[center][h2]Arcture[/h2]
[b]Thursday, June 16th 20XX[/b][/center]
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The festival was in full swing were one to make their way down the main road, and into the square. Pop up stalls and street performances littered the roads, with visitors from far and wide coming to see them. One could peruse the local specialties such as crystal apples a popular festival confectionary made from unique blue crystals similar to sugar, coating an apple, the very popular sweet cream and fruit sweetloaf sandwiches, or try something out in the provinces of the country like the rainbow pie, originating from a region with rich and sweet fruits prepared carefully to preserve their wide variety of colours. Surely, sweets were not the only food on offer here? True, there was also the boar sausage on a stick, fried herb and butter bread (or garlic bread), and of course, cheese covered sweet potatoes.

This was however a festival, meaning there would be more than just good food. There were street performers, such as singers, magicians using their talents to entertain crowds, plays re-enacting Arcture's most popular stories including that of the festival's namesake, sword dancers, and even dancers from Gran Harenae of the exotic sort. More than street performers were some other events and areas, like the petting zoo full of some wonderful and adorable local wildlife, like a small dog with what appeared to be stubby legs, a giant tail, and rabbit ears, or a somewhat unique looking sheep the size of a cat with tiny curled horns and enough wool to appear as a ball. Apparently they were popular pets. Other events included raffles and giveaways, showcases of rare items, storytelling using a magical projector, and contests for artistic skills of various kinds.

There was truly, no shortage of things to do here. Stores that were open as per normal would of course, remain open. Book stores, weapon stores, clothing stores, stores selling little trinkets, bags, and fine jewellery, and so on and so forth.

Of course, as the announcer had said before, if one wished to watch the contestants today they would have to go out the front gates, and upon doing so would be greeted by large crowds around numerous raised platforms where people were doing battle. Contestants had two chances to make it into the next stage of the tournament. They all were required to win two bouts with randomly picked opponents, but the moment they lost two they would be eliminated in the preliminaries, so they were allowed leeway to lose once, but once more and they were out. The crowds were mainly here to see the popular contenders, ones people already knew about, which consisted a lot of the students from Garadin or Alladore, and so onlookers would be concentrated to only those stages for now.