academie: K12N Update

[Edvard Gayer]

Well, I went to the site yesterday.  My concerns about the floor having been 
carpeted were well-founded, but based on misinformation.  The vast majority 
of the floor is NOT carpeted, as it turns out.  They have carpeted ONLY the 
perimeter of the floor, with the carpet extending approx 20' from the walls. 
  The hall is enormous, and the carpeted portion represents only a tiny 
fraction of the total space, so we have no problems from a dance 
perspective.

Acoustically, they've actually improved the hall since we last used it.  The 
echoes that plagued previous court/musical attempts have been drastically 
reduced through the use of sound deadening covers on the three main 
(non-windowed) walls.  It's *still* like playing in a cavern, but at least 
the walls of the cavern won't make the acoustics any worse.

Bottom line, we can put the band and the dancers right where we had planned 
to.  I'll tell the chirugeons and those with microphones and amplifiers to 
stand-down.  :)

On a related note, some early reservation-count figures are in.  As of a few 
days ago (12/16), there were 292 folks on board (out of a max of 400), and 
30 folks off-board (out of a max of 320).  If you want to take Feast, get 
your reservations in right away.  The price goes up $2 per head in a few 
days.  I do not know if there will be any off-board space in the hall... I'm 
expecting not... but there's an Outback Steakhouse just 4 miles down the 
road (mmmm... dead cow... <g>) and an assortment of other restaurants and 
cuisines a bit further down that way (including a very good Japanese 
steakhouse.... mmmm... dead japanese cow... <g>)

But I digress.

Bottom line:  If you want to eat on site, send your reservations in soon.  
When the next =Acorn= comes out in a few days, we're expecting the 
reservation traffic to begin to spike.  If you're *not* taking Feast, you've 
got more time, but you might not want to wait too terribly long -- they 
cannot guarantee that they'll have room for walk-ups.

-V

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