AER: Beer Is a Dish Best Served Cold!

Once again, we are seeing the Timmins region embrace the new and unique! As craft beer eats away more and more of the market, so beer festivals begin to pop up all over the place. Upon discovering that Timmins was about to have its first Festival of Beer, the crew of the Crimson Dawn, sharing a mutual love of tasty brews as well as cosplay, decided to combine the two. O’C’Tav, our resident Blacksmith, then began a secret project especially for this operation.

As the date approached, we reached out over social media to let people know we would be coming. While the organizers were not sure whether they should be apprehensive or excited at the prospect of Klingons and beer, they welcomed us to come.

Then we received an urgent transmission from the Northern Ontario Expo. Once again, they required our assistance. They were organizing a rally of cosplayers to line the street at one of the city’s busiest intersections to let people know about the Expo next weekend. Given that many people showed up at the recent Sportsman show thinking the Expo would be there, a public awareness campaign seemed an important effort. Unfortunately, it conflicted with when we were to be at the Beer Festival, and we could not simply go later due to other commitments.

But…

At the last minute, plans changed and we set out to join forces with our fellow cosplayers. Getting there took sme doing. We were stopped quite a few times along the way by humans intent on taking holo-images, and asking us about our exploits. We even ran into our Security Officer, HoS JoH, who has been operating under cover for an extended period. Her Augment affliction allows her to blend in with the humans. TlharnoQ discussed assisting her with cranial reconstruction before we were on our way again.

Finally, we arrived at the rally point. Roughly a dozen of us held signs, waved, and occasionally snarled at passing cars.

Photo set by Lee Hutchison

Although the humans were very receptive, we finally had to depart and continue to our original target: The Timmins Festival of Beer, hosted by Loplops bar of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. This too proved time consuming, as we were stopped numerous times along the way for more photos. It truly is incredible the attention one gets walking down the street on a Saturday afternoon.

At the festival, we met with Linda Guiho of Wawaitin Clay Works, who had something special prepared for us.

Properly equipped, we proceeded to get to the crux of the matter. The beer!

And don’t forget the food! Radical Gardens, a local restaurant was providing the grub. I must say, for already dead meat, the beer braised pork tenderloin was quite tender, and the cheese fritter was far more flavourful than most Terran dishes.

Even here though, the stream of humans wanting pictures with us continued. From the random patron…

…to brewery…

…to the organizer himself!

As always, we were extremely well received. The humans talked with us about Star Trek, cosplay, our past victories, and of course, about beer. The organizers of the festival, along with several who were on hand to run the various stations insisted we return next year. While we do not submit to human demands, we agreed that this event merited an annual appearance by our crew. The proximity to the Northern Ontario Expo allows this to double as an excellent way to encourage people who may not be aware of the cosplay community, let alone KAG, to get involved. As Timmins is learning, the Crimson Dawn are masters of the art of showing up where no one expects to find them.

In attendance were:

tlharnoQ

Maj’vIq

O’C’Tav

Ghob’Qan

In recognition of the completion of his uniform, and his exceptional service in our recent exploits, Ghob’Qan is hereby promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant Maj’viq tai-Mk’naj

First Officer
IKV Crimson Dawn