The first Steel City Ringing Festival will be held in Pittsburgh, home of the six time Super Bowl champion Steelers, on 24-26 April 2009. Ringing will start Friday evening, continue all day Saturday, and through some of Sunday afternoon. It will be a combination of general ringing sessions and quarter peal attempts, and will cater to all levels of change ringers. There is also a peal attempt scheduled for the second half of Sunday afternoon. A more detailed schedule appears below.
While there is no need to pre-register, it would be helpful for the planning to know whom to expect. To let us know you're coming, or for further information, please contact Don Morrison <dfm@ringing.org>. We have arranged the quarter attempts and so on based on folks that have told us to expect them. Even if you don't contact us, though, please feel free to just show up and join us. We'll love having you!
It turns out this is the same weekend as the University of Pittsburgh Commencement activities. This may make travel a little more complicated, particularly east of downtown. Folks may want to allot a few extra minutes travel time in case of congestion. Once you're out in the South Hills where Southminster is it is unlikely to have any effect, however.
Already expected are ringers from Atlanta, Birmingham, Boston, Frederick, Hendersonville, Kalamazoo, Minneapolis/St Paul, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Washington DC.
We will be asking for a donation of $10 from everyone attending to help cover the cost of refreshments and other out of pocket expenses. There is no need to send this ahead of time, we'll collect it during the weekend.
The schedule for the weekend is as follows:
In the various general ringing sessions we will ring standard things on six and eight as the needs of folks present dictate: Plain Bob, Grandsire, Stedman and Cambridge.
In addition, more advanced surprise major ringers please come prepared to ring Cornwall Surprise Major and Lessness Surprise Major. If you feel you only have the time or mental space to learn one of these, please learn Cornwall in preference to Lessness. Given the number of folks coming who have already been ringing Lessness I suspect there will be plenty of folks who have learned both.
If you are an eight spliced ringer and need to revise any of the standard eight, please do so. Though learning Cornwall and Lessness take precedence if there's any conflict in those goals, please! We should have a band to attempt spliced over the weekend, and will plan on ringing touches of ten spliced (standard eight plus Cornwall and Lessness).
We will, of course, adapt as the interests, needs and abilities of those present dicate, but the above is probably a pretty good summary of most of what we will ring.
For dinner Saturday night there really are too many of us for one restaurant. We had a clever division of folks into two nearly equally sized parties going to two interesting locations, but that has somewhat fallen by the way because all the folks coming for Pitt's commencement activities have booked up so many restaurants!
However, we do have a table for fourteen booked at The Church Brew Works <http://www.churchbrew.com> at 8:30 Saturday night. This a microbrewery and restaurant in the former Roman Catholic Church of St John the Baptist in Lawrenceville. The brewing equipment occupies the site of the former altar and the confessionals have been turned into a bar. Food includes several preparations of pierogies, pizza, and buffalo burgers, as well as more traditional fare. Entrees run from about $12 to about $28. It's about a half hour drive away, and looks as if there will be sufficient cars to get everyone that wants to go there.
As of right now the following eleven people have slots there, leaving three additional places if anyone is interested:
If you would like one of the open slots at the Church Brew Works please let Don Morrison <dfm@ringing.org> know as soon as possible.
Otherwise, it is worth noting that there are plenty of restaurants within walking distance of the church. If you'd like any other suggestions or have questions please don't hesitate to ask.
Here's a map of restaurants and other useful locations near Southminster Church.
Pittsburgh International Airport is about a thirty-five minute drive away from Southminster Church. It is possible to travel from there to Southminster by public transportation, though awkward: take a 28X bus from the airport into downtown, and transfer to a 42S or 42C trolley outbound to the Mt Lebanon stop. When boarding the bus and paying, be sure to ask for a transfer for the trolley; you will "pay" for the trolley with this transfer as you leave the trolley, either to the driver or the station attendent, depending upon the time of day. Depending upon how long you have to wait for the bus and the connection this trip could take up to ninety minutes.
While Southminster Church is easy to get to from downtown by public transportation, and is within easy walking distance of plenty of restaurants, it is poorly located with respect to hotels, at least suburban ones if you don't have a car.
Where prices are described below they are round approximations based on public asking prices by the hotels. It is possible that if you or someone working on your behalf is skilled in such matters something significantly reduced might be able to be negotiated; or conversely that these estimates are now out of date and what the hotel charges have actually increased. Certainly you should do your own research to confirm prices of any that you are interested in.
Most of the large, downtown hotels would be convenient for getting to Southminster on the trolley. The ride itself would be about a half-hour, though on weekends or during the evening you might have to wait as long as an additional twenty minutes until a car comes. Unfortunately these downtown hotels tend to be more expensive than the suburban ones.
Probably the most convenient "downtown" hotel is not really in downtown, but rather just across the Monongahela River, on one edge of the Southside flats neighborhood, a couple of stops closer to Mt Lebanon on the trolley line: Sheraton Station Square Hotel. 300 W Station Square Dr, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219; Voice (412) 261-2000; Fax (412) 261-2932. Its cost per room per night appears to be on the order of $200, probably about two to two and a half times that of most of the suburban hotels. From the Station Square trolley station you would take any of the number 42 trolleys to Mt Lebanon stations, a five to ten minute walk from Southminster. The appended letter, most likely 42S or 42C is irrelevant for this trip, though you should not take any of the various 47 or 52 trolleys.
Most of the other downtown hotels are within easy walk of a trolley station, and again any of the 42 trolleys will work for going to Mt Lebanon. Note, however, that hotels in Oakland or near the airport are not going to be convenient for getting to Mt Lebanon.
Less expensive will be hotels in the southern suburbs. The closest of which we are aware are the following. Note that many of these chains have more than one property in the Pittsburgh area, and others than these may well be in inconvenient locations for reaching Mt Lebanon.
The following four are all near one another, about a twenty to twenty-five minute drive from the tower. All appear perfectly presentable. It is possible that there is some sort of public transportation from them into downtown, and then out again on the trolley, but it would undoubtedly be time consuming and inconvenient.
The last is a couple of miles from the preceding four, but is approximately the same distance from the tower as they are, and transportation issues are equivalent.
Here's a map of these hotels.
For further information please contact Don Morrison <dfm@ringing.org>.