British and getting a picture with him in garb would be a dream. I checked out the site and it definitely looks like invitation only.
Those Seattle Knight are a theatrical fighting group according to their website…IF it was real SCA hard suit combat I could probably qualify. I should talk my wife into driving out there and just showing up in garb and talk my way in!
Yeah, it’s not an SCA event…it’s put on by this l’Aplaisance company, whatever it is. Invitational? Probably. I guess you could always contact the company and find out.
FYI folks,
This is a real wood jousting, real steal Western martial arts competition with a real purse for the winners. Invitations are for the combatants, who must have a period kit and know the rules so not to get the combatant or horses hurt. It’s like extreme sports go Medieval, there will be competitors from all over North America and likely some from around the world.
There will be food vendors, arts vendors, Historical Reenactment demonstrations, Shakespearean Theater Troupes, and more. Attendance is open to the public, no costumes required. Think of it as a high brow Renaissance Faire with actual competitive, not staged, jousting and sword fighting.
http://texasjoust.com/ is the website for the event.