Art by Hlafdige Arastorm the Golden, commissioned for the event site book

The 30th Market Day at Birka is approaching, and the staff would like to offer some additional information about the event for your planning convenience.

We’d like to start of by reminding you that this year the event is 3 days long – Friday evening through Sunday afternoon.  As this is new, Sunday activities are limited – merchants will be open until 3 pm. There are no other scheduled activities on Sunday except for Kingdom Curia, starting at 9 am.  Because this is new, not all merchants will be staying for Sunday, so to avoid disappointment if you want to visit someone specific, we recommend trying to squeeze them in on Saturday.

The merchant book listing who is attending is now available on the event web site:  Birka Merchant List

If you are attending the entire weekend, Sunday is included in your base event fee.  There is a reduced fee for anyone who just comes for merchants on Sunday.  Also please note that if you are only coming for Curia on Sunday morning, you will be asked to sign the event waiver, but do not have to pay a site fee.

The hotel is under new ownership this year, and there are changes from last year.  Most are minor, but we want to avoid any unpleasant surprises.

• Pet policy – the hotel remains pet friendly, but pets are no longer allowed in function spaces (the expo center, the armory, the meeting rooms, etc.)  They must remain in your room.  Service animals remain welcome – any questions about them should be directed to the hotel.
• Elevator use restrictions – the hotel has modified the elevators to require a room key for access to upper floors. The mezzanine can still be accessed by anyone who needs or prefers to avoid using the stairs.
• Lobby lounge restriction – The area of the lobby surrounding the fireplace has been converted into a lounge which is available only to members of Hilton’s Honors program at the gold and higher levels.  This is a policy of the hotel chain, and not something we can change.
• Food options:
  • JD’s Tavern has closed. It will be re-opened as an additional restaurant called The Penstock when renovations are complete.  For our convenience this weekend, it will be open for bar service (drinks and a limited food menu) only.
  • A new hotel restaurant, The Current, will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the space adjacent to the lobby where the royal room was formerly located.  It offers typical hotel food at average hotel price ranges.
  • Lunch and dinner are also available at the bar section of The Current in the lobby where the breakfast cafe was under the old management.
  • As in previous years, food concessions will be open in the expo center and outside the armory for lunch on Saturday, and only outside the Expo center for lunch on Sunday.
• Other changes are largely cosmetic – the carpet is new, there are fewer plants, etc.  Most of the actual staff have remained unchanged.

You can view a floor plan of the hotel here, on their web site:  First Floor and Mezzanine layout

Also the Gate Staff would like to remind you that if you are bringing a minor who is not your own child or under your legal guardianship, you must arrange the proper waivers ahead of time. https://www.sca.org/docs/waivers.html. See the bottom section about medical authorization. We do not want to have to disappoint anyone by turning them away, but SCA policy leaves us no discretion in this area.

And, to end on a good note, parking should be easier this year.  There are hockey games at the nearby Southern New Hampshire University Arena which shares the parking garage with us, but they do not start until later afternoon on Saturday, so we expect substantially less competition for space in the parking garage than in the past several years.

We look forward to seeing you next weekend,

The Market Day at Birka Staff

At long last the contract with the site for Market Day at Birka has been signed, and the dates are official.  The first, highly incomplete, official announcement has been posted on the East Kingdom web site:  http://www.eastkingdom.org/EventDetails.php?eid=3349  Check back there and at the official event web site (http://birka.eastkingdom.org/wordpress/) for updates as the year progresses.

The dates for the event are January 25 – January 27.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The event is extending into Sunday this year for more than just Kingdom Curia.  At this time the only activity planned for Sunday, other than Kingdom Curia if Their Majesties request it, is additional hours to visit the merchants. So if you had so much going on during the day on Saturday, that you just didn’t get to shop, you can make up for it on Sunday.

Meanwhile, we know may people have been waiting eagerly for information on when they can make hotel reservations.  As we announced previously, the hotel is changing brand affiliations.  At the moment it is doing business as the Manchester Downtown Hotel.  Later this summer it will become a Doubletree Hilton.

