Fresno: Queen Bess & The Pyrates - May 15 & 16, 2010

• Don Juan and I arrived on site about 4pm on Friday. Orion had already scoped out our area. We were given a very large area to set up, conveniently located near to the drive-on drive way and the front gate.
• The site was very pretty, lots of green grass and trees. In fact, while we were setting up we were in almost complete shade. The park is *huge*, with the renaissance faire only allocated perhaps 10% of the park. The faire was backed up to the tennis courts, in fact that's where actors camp was...on the tennis courts.

• There were lots of vendors and other guilds present. Several food vendors, so you didn't miss out on lack of choices.

• The weather was nice, but hot. Saturday was probably 92-95 degrees with full sun on our encampment until about 2pm or so, then we were in very nice shade. Both kids (Merrick & Gavin) succumbed to the heat and took naps during the day (we had lots of shady back stage area for them to do so, which was really nice) on Saturday. Sunday was cooler, as it was overcast, probably 89-92 degrees.

• There were several wasps, or yellow jackets, or whatever you want to call them that would buzz the encampment…most particularly Don Juan (they really liked him), but in general the bug population wasn’t too bad.
  
  Gavin found a friend next door (Guilde of English Folke) whom he got into a sword fight with. It got a little out of hand, but things turned out in the end. And by the end of the day they were talking again.
  
  We gave out very few prizes over the course of the weekend, there just weren’t enough patrons. Even with the short ‘staff’, I think everyone had the opportunity to shop. Due to the low attendance, there were deals to be made.
  
  We were torn down and on the road by 7pm as per usual. And fortunately everyone made it home safe and sound.

Community Event: De Luna Ranch, May 8, 2010

Photos thanks to Rene DeLuna:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13980881@N08/sets/72157624066124170/


Photos thanks to Danny DeLuna:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13980881@N08/sets/72157623926178281/

Photos thanks to Wil Mandac:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildabeast71/sets/72157623913304141/

Photos thanks to Kyra MacNeil:

Friday Don Juan and I arrived on site at 1:45pm. We quickly found Sir Guy with Danny, who decided to show us around the property and the house.

Danny gave us a pop-up to use in lieu of our pavilion. We decided to put our walls up on the pop-up, (a) to make it look better and (b) because I thought it would be cooler than the ‘plastic canvas’ walls. It worked really well, as our walls were slightly smaller than the pop-up (we think the pop-up was an 11x11), and we were backed up against an ivy covered fence, so we left the back partially open, allowing for more air flow. Not having to put the pavilion up saved us a huge amount of time. We were done with everything and gone by 4pm.

Saturday was beautiful. We (Don Juan, Tory & I) arrived on site at 8:45 to a bustling encampment. Killian had been there for a while setting up his stuff, and Sir Guy (surprise...not, he's always early!) was already there. Orion, Gavin, Wil & Morrigan all arrived just before we pulled in. Detta & Merrick showed up shortly after, with Kieran & Robin popping in around 10:30 (they got a bit lost, but were in good spirits once they got there).

We decided to fire water balloons instead of cabbage, as we had a nearby water source, it was a community event rather than a faire, and cabbages are costly. Worked out great. The treb behaved itself all day and there weren’t any mis-fires that I’m aware of.

The Vikings and the Romans were set up practically on top of us, so it was a bit difficult for folk to realize that it was three different groups, but it made us all look as if we were very full. The shade of the area that they gave us was quite welcome. I think we ended up with the better of the three spaces, as we had the driveway to the house perpendicular from our location, and had a lovely cross breeze most of the day.

Don Juan and Wil fired the treb constantly pretty much all day. I think we fired close to 100 water balloons. The kids (Tory, Merrick & Gavin) had a bit of a water balloon fight as they heated up. Orion manned the smaller scale siege weapons table. Morrigan & Detta spun and spun and spun. Killian worked on his chain mail (when Kieran wasn’t stealing his seat), and worked on the public, with the able bodied assistance of Kieran himself. Robin was a god-send, making sure that Don Juan was watered while he was in the sun. Sir Guy seemed to have a good time instructing folk on the various hand held weapons and armor, as well as polishing his plate armor.

