Midseason Fiesta

The Midseason Fiesta is a large celebration that occurs upon the Vircook Isles. Imported goods from the neighbouring regions of Ferralum, Orbesta and the Ballerica Sea, creates a grand experience for all attendees, experiencing multiple ways of life in one location.

History

Each season has two major festivals that the residents of the Vircook Isles host as a way to boost revenue to the island. The Midsummer Fiesta is one of the most casual of these festivals, meant simply for song and dance, having fun, and most importantly, competing.
The primary goal of The Midsummer Fiesta is to attract mercenaries, adventurers, essentially rich people to come to the Isles to watch or perform feats of strength to bolster the coffers of the islands.

Enaction

Colorful streamers and decorations adorn each building within Old Ashton, being easy on the eyes and conveying cheer and merriment. All around the coastal town, people are celebrating, playing games, telling stories and genuinely just having fun. Booths of games, attractions, souvenirs are set up to cash in on the large influx of tourists.
The massive, three day event is often capped off by a large performance, with this year’s performance said to be from Umisora, a world famous Rock Band made up of species from Southern Pallet.

Mukaga’s Trial

The main draw to the Fiesta is the events known as “Mukaga’s Trials”, challenges setup by the Island Guardian himself to test the abilities of competitors for the trials. Setup across the Vircook Isles are various booths and attractions aimed primarily for Adventurers. The trials are designed in part by the Retired Adventurers of Vircook Isles, and reimagined by Mukaga.
These Trials test a variety of the competitors in logical, strength, and dexterity. Entry into them costs a coin per attempt, multiple attempts permitted, while each hour of spectating also costs. People tend to enjoy watching competitors complete these challenges, watching feats of strength and agility one normally would not be able to witness, or idiots making fools of themselves trying something they are not capable of.

The Iron Oni Games

Towards the beginning of the third day, a number of Competitive Competitions take place, including an obstacle course race, fighting tournament, archery, cooking and racing for those who completed at least two of the Trials. The winners of these competitions garner grand prizes from Magical Equipment to Coin. In particular, winners of the fighting competition have the right to challenge Mukaga for a chance to gain a boon from the Island Oni.
These competitions are meant to be fierce, driving them competitors to do their best, hence why the prizes and rewards are massive. The spectacle of these competitions brings massive amounts of revenue to the islands, with rich tourists shelling out platinum pieces for front row seats.
Sometimes royals and barons from the neighbouring regions are known to sponsor competitors for fame and glory, bringing further revenue to the island region.

Notable Events

The Grand Drink

Taking place in the tavern of mhmgmgm this Trial sees an individual trying to down 7 mugs of mead in 7 minutes. Those that succeed have their drinks covered, while those that fail have to pay double the drinks cost, even if they didn’t touch them. It was often very lucrative for the tavern.

The Grand Feast

The Grand Feast is an unofficial event hosted by the Emerald Menace, Zirconis. Known to be a great gourmet, Zirconis uses the Midsummer Fiesta to try to expand his pallet, challenging competitors to cook a feast fit for a Dragon. Providing his own exotic ingredients, those that accept the challenge are provided these ingredients that they likely never experienced before and compile a dish with them over 24 hours that they would impress Emerald Menace.
Despite this seemingly being an excuse for his own just to eat good food, Zirconis offers his expert insight to gourmet food when judging, able to taste subtle flavours or see where chefs may have been going with their dishes, giving reasonable feedback and lessons.
Winners of the cooking contest (basically the top three dishes in Zirconis and representatives' opinion) will be put in charge of cooking a feast for Zirconis’ army for a night. Chefs who received the accolade remarked on a two week excursion of luxury for what amounted to three days of work, learning unique techniques from the Dragon’s personal chefs. It was harsh, but well worth the experience.

Flag Competition

Those that wish to participate must sign up, and wear a visible armband thru the entire three days. Each person is provided with a flag they must keep on them at all times to be eligible to split the large reward with the rest of the people who have their flag at the end of the event. Of course, if someone happens to lose their flags, then they forfeit their share of the pot. Additionally, the holders of the flags must remain attuned to the flags they were assigned, its color fading to a dull grey if it is away from the holder for too long.
And of course, if people happen to find some lost flags, dull grey or otherwise, well, a reward for their return would be offered so that they could be used for the next event. This encouraged people to try to look for flags to return them for rewards, people were encouraged to keep their flags on them to be able to turn them in for the prize pool at the end.
For those who cannot read between the lines: Legalized thievery after numerous complaints of petty thefts in previous festivals.

Primary Related Location

Old Ashton