Now that I have had a week to recover, and an still trying to catch up on sleep at that, it is time to write up a bit about the festival.

It honestly got off to a slightly shaky start as we were waiting for local members to arrive from work.  So the opening rite had to pull from some of the other talent present.  It was done, and the trance journey that was used as part of the rite did its job.  The opening dinner and then social time were good, and we all went to bed late.

The first day of workshops went well.  A couple ended early, one went a little late.  Overall the information presented was good and well received.  Again, the food we had was better than I would expect for a hotel buffet.  The ritual was an oracular seidhr.  We did something slightly different in that Carrion sat in the high seat with me and we did a tandem seeing.  That was interesting to experience for the both of us, and I will write more about it later, possibly with her for oak leaves.

The second day of workshops was also well received.  Again, one workshop tab short, and a couple ran long.  Overall though, I have to say the quality of the workshops in general were very good, but we were somewhat lacking on doing type workshops, they were mostly lecture workshops... So that is something we need to look for in the future.  The food was again much better than expected, and we were all ready for the main ritual.

This ritual was lightly scripted.  It instead drew on the talent we had present with me playing traffic cop and not really doing many parts.  This was intentional because I was getting elevated to senior priest as part of the ritual.  We called in the ancestors as our brings of the occasion, and called specifically to AJ Gooch, and memorialized him with stories about him.  Then came time for me to do the stuff I had to do.  I called on my ancestors, and specific ones that have played a big role in my life.  When calling in Raven, I started to break down, and Carrion didn't help it one bit.  After I got through that though, the rest of my many allies were called, ending with Odin and Loki.  I was challenged to discuss the lineage of senior priests, then challenged to take an oath of service.  Finally I make the prayer of sacrifice, and we got ones and the waters.  One last piece of work was done to elevate me, and then we closed the risk as usual.  

Sunday was nice and relaxing, just a quick closing ritual followed by lunch and farewells to everyone.

Overall, I thought it was a good festival, especially for the first time we were running one. The feedback I have gotten so far agrees with that assessment.  Surveys were sent to those that attended so we can get anonymous feedback.  So far they have come back largely positive, not just neutral, but positive.  I think that this may be the start of a very good, long lasting hotel festival.