BS: Requiem for a RenFaire

Subject: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: SeanM
Date: 21 Oct 03 - 12:48 AM

I had a hard time figuring where to put this thread, and finally opted for "BS", though the faire's what got me started in music and all that.

But, for those who follow the US Renaissance Faire scene and otherwise have not heard...

As of today, RPFN - the one time Black Point faire, the second "big faire" and second event started by the creators of the faire concept is no more.

Citing a lack of revenue, Renaissance Entertainment Corporation has officially announced the closure. This past season in Gilroy was the last RPFN.

M

Subject: RE: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: open mike
Date: 21 Oct 03 - 02:22 AM

Is this the northern calif. faire which has been at Casa De Fruita
or something like that? I went to it over in Black Point and for
the Nut Tree years, too, but lost track after it moved farther
south for the last couople of years. I thought i heard a rumor that
there was to be a smaller one near the original Black point site.
Did it happen this year? I heard there was supposed to be a ren
fair type event in tahoe earlier this year--in the spring perhaps.

But it was cancelled (too)
I would like to think there could be a location found
for this wonderful event...thousands and thousands of
people came evey year!! It usually was for 6 week ends
from labor day to mid oct...so if it happened this year
it must have just closed...too bad. If i had known it
was going to be the last one i might have made the extra
drive to see it.

Subject: RE: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: open mike
Date: 21 Oct 03 - 03:34 AM

http://www.renfair.com/nocal/index.php
the renfaire
rennaissance pleasure fair site does not
mention discontinuing the event...
was that announced there?

Subject: RE: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 21 Oct 03 - 08:43 AM

what a shame, Sean!

Subject: RE: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: NicoleC
Date: 21 Oct 03 - 10:52 AM

Different faire, Laurel. The guys who start the "Pleasure Faire" sold it, then started another one. The Pleasure Faire is still going gangbusters, although I always thought the big Faire Incorporated was dull, expensive and a waste of time.

It was a nice event in Gilroy last year, and I'm sorry to see them shut down. The one in the spring that was cancelled at Tahoe was Valhalla, which was a nice event, too -- I think that one was only cancelled for one year in order to move it to another location for next year.

Subject: RE: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: open mike
Date: 21 Oct 03 - 11:27 AM

That is what i was trying to say-
if the Pleasure faire does not
happen we should all go to valhalla!
is casa de fruita in gilroy?
santa clara county...?

Subject: RE: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: NicoleC
Date: 21 Oct 03 - 12:51 PM

The Pleasure Faire (Incorporated) IS happening -- it's the one in Gilroy that's not.

Subject: RE: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: SeanM
Date: 21 Oct 03 - 01:05 PM

From the top...

First, this is a sudden announcement. The performers and directors had no official warning that this was coming. The faire in question is the 'same' one that started in Marin at Black Point, moved to Nut Tree in Vacaville, and then moved down to Gilroy for the last two seasons.

It's also just been announced to the 'faire community' at large as of yesterday. An email was sent to all mailing lists that the Entertainment Director had access to requesting that the information be disseminated to all concerned parties.

The other faires mentioned are in various states. I'm not as current on them as I was on RPFN, due to performing fairly exclusively at SoCal events. However, Valhalla is the event mentioned in Tahoe. Stafford Lake may or may not be occuring next season (it's not been doing well either for a variety of reasons). There are also events in Folsom and a few other Northern locations, but none in the multi-weekend range that RPFN filled (with the exception of 3 weekends of Stafford).

M

Subject: RE: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: BillR
Date: 21 Oct 03 - 09:42 PM

Ok, to answer some of open mike's questions I've tried to write a short history of ren faires in California but it ran longer than I expected. Please forgive the lack of exact dates and any minor errors. I'm doing this off the top of my head.

The Renissance Pleasure Faire was started in the late 1960's by Phyllis Patterson and her then husband Ron. I beleive the first one took place in a Los Angeles city park, then moved to a location near Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills. At some point Phyllis formed a non-profit educational organisation call the Living History Center (LHC) to be the official owner of the faire. A couple/three years after the first Southern Faire they started a Northern California version. I beleive it was first held at China Camp State Park in San Rafael, then moved to some land that LHC had bought at Black Point, near Novato. (Both these locations are in Marin County, just North of San Francisco). Both faires continued under LHC through the 70's & 80's. RPFS (Southern) in the spring and RPFS (Northern) in the fall. In the meantime many people saw or heard about the faires and started up fiers of theire own in other states and also a number of small (usually one weekend) faires in California. At some point in the 80's Southern Faire lost its rented site in Agoura to development and moved out to Glen Helen State Park at Devore, near San Bernadino. However about 1990 LHC Filed for bankruptcy. (I have heard many stories about how this came to happen, but I wasn't there at the time so I'm not going to repeat any of them). So the first result of this was that the land at Black Point, being LHC's only tangible asset was sold to a developer, then a company called Renissance Entertainment Corpoartion (REC) bought the faires from LHC. They (REC) made a deal with the deveoper who now owned the Black Point site to lease it back until he was ready to start construction. This was expected to be about three years, in face it took eight years to clear all the financial and permit obstacles. In the meantime REC continued to operate both faires while looking for a new site for Northern Faire. After having several possible sites rejected (Usually by irate "citizens comittees" who didn't want those "scummy hippie ren faire people" in their backyard.) they were told that 1998 was the last year they could use the Black Point site. So in '99 they moved to the old Nut Tree site in Vacaville for three years and when the town wanted the site for someting else they moved last year to Casa de Fruta near Gilroy, South of San Jose, where it remained this year and now it's gone.