Reservations can be made at the Birka rate through the  Manchester Downtown Hotel for Birka beginning April 15. Those will automatically transfer to the Doubletree Hilton system when the hotel transitions later this summer.

To reserve, call the hotel directly at 603-625-1000, and be sure you ask for the Birka rate.

If you aren’t able to reserve at our host hotel, all is not lost. We’ll have information about other convenient local hotels available on the web site later this summer.

Mistress A’isha bint Jamil

Market Day at Birka Information Officer

Market Day at Birka, in the Barony of Stonemarche,  has a long history. This will be the 28^th year of the event, and the 15^th year since it moved to the Radisson Hotel and the Center of New Hampshire Expo Center in Manchester. Every four years the event scheduling gets a bit nerve-wracking because of the proximity of the traditional date to the New Hampshire Presidential Primary, and of course the potential for a catastrophic blizzard on the event weekend is always a background fear. It is the end of January in New Hampshire, after all.

This year when the autocrat, Mistress Fia Kareman, and the Seneschal of Stonemarche, Lady Tomyris of Stonemarche, approached the hotel to sign the contract for Birka 2017, the hotel management warned them that plans were afoot to renovate the ballroom, which is the traditional location for Heavy List and Royal Court. Renovations were expected to begin in December, and to continue through March.

This, as might be expected, caused considerable consternation. Mistress Fia and Lady Tomyris kept the news very close while they considered options, because they were concerned that rumors of the problem would run wild, and be difficult to combat, even after the matter was settled and facts could be presented in their place.

They considered a number of options, including whether it might be possible to rent additional space from other nearby buildings. That option proved to be unworkable, as no suitable space was available.

In the end, Mistress Fia went back to the hotel with a list of requests for concessions and options for alternate spaces which might be usable. The hotel management, mindful of their long and positive relationship with the event, made every effort to help Stonemarche find ways to squeeze in as many of the traditional activities as was remotely possible, including reserving for the event’s use parts of the hotel, such as the fireplace lounge area in the lobby, which in most years are considered public spaces, not part of the event space.

Even after a lot of outside-the-box thinking, and efforts to find usable spaces that are not normally rented by the event, there was still substantially less space available. Event staff tried to cut back on everything a little, to avoid completely dropping anyone’s favorite, traditional activity.

Heavy list was moved from the ballroom to the armory. Youth fighting was moved out of the armory into a meeting room, to make room for the heavy list.   Evening Royal Court will be in the armory, as will the Ball. Because acoustics in the armory are so challenging, for the first time the event will be providing a sound system for Court. The Middle Eastern Hafla will be in the public space outside the Hale and Spaulding rooms in the Expo Center, as well as in the adjacent Pierce room, instead of the Armory.

By early May details were settled, the contract was signed, and the changes were made public to the event staff and via various electronic channels. While nothing was perfect, the essential parts of the event were preserved, and it is expected that things will return to their normal locations next year.

However the story doesn’t end there.  Renovations rarely proceed exactly on schedule, as anyone who has been part of one knows. Approximately two weeks ago the hotel informed Mistress Fia that the work of refinishing the armory floor had been completed. This caused great stress to the staff, because Stonemarche knows from painful past experience how badly fighting heavy list can damage a floor. Again, the hotel worked with the event staff, and a fix was found. The hotel is supplying mats to protect the floor in the armory.

At the final pre-event planning meeting, held at the hotel on the 15th, it was noted that there seemed to be no access route to get from the hotel proper to the armory. This was seen as a significant issue, since it is January in New Hampshire, and weather could be anything. It was felt that event attendees should not have to go outside to get to the armory. Mistress Fia again went back to the hotel to seek a remedy. This time the proposed solution involved going through the Curriers room, which in past years has been the Royal Room. That presented its own challenges, as there were activities scheduled there, and now a home needed to be found for them.

The hotel offered the use of a suite in the attached office tower, which is space entirely new to the event. Youth fighting, Baronial Court, the Fashion Show, and the Bardic Circle will be held in that space. As this change was instituted after the site books had gone to the printer, there is an addendum to the site book and signs will be posted to help attendees find the new space.

The event staff hopes everyone will enjoy the event in spite of the challenges occasioned by the construction.