Oh boy!
It's MAGStock, MAGFest's annual outdoor camping music/gaming festival. I try to just enjoy the event as an attendee, but I can never help myself from getting involved and helping create a better experience.
It promises to be a good time, with three days of music, games, crafting, and fun summercamp-type activities. (tie dying! archery! a pinewood derby for adults! )
Here are some photos from the event, why not
PROJECTS
I signed myself up for a lot of projects this year, so let's run them all down
Adventurer's Guild sign
The adventurer's guild is the name for this year's archery range / BB gun shooting gallery. Last year I built the shooting gallery with drop-down targets, and it's held up... fairly well.
This year, I decided to flex my new CNC (a shapeoko 4 XXL) and make a dedicated sign to mark the space. Design largely by me, cobbled together from different assets found online, measures approx 26" wide x 28" tall.
I think it looks rather sharp.
Goblin Towne flagpole
What's the point of going to a festival where everyone is in tents if you're not going to mark your territory? The artwork for the flag was a commission from a friend. They included the socks and neon yellow hat without me requesting them :)
Flagpole is 15' tall when fully extended, and collapses to only about 5' for storage, with the aid of some 3d printed clamps that nest between the sections of EMT conduit (1", 3/4", and 1/2" for the top)
The clamps and finial were modified from designs found on thingiverse and printables, while the actual design for the flag connections were mine.
And of course I had to add solar lights to it.
Flag printed by a local shop, after a poorly-thought-out attempt at ordering one on the cheap from a sketchy dropship website.
MAGNET FISHING
As MAGStock grows, we aim to build out a ARG that connects all the different summer camp activities. The plan for this year was to start each tier of the questline via magnet fishing, with a large field filled with fish and treasure chests, to match the loose event theme of Stardew Valley.
Rods were created from 1" bamboo poles cut down to 4', with the reels 3d printed from a design modified from a listing on Thingiverse. Braided nylon twine used for the lines, with a magnet and cover on the end (these magnets are strong as heck and would likely destroy the fish and chests without a cover)
Did it work? No. The filament I used, particularly in gold, did not stand up to the pressure of even being assembled. Not to mention I forgot to print a few pieces and didn't have a printer on-site to rectify that.
Ultimately, we ended up just tying ropes directly to the railing of the ampitheater being used for the activity, and it worked out fine. People were kind of going nuts for it. Honestly, probably better this way than people swinging around 4 foot hunks of bamboo.
Lesson: You don't always need to egghead your projects.
TROPHIES
Some of the activities at MAGStock are active competitions:
- boat building
- paper airplane contest
- pinewood derby
Such events demand a trophy befitting a champion!
I took a vector of the MAGFest joystick logo and turned it into a pretty accurate 3d model, adding the MAGStock logo and getting creative with button placement and z-dimension, and found some good models of a speedboat, fighter jet, and a pinecone through various 3d model listings. I added wheels and a spiffy spoiler to the pinecone, though an unfortunate "me dropping it" -related incident led to the spoilers breaking off of the pinecones.
Blender was used to add recesses to the models to accomodate the joysticks. Rustoleum black for the joysticks, Rustoleum gold over Rustoleum black for the trophy half.
Also added some rubber bumpers underneath so they wouldn't go sliding all over the place.
These look slick as hell.
Tokens and the hatchapon
Last year, MAGFest acquired a chicken egg vending machine from the 80s, which has been dubbed the Hatchapon (a play on Gachapon)
Trinkets are needed to fill the eggs, so I located a model of the Stardew junimos that would be perfect for the occasion, given I own a multi-material 3d printer. They've got embedded magnets and look super cute holding up a postcard on your fridge.
Additionally, we needed tokens to be exchanged for a spin on the Hatchapon. The original request was for hay bales (chicken feed!)
Unfortunately, the prints I made ended up kind of ugly, and used more filament than the actual prizes. The solution- find a pixel model of the in-game chickens and run it through the MMU! (the cost was about equivalent to the junimos and they don't do anything, so they're basically trashcan-bound after the event)
Der Technowagen
Last year at fest, we carted around my collapsible wagon with a pile of beers and speaker, blasting techno all weekend. We adopted the name of Der Technowagen. This year, to really step it up, I added music-reactive lights and a bubble machine.
Of course, as soon as we got it to the mainstage, I knocked over the bubble machine and it stopped working, while also spilling bubble juice all over the place. I had assumed that I'd broken it, but I'd learn as I was packing up for the weekend that there were actually two power switches on it.
I threw it in the trash at the campground and bought a better one when I arrived home.
The Goblin Towne Tomato Festival
I love a good bloody mary.
I decided to share the love.
I made 6 gallons of bloody mary.
I thought this was a good idea.
It was a good idea, in theory.
6 gallons is a lot of bloody mary, and we did not get as many takers as anticipated. The actual hour of festivity killed about 1.5 gallons, if that.
AND SO, WE LOADED UP THE TECHNOWAGEN WITH 4 GALLONS OF BLOODY MARY (and also Red Snapper, for the discerning morning drunk) AND TOOK THE FESTIVAL ON THE ROAD, HARRASSING EVERYONE WITHIN SHOUTING DISTANCE INTO DRINKING FREE TOMATO-BASED ALCOHOL
Also, I used tomato powder rather than buying tomato juice because I was trying to cut some corners and save some dosh. Holy hell was that a bad idea. They got dubbed "gritty reds"
Still, it was a relative success, though it ate up more time of my weekend than I would have liked.
Will I repeat this next year? ehhhhhh maybe. Certainly a lot of revision work that needs to be done.
WRAPUP
Was it a good time? Hell yeah.
I got to hang out with the MAG family that I love, and also the loose nature of the weekend and my limited volunteer hours let me spend a bunch of time enjoying it with my normal-life friends. Got to see rad concerts. Got to do some tie dying. Bought some cool merch from vendors. Got to hang out in the woods for five or six days.
Also when tearing down my gear, I got my finger snapped into one of the poles of my giant glamping tent and the knuckle there is still pins and needles two months later. That's... cool... I guess?
And my best friend literally broke his foot dancing to a remix of "I'm the Map" from Dora the Explorer
Great time. Would recommend everyone check it out as long as you're remotely okay with your cooler being filled with earwigs.