In yet another meantime. Kevin Patterson (son of Phyllis) and his wife Leslie (Both of whom had worked as RPF managers under both LHC and REC) formed a company called As You Like It Productions (AYLI) and in 2001 bought an existing small faire in the Santa Barbara area and renamed it Heart of the Forest Faire. It was quite well receive among many faire people. Last year ('02) they opened a Norterern edition at Stafford Lake Park in Novato.
They are smaller that the REC faires and shorter, though the Northern one expanded from three weeks to four this year and their web page says they're going to six weeks next year.

So in summary, the faire now owend by REC is the Renissance Pleasure Faire and has a resonable claim to be the continuation of the original ren faire started by the Pattersons 40 years ago. On the other hand the Heart of the Forest Faire also has a legitimate claim to descent from the original ren faire.

There are also several other small one or two weekend ren faires around Califorina. The largest of these used to be the Valhalla Faire which ran for two weekends in June at Camp Richardson near South Lake Tahoe. Last year they tried to move the faire so they could run three weekends but the new site got pulled from under them at the last minute at they had to cancel for the year. It remains to be see whether they will be back next year.

PS As I was writing this I received an announcment of the newest ren faire in the Bay Area. A one weekend event to be held in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco on Aug. 28-9 2004.

-Bill

Subject: RE: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: NicoleC
Date: 21 Oct 03 - 10:38 PM

Thanks Bill. I was thinking of the one in Novato... nice fair last year. Valhalla was a great spot near the lake, so hopefully they will be able to get their old spot back.

Subject: RE: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 12:55 PM

A couple of small amendments/augmentations to Bill's history.

I worked for LHC about forever ago, so don't remember a lot myself -- but I do recall that the actual first (L.A.) Renaissance Faire was a fundraising activity for a school at which Phyllis was teaching. It happened in Ron and Phyllis' backyard (they had a manor-like house in one of the canyons -- Lookout Mountain Road, or maybe Laurel Canyon -- so I gather it was a pretty nice backyard) that first year, and was primarily a commedia del'arte show. I think they moved the event to the park for its second year.

The later RPFS site was ON the old Paramount Ranch, not near it. They still used it for filming. I always found it startling to see the opening sequences of "M*A*S*H" (TV version), with all those helicopters swarming over Actors' Camp.

Also we always referred to the first RPFN site as "Peacock Gap." There is a Peacock Gap neighborhood in San Rafael, and although there's a Peacock Gap Park the neighborhood is close to the much larger China Camp State Park, so maybe that was indeed the location. I attended that Faire long before I worked for LHC, but the only way to get there was via bus, so I could never recall exactly where it was.

The faire parking in those days was at the Marin Civic Center, which, for those of you who don't know it, is one of Frank Lloyd Wright's odder constructs. Making the mental leap from there to a medieval / Renaissance English village was not something my brain did easily. Ah, memories...

Subject: RE: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: SeanM
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 02:45 PM

A little more history of recent vintage...

REC is owner/operator of a few "large" faires. The company originally held Bristol faire in Wisconsin, then in a flurry of acquisition bought LHC (and with it RPFS/RPFN), NYRF (not to be confused with Sterling), and built another "permanent" site in Virginia.

Virginia faire went under within a few years of opening. I keep hearing rumours of a "white knight" stepping in to resurrect the property under a different company, but have not seen anything concrete.

Bristol, NYRF and RPFS are all apparently still up and running at this point. From personal observation, RPFS is picking up again - good crowds coming out, and our stage was SRO nearly every single show. I can't speak about the other faires, as I've never been.

AYLI started out as an 'event planning' company. I believe they still do so. I worked for/with them at a few events providing musical comedy shows, most notably for the International Gold Panning competition in Coloma and the Railfair '99 show in Sacramento. Since that point, they've gone on to Santa Barbara Faire, Stafford Lake (in Marin) and Dickens (in San Francisco).

AYLI did not hold SBRF last season, and at this point many friends are still awaiting word for next season. It'll likely be known after they finish with the Dickens event they run in San Francisco.

M

Subject: RE: BS: Requiem for a RenFaire
From: SeanM
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 02:46 PM

Edit to last - REC bought RPFI, "Renaissance Pleasure Faire Incorporated". LHC is a still-going entity of it's own.

M