Since I can't be bothered to do a full recap (and because other people have done it so much better than me already), I'll only post photos of the last two conventions I went to...including oh so sophisticated comments of mine (with LOADS of typos) Consider yourself warned :o)
First of all - my camera's crappy. Teh Crap. Unless you're really close or outside it messes up ALL photos, that's why I hardly took any photos that weekend. I had to photoshop most of the ones I DID take... *sigh* took me ages...
Dear flist non-filkers (so about everybody :o)), another very short and completely inadequate explanation what exactly Filk is: I don't know myself. I like to call it "fantasy-inspired folk music" but it's so much more than that. It's people writing song parodies, and fandom songs, and songs about life. It's 100 people gathering to listen to and make music like at FilkCon 2005. It's kind of hard to describe if you haven't been there yourself...
The Music Hall before the opening ceremony. It IS very small. Like I said, there were only 100 people, Filkers, but the room was almost to small to hold them all...

Opening Ceremony - Rocky Horror Picture Show Filk! :o)


Milchstraßenstreuner - one of my favourite bands I heard that weekend

Sib - she writes the most hilarious lyrics liek - ever. I especially loved her remark about how "the black lord shall come forth so justice be done upon him" with Sauron being just an eyeball and all... :o)

The Rittersaal (Knight's Hall) where we had breakfast...

Lena (Tia) and me (in my hobbit dress :o) )

Me, Kris (Aryana) and Lena (Tia)

Open Circle at Friday (an open circle is a late-night gathering where everybody is allowed to sing, or you can pick someone to sing a song for you :o) What I love about these is the variety of songs and voices you hear there, and absolutely every "performance" is appreciated and awarded. Partly why by the end of Friday night Aryana, Lisande, Lastalda and the others got me into singing one of my songs... Also I love it that I got Eva and Crystal on that photo, also known as "Summer & Fall". You wouldn't believe how many excellent musicians you'll find among Filkers, although it's "just" fantasy/sci-fi/fandom music but most songs still got more depth than anything that's in the charts right now.

Urban Tapestry in concert. A filk group from Canada which was this year's Guest Of Honour...I had been very much looking forward to see them, since I love their music and also because "Waiting For Frodo" was the first filk song I ever heard, and because I still love it so very much. (Actually I keep annoying everyone with it... You've GOT to listen to this one!!!) On the Saturday open circle my friends then asked whether Urban Tapestry could play it for me, and they did (since my birthday was on September 28th it was a little late birthday gift from my friends I suppose :o) Also later that evening Lisande convinced me to sing another song of mine, which I was later told Urban Tapestry sang harmony with, and seriously I was so overwhelmed I cried in my bed. (Because when some people keep telling you you can't sing for your life, and don't even care you write songs and insist you have no talent whatsoever, it's overwhelming to know that a really good musician likes your stuff...)

Jodi from Urban Tapestry

*lol* Just... Debbie from Urban Tapestry putting on an excellent show about obsessing over Jean-Luc Picard from Enterprise *lol* I think everyone almost peed their pants :o)

And now for the group hug photos! (Also called my UT-Stalking-Photos...*bites lip*)
Aryana, Lisande, Allison (from UT) and me... (looking very bad after three nights in a row with only 4 hours of sleep each night)

Debbie and me

Allison, me, Debbie and Jodi

TeH All-Inclusive-Group Picture
Kris (Aryana), Debbie, Jodi
Me, Dea (Lisande), Allison
Bianca (Lastalda), Trudy

It was a certainly overwhelming weekend. To be with people who love and appreciate music as much as you do, especially that kind of music, and to feel so welcome as a newbie, it was just incredible. Extraordinary.
(Also on the very last day shortly before we left a very nice bloke from MANCHESTER approached me and told me how he would have never guessed I'd never sung in front of an audience before. And then Dea couldn't help but say "You're SO lucky you don't fit into her suitcase!" Hm :o)
Oh, for everyone from castle-deprived countries like Australia or the US *ducks* here's some photos I took of the castle the hostel was in. Isn't it just a LOVELY location for an event like this?





And now for something different...
Ring*Con was certainly different from the Fellowship Festival, but I won't say better because it wasn't. Actually the events are too different atmosphere-wise to be compared...
Me in front of the Esperanto Hotel...

Me and Kristina(
pipwise (yeah, FINALLY we thought about taking a photo... it only took us three times ;o)

app1e_pi (who
pipwise stayed with),
pipwise and me with hobbit action figures (not mine, sadly ;o) )

Arwen & Aragorn Lookalikes...

An Uruk-hai getting his day ticket...

A band playing...

...and people dancing to their music...

To me, BEST done costume ever - The Argonath ... (doing a parody of "Take Me Home Country Roads" called Anduin" ... if they know they're filking?)

The cutest costume on RingCon... the hobbit party tree!

The Evil Bunch! (The Nazgul actually even made that sound sometimes which was REALLY creepy)




Notice the Mini-Sauron next to the big one

Me and a poster full of autographs...

Peter Trait (Shagrath or however you spell him...an orc :o) ) watching the Stunt Show from a seat just two rows in front of ours. Next to him is Jarl Benzon (Glorfindel? )

Royd Tolkien - God I want to marry him

Thomas Robins (Deagol) ... Mister "oooh-OOOH-oooo" ... wouldn't mind marrying him either actually...

Thomas and me...took the chance to tell him I really enjoyed his panel at the FF. Oooh Franks guess what he showed that TROLLEY thing again during his and Lori's Q&A session :o) )

Mister John Noble...impressive man, as I said, and very kind.

