Summary of Martin Co. Fairgrounds Pirate Fest (Stuart)

[Commodore Swab]

This was the first year the festival was held in the fairgrounds and I think that there is much potential for growth. There was a large grass area where we had the beginings of a period encampment and a large area off to the side where weapons could be fired. Most of the vendors were under shelter with some even in air conditioning. Pleanty of food vendors and a stage setup in the shade where you could just hear the music in the encampment but was not a distraction. The bands were good.

As far as firing was concerned something new was tried. Instead of having everyone with weapons line up and just fire them off we showcased individual unique weapons and then individually fired them talking with the crowd. Weapons fired in the show case were a snaphaunce buccaneer musket, early spanish miquelet pistol, heavy dragoon pistol, spanish blunderbuss, and an espignol. On Saturday a duel was paced out which went very well and on Sunday we tried a new bit "Last Gun Standing." We gave 3 people 10 charges and allowed them to see who had the best gun, no cleaning between shots, once you misfire you are out. The scores were 4, 7, and 8. We also did a couple of reliability compettions giving people the chance to test their locks, scores ranged from 3 to 18 out of 20 attempts. Aside from the compettions every flintlock fired every time the trigger was pulled.