It's my 4th year as a vendor and a sponsor of Portland Pirate Festival.  It takes place on the banks of the Willamette River under the Saint John's Bridge in North Portland.  I missed last year, being in New Orleans, and had heard that it poured on sunday, so anything better than that would be a good thing.  It did rain on Saturday morning, and we did the best we could to fold up the seams of the 3 booths we had lashed together to be our pavilion, but a few things got wet, a tub of hats, some paperwork, no real harm.  I thought things would start slowly because of the weather, but God bless Oregonians who don't let a little rain stop them.  Unfortunately, because we could not put racks out of the booth, we spent most of the morning waiting to take clothing out of the bags and hang them up based on how dry it was becoming, and spent most of the day time waiting for it to be safe enough to spread out.  Well, by noon it was dry, by 3pm it was sunny, and the awesomeness began.  I love our local pirate band Captain Bogg & Salty, and there's nothing like doing the pogo with 600 other fully garbed pirates in front of the main stage to their rendition of the Toy Doll's Nelly The Elephant.  The park is split into 2 sections  with me being on the main stage section, then the beer garden in the gully, and paths on either side that lead to the other half, with 2 additional stages, and all the kiddie bouncies and slidies and such. 

Some oddity did occur, my ex-boyfriend was a volunteer, and it was strange to see him picking up garbage in a 900.00 outfit I gave him some years back, and why he was volunteering there was beyond me, but it was great fodder for the couple of people that showed up that remembered the havoc he wreaked on the first 2 festivals he attempted to help me with, and we all had a good laugh.

Huge kudos and shout outs to my amazing volunteers for the weekend.  Sean, my gothic pirate, Gina and Jason, Captain Crunchy, Tim, and Laurel.  Doing this in what is essentially the middle of Halloween season, to tear apart my stockroom and set up a mobile dresslikeapirate.com once a year is harder than for those who vend at festivals full time, as I have no idea what I am doing from one year to the next, but by far this was the least stressful year thanks to so much competent help.

It's always great to see B.O.O.M. in action.  Not only are they our black powder pirates for the weekend, but they also do choreographed fighting, then take to the stage, all play instruments and sing, and regale us with song.  Crew of the Jade Dragon was astounding with choreographed cutlass battles, and I love to watch a lass kick a pirate's arse!  This year had more wondering entertainment than ever before, and with Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire going the same weekend, we were very lucky that some talent wanted to be with us. 

If anyone thinks that it was easy to beat the Guinness Book of World Records for Most Pirates Gathered in One Place, has never tried to herd pirates.  It's a lot like herding kitties (according to me dear friend Stormfeather).  1650 does not sound like a lot (the record held by England was 300 less) but several thousand of the most elegantly, historically accurately garbed pirates did not qualify because of the Guinness rules of eyepatch, sword and headscarf.  Most brought pistols.  Also it was the sunniest part of the day, out in the sun, for 2 hours while pirates had to sign one of 5 log books.  Drunk pirates wondered off bored, baby pirates got fidgety and cried.  Rogue Brewery did the best they could by bringing 2 kegs up to the front of the line, and ran out.  Now we wait to see who may attempt to take the record away, so we can fight to have it back again next year.  Because of it, that was the best Sunday we ever had.  Clever, clever pirates. 

It was great to see people I only see at events, like Mercenary Mary, and it was amazing to see Steve Kimball from Faire Magazine all the way from Baltimore enjoying some local brew.  Dave Nichols from Pirate's Magazine was our emcee, and found he had just moved to Oregon, so welcome to our beautiful state, Dave.  Because our event, like so many others, are boosted by being close to Talk Like A Pirate Day, it does divide our ranks while everyone is at their local big yearly events, but maybe next year we can see the likes of Bilgemunky or Scarlet Harlott to make the circle complete.