Billy signing...
...adjusting a microphone for the guitar...

...and singing...

Okay folks, that took me ages... gotta be off now! :o) Ta-ta!
First of all - my camera's crappy. Teh Crap. Unless you're really close or outside it messes up ALL photos, that's why I hardly took any photos that weekend. I had to photoshop most of the ones I DID take... *sigh* took me ages...
Dear flist non-filkers (so about everybody :o)), another very short and completely inadequate explanation what exactly Filk is: I don't know myself. I like to call it "fantasy-inspired folk music" but it's so much more than that. It's people writing song parodies, and fandom songs, and songs about life. It's 100 people gathering to listen to and make music like at FilkCon 2005. It's kind of hard to describe if you haven't been there yourself...
The Music Hall before the opening ceremony. It IS very small. Like I said, there were only 100 people, Filkers, but the room was almost to small to hold them all...

Opening Ceremony - Rocky Horror Picture Show Filk! :o)


Milchstraßenstreuner - one of my favourite bands I heard that weekend

Sib - she writes the most hilarious lyrics liek - ever. I especially loved her remark about how "the black lord shall come forth so justice be done upon him" with Sauron being just an eyeball and all... :o)

The Rittersaal (Knight's Hall) where we had breakfast...

Lena (Tia) and me (in my hobbit dress :o) )

Me, Kris (Aryana) and Lena (Tia)

Open Circle at Friday (an open circle is a late-night gathering where everybody is allowed to sing, or you can pick someone to sing a song for you :o) What I love about these is the variety of songs and voices you hear there, and absolutely every "performance" is appreciated and awarded. Partly why by the end of Friday night Aryana, Lisande, Lastalda and the others got me into singing one of my songs... Also I love it that I got Eva and Crystal on that photo, also known as "Summer & Fall". You wouldn't believe how many excellent musicians you'll find among Filkers, although it's "just" fantasy/sci-fi/fandom music but most songs still got more depth than anything that's in the charts right now.

Urban Tapestry in concert. A filk group from Canada which was this year's Guest Of Honour...I had been very much looking forward to see them, since I love their music and also because "Waiting For Frodo" was the first filk song I ever heard, and because I still love it so very much. (Actually I keep annoying everyone with it... You've GOT to listen to this one!!!) On the Saturday open circle my friends then asked whether Urban Tapestry could play it for me, and they did (since my birthday was on September 28th it was a little late birthday gift from my friends I suppose :o) Also later that evening Lisande convinced me to sing another song of mine, which I was later told Urban Tapestry sang harmony with, and seriously I was so overwhelmed I cried in my bed. (Because when some people keep telling you you can't sing for your life, and don't even care you write songs and insist you have no talent whatsoever, it's overwhelming to know that a really good musician likes your stuff...)

Jodi from Urban Tapestry

*lol* Just... Debbie from Urban Tapestry putting on an excellent show about obsessing over Jean-Luc Picard from Enterprise *lol* I think everyone almost peed their pants :o)

And now for the group hug photos! (Also called my UT-Stalking-Photos...*bites lip*)
Aryana, Lisande, Allison (from UT) and me... (looking very bad after three nights in a row with only 4 hours of sleep each night)

Debbie and me

Allison, me, Debbie and Jodi

TeH All-Inclusive-Group Picture
Kris (Aryana), Debbie, Jodi
Me, Dea (Lisande), Allison
Bianca (Lastalda), Trudy

It was a certainly overwhelming weekend. To be with people who love and appreciate music as much as you do, especially that kind of music, and to feel so welcome as a newbie, it was just incredible. Extraordinary.
(Also on the very last day shortly before we left a very nice bloke from MANCHESTER approached me and told me how he would have never guessed I'd never sung in front of an audience before. And then Dea couldn't help but say "You're SO lucky you don't fit into her suitcase!" Hm :o)
Oh, for everyone from castle-deprived countries like Australia or the US *ducks* here's some photos I took of the castle the hostel was in. Isn't it just a LOVELY location for an event like this?





And now for something different...
Ring*Con was certainly different from the Fellowship Festival, but I won't say better because it wasn't. Actually the events are too different atmosphere-wise to be compared...
Me in front of the Esperanto Hotel...

Me and Kristina(
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Arwen & Aragorn Lookalikes...

An Uruk-hai getting his day ticket...

A band playing...

...and people dancing to their music...

To me, BEST done costume ever - The Argonath ... (doing a parody of "Take Me Home Country Roads" called Anduin" ... if they know they're filking?)

The cutest costume on RingCon... the hobbit party tree!

The Evil Bunch! (The Nazgul actually even made that sound sometimes which was REALLY creepy)




Notice the Mini-Sauron next to the big one

Me and a poster full of autographs...

Peter Trait (Shagrath or however you spell him...an orc :o) ) watching the Stunt Show from a seat just two rows in front of ours. Next to him is Jarl Benzon (Glorfindel? )

Royd Tolkien - God I want to marry him

Thomas Robins (Deagol) ... Mister "oooh-OOOH-oooo" ... wouldn't mind marrying him either actually...

Thomas and me...took the chance to tell him I really enjoyed his panel at the FF. Oooh Franks guess what he showed that TROLLEY thing again during his and Lori's Q&A session :o) )

Mister John Noble...impressive man, as I said, and very kind.

Billy signing...

...adjusting a microphone for the guitar...

...and singing...

Okay folks, that took me ages... gotta be off now! :o) Ta-ta!
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