High & Low Cultural Fusion Festival
"Welcome, welcome. Make ready, folks, while our bards play the tunes. Be ready to ruuuuummbleeeeeee....!"
Overview
The High & Low Cultural Fusion Festival is a now twenty year old tradition in Koria. It was founded by a group of Dwarves, Elves and Humans because they couldn't agree on who can draw, write, sculpt or cook the best. And because most of the actual competition was a cluster████ which ended bloody most of the time, the survivors agreed to a more structured competition.
Time, Place & Duration
The festival takes place around the Summer Solstice in the same location as the Nox Vael. While the Nox Vael takes place sometime in the spring, the Fusion Festival takes place during the Summer Solstice.
The Festival takes place during the Summer Solstice, which is mostly fours days. Four days for the festival itself, one day for arriving and one day for cleaning up the Meadows. If the participants or paid helpers don't clean it the right way, the Druids have their way to punish.
Why not moving away from the Druids? Because they are neutral and if the festival takes place in one of the kingdoms it might get a little bit too political. And nobody dares to lead an army or assassins into the Green Meadows - or the Emerald Planes entirely - so the Meadows are the best place to hold the festival.
Crafts
Every craft mentioned below is divided into so called "subdivisions" because you can't judge a novel alongside a poem or a song. Neither you can't judge a novel against a quill or ink. So depending on your project you are assigned to the main division below and then in a subdivision, so the contest remains square.
Crafts of the Paper
Crafts of the Hand
Crafts of the Body
Crafts of the Paper is everything related to paper. You can write a novel - if you can write so fast that it counts as a novel -, you can write poems, lyrics, manuals, you can fold stuff to look like specific things, magical stuff... whatever strikes your fancy and can be accomplished using paper, parchment or papyrus. That includes quills and inks/inkwells as well. If you write a poem or a song you have to read or sing it out loud, keep that in mind.
Crafts of the Hand covers everything which is crafted by hand (doh!). That covers sculpting, pottery, painting (on different canvas), constructing different things (instruments of music, death or creating tools of any kind) and whatever comes to the creative mind. Some people are giving workshops instead of creating a specific item, so their style and the workshop are judged.
Crafts of the Body are a more interesting topic. Here you have a lot of subdivisions because it ranges from creating the perfect barbeque or dish or a new method to prepare meat, vegetables and other things you can eat over tattoos, piercings and other jewelery to lingerie or dresses. Technically jewelery can also be in the Craft of the Hand division, but it depends if you want to create the object or display/visualise something with it.
Execution
The High & Low Cultural Fusion Festival runs over four plus two days (4 + 2) days.
The first day is for arriving, setting up camp & workshop if needed. This includes registering in the main division and subdivision.
The second day is the first of two crafting days. Here you should create the rough outline and the first and hopefully last big chunks of your project.
The third day is also for crafting. At the end of this day you should have finished your project even with smaller details. The fourth day can also be used to finish smaller corrections or details, but it is mainly used for the first round of judging.
The fourth day is for the first round of judging and filtering out the candidates for the second round of judging.
The fifth day is for the second and third round of judging, where the third round is to declare the winner of each subdivision and main division. The winner of the subdivisions gets a price and the winner of the main division gets another price. Each price is determined by the sponsor of the (sub)division. During judging breaks there are other shenanigans.
The sixth day is for cleaning the Green Meadows and desconstruct your camp & workshop if you are not so devastated that you went home the day before. Most people help with the cleaning because they want to come back and not to draw the wrath of the Druids to the festival. There are paid cleaners, but it is nice to help after all.
Judging & Prices
As mentioned in the fifth day description the judging part is divided into three rounds where at the end of the third round the winners per (sub)division are announced.
Technically there are four rounds, but the winners of the main divisions are getting decided in the third round, so it is not official. At first the third and second place are announced and get smaller prices, mostly some trophy or a purse with cash in it. Some sponsors give out checks so you can get to every local bank of the Golden Hoard Capital and grab your cash price.
The main prices vary. Most sponsors tend to refrain from simple cash as the main price. The Festival is to promote different crafts so alongside a trophy (which can be a golden cup or something like this) the winner gets a price. That can be a full-time employment, a patent on the tool/machine alongside payment per sold item, a place in a collection of the judge if they sell your line of craft, you name it. Some judges are just collectors for unique items; some display your craft at their home, adding prestige to them and you as the creator, others put it in a museum which is basically the same but more public.
Other Shenanigans
While waiting during the judging process people can do whatever they want if they do not disturb the reamining competitors or try to get a sneak-peak of the judging process or the winners. Every judge has their own method of judging and remembering the first to third place, so it is not a good idea to get insight into this.
People tend to eat, drink, sing and sleep during the judging days. There are two camps set up for other things than resting, but not linger here if you do not want to participate, they want privacy.
Besides that people tend to chat, meet and greet, drink with each other, craft with each other, share techniques and experiences. Some even collab with each other or agree on a date where they want to work with each other. Others sleep so they can rest and be ready for the final judging.
High & Low Cultural Fusion Festival by CrazyEddie via Midjourney
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Sounds like a fun event that I'd actually want to attend!
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Uh, nice. Most of the time it is really cozy. :)