The Pennsic War, the Society for Creative Anachronism’s largest event, has been cancelled and rescheduled to 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak. The annual medieval encampment draws more than 10,000 people from all over the world to witness the mock war between the SCA’s Kingdom of the East and the Middle Kingdom. The event was originally planned for July 27-August 7.
Sir Gregory of Loch Swan, Mayor of Pennsic 49, told Facebook readers:
When I took on the office of Mayor of Pennsic 49, I promised to, and was entrusted with, the welfare and safety of the entire Pennsic Family. It is therefore with great sadness that I must inform you today that, we have decided to postpone Pennsic 49…
This postponement will come as heartbreaking news to many of you and it has been an exceedingly difficult decision for us to make. Since the first Pennsic Wars at Cooper’s Lake we have been so proud to welcome people from all over the Knowne World to beautiful lands of Aethelmearc, but this year, sadly we cannot gather together as before.
As many of you have read in my previous COVID-19 updates, the impact of this terrible pandemic has effects that reach far past just those that attend Pennsic War….
Even if we cannot be together this July, we remain optimistic that the situation will soon improve. I know we are all very worried about the impact that COVID-19 is having on our loved ones and daily lives. My Pennsic team and I send you our very best wishes. We cannot wait to share time together at Cooper’s Lake again with you all.
Pennsic 49’s new dates are July 30, 2021 through August 15, 2021.
The first Pennsic was held in 1972. Now held annually at Coopers Lake Campground in Butler County, Pennsylvania, Pennsic’s annual impact on the local economy amounts to $1.8 million, with many local businesses citing the period during Pennsic being among their busiest of the year.
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Sad but wise.
A ceasefire will allow these nations to find a more peaceful way to resolve their differences.
We don’t want to recreate the Great Plagues.
@Andrew: there’s a ceasefire every year. (I’ve seen the scroll of eternal friendship signed at the end of the war at which friends were the EK monarchs.) It just always breaks down 50 weeks later — tell me that’s not historic (including the way alliances fluctuate from year to year).
The loser of Pennsic War has to take PITTSBURGH
@Chip: Sounds accurate.
@Jim: In the case of a postponed war, Pittsburgh goes to the faerie realm (see Wen Spencer for details)
@Jim : That penalty was from the very first Pennsic War, when the Kingdom borders were rather nominal, and Pittsburgh was a polluted mess. I understand that it’s rather pleasant there now.
And, since when does a causus belli have yo make sense?
Note also that the joke (which was still around at Pennsic 10, the last I went to) applied when Pittsburgh was part of the East’s Barony-March of the Debatable Lands; it became ~obsolete a couple of decades ago, when Aethelmarc became a separate kingdom. I’ve never been closer to Pittsburgh than its edges, so I won’t comment on how its Now and Then compare.