A question for people who go to HEMA / fencing / martial arts events:
Other than tournaments and competitions (let's leave these alone and not bring them into the discussion for the moment), what features of an event do you appreciate/enjoy the most? Can you provide an example of such a feature at an event?
For example, I really enjoy the scholarly side of historical fencing, and I appreciate it when an event includes lectures and presentations about the scholarly side of the subject to complement the lessons and workshops. Fechtschule York earlier in the summer was an excellent example of this: the organisers made a big effort to emphasise scholarship as well as physical activities. As a result, I believe all the participants learned new things about the context of the arts they studied, both in terms of the historical social context and the martial context of what injuries and wounds might actually do to a person's ability to continue fighting (or not).
What features of events do you enjoy, other than competition?
