[Wyewood] Missive from Their Majesties, Ana and Nicolai

[Avine deHert]

Hear now the words of Their Majesties -
"Greetings to the populace of An Tir.
There seems to be quite a bit of disinformation and frustration happening surrounding the bid allocation for July Coronation, so in the interest of transparency, we wanted to share some information with you.
Traditionally the process for ANY bid, is to hear presentations at Curia/Financial meetings and discussion to ensue. The goal is for this happen as much as 2 years in advance. This is especially important due to the small number of sites and ever increasing prices- we need time to get site contracts reviewed and approved by the Kingdom Seneschal and Financial committee. We will not mince words-- This is the way we prefer this process to happen.
Covid changed a lot about the way this game works, as well as the economy in the outside world, and since that time, we have seen a marked decline in bids submitted- and a huge upswing in what have become last minute bids to make sure our events can happen as prescribed.
Some background: In 2025- we have had two curia meetings on the calendar so far- the first on Jan 21st and the next on Jun 3rd. During the Jan 21st meeting there were NO bids for July Coronation.
On March 15th the first of two bids were submitted to Ourselves, the Kingdom Event Deputy, the Seneschal and Kingdom Seneschal.
This bid from Wastekeep was set for the dates of July 18th-20th (the traditional J Cor Weekend) and hosted at an event center with a hotel attached.
The proposed site fee is $30 for adults, kids free, no merchant fees. The cost of room block rooms within the hotel $164/night.
The total Cost of this site was projected at 7320.50 leaving a projected income to the Kingdom of $4679.50.
We discussed this within the financial committee in order to make a quick decision- due to contract timings, etc.
The Kingdom seneschal was then advised another bid was incoming, please wait to make a decision.
A little less than a month later on 04/11 a second Bid was sent in from a group of amazing peers, to be held in the lands of Blath an Oir on the Dates of 07/25-07/27. This was at a primarily outdoor site, with a large barn/arena that had fans inside to help mitigate heat, RV hooks ups and camping space- we had Autumn war at the same site last year. (This is less than 20 miles from the site of J Cor last year).
The proposed site fee is $30 for adults, kids free, $25 merchant fees.
the total cost of the site was projected at $9175.00 with a projected income to the Kingdom of $3450.00
Upon discussion with the financial committee, we agreed that now with less than 4 months until the event should be put on, we needed to make a decision, and waiting until the next Curia meeting was not viable for either site due to date availability.
Our ultimate choice was brought to several factors:
1. The cost of the site was a little less than $2000 cheaper for the first bid.
2. The first bid was completely indoors, which is something we'd been discussing to test how it would work. (The second bid did have an indoor location with fans, but we were worried that it is a metal building in the heat of the sun, and it was very close to the site last year with temps at that time of over 100 degrees, with no shelter or abatement for folks camping).
3. The first bid had no merchant fees.
4. The dates of the second bid, while reasonably within Kingdom Corpora about requirements, conflicted with the beginning of Pennsic
5. The hotel option allowed us to address the ever present complications of pack up vs tournaments on the schedule each sunday of this event.
Full disclosure- after this decision of our choice was communicated, Waste keep still needed to change the dates to a week earlier- as we'd taken too long to make the decision and the site no longer offered the original dates proposed. We still felt this was the best choice for the other reasons stated above.
We understand that this choice is not perfect for everyone, and that this is very disappointing for some. We also ask that folx understand that no matter what choice is made, it will make a problem for someone. Heat/Health vs Finances vs Geographical/social issues. It is a very challenging balancing act.
We want to thank both teams for their submissions!
Please support these hard working teams who took time to put these bids together. We would highly encourage the secondary bid team to resubmit their bid for July Coronation 2026 and would love to discuss it at Curia on June 3rd.
If you'd like to help with these ongoing issues, PLEASE check in with your local branch, submit as many bids as are viable. Many choices are so much better than none. And the sooner we see them the better/cheaper they tend to be for all involved.
Thank you so much for your time.
Nicolai, King
Ana, Queen"