There were lots of bodies on site. Danny told me that there were approximately 2,200 people in attendance. It was an invitation only event put on by the Lions. I don’t think I saw anyone with a frown or angry look on their face. The Boy Scouts kept us watered (although we had our own) and fed. They kept stopping by with food (burgers & dogs in lunch boxes with chips, or cookies). There was also shaved ice, cotton candy and ice cream bars available, if you were willing to go find them.

School: San Lorenzo Middle School, May 6, 2010

Once again I have traveled to a Middle School in King City to participate in their afternoon Renaissance Faire. I was fortunate enough to have Orion and young Gavin with me this year.

We arrived early and were able to peruse the castle projects the students had constructed. They were made from all sorts of material, from construction paper to foam to wood. Some of htem had obviously put quite some effort into their projects as some of them had people, animals and vegetation. The details on some were meticulous. Some had opted instead to build working siege weapons. There were mostly mangonels but also a few trebuchets.

We shared lunch with our friends in St. Andrews who did the morning presentation, then came the faire. The students used tickets to play at the booths or purchase food as this is a fund raiser for the following years students. They had archery, a dunk tank, bowling, foam swords and a jail.

We started off very slow until the kids realized we were throwing water balloons. Orion took tickets and Gavin was great at handing out the water balloons. In truth we had more kids volunteering to catch the balloons.

All in all a good time was had by everyone. And as always I look forward to next year.

Don Juan

Visalia: Tulare County Renaissance Faire, April 24 & 25, 2010

We arrived on site around 4pm. Tory and I had dropped off the trailer at the KOA first, and then headed over. When we arrived, Sir Guy and Dame Alexandria were on site, as well as Don Juan. Set up went fairly smoothly. We had a smallish space off of the playground (adjacent to the space we had two years ago), it was in the shade most of the day however we did put up the shade canopy to ensure that that was the case.

I have to mention that the playground was completely remodeled. It was beautiful…it was also really new to the community, so all weekend we were battling against the playground and losing. We only gave out ¼ of what we usually do, because the kids wanted to be on the playground. As witnessed by Laurie. The entire time Cullen, Gwen and Laurie were in attendance on Saturday Laurie was on the playground. We had the same problem with Sean & Kim’s daughter Riley.

I also have to say that I love this particular faire board. They are sooooooooo accommodating! Saturday Detta & Merrick joined us…a bit late, but that was okay. One of the guys on the faire board walked them through and got them to us. It was terrific. The new folk (Sean, Kim, Riley & Taodgh [Tiegh]) were about an hour later, and were allowed in without have to pay the accommodation fee. Very cool.

Both days were beautiful. A bit warm, but not nearly the sweltering heat of years past. Being in the shade was really nice, kept us cool, and our location had a *very* nice breeze off an on in the afternoons. We were directly across from Castlewood and from St. Mort’s hospitality/information booth, behind and to the side of us was a fairy face painting booth. They were cool, dressed as the fairies that they said they were. They had some children with them, and their son was dressed as Pan. It was a great outfit…probably difficult for him to play on the playground in, though, as the shoes had a bit of a lift to them.

We had tons of people pass by us, as we were in the major thoroughfare for the second bridge. Sir Guy was in his element. He took up a position on one side of the encampment between the trebs and was regaling anyone and everyone about them. Dame Alexandria did a lot of embroidery on Saturday, so much so that she gave herself a headache. Tory and Merrick played bocce ball with Evan (Tina at NSA’s son) on Saturday. We danced a bit on Saturday (Merrick, too), and just didn’t have the bodies to do so on Sunday. Detta didn’t stay down nearly as much as she should have with her foot injury, although she did more on Sunday (see the photo in the photos section of the chat for proof) ;).

Friday night the three of us, Sir Guy and Dame Alexandria had spaghetti, which turned out pretty well. Saturday evening everyone got together at our trailer for dinner (Taco Stuff), and we were serenaded by Sean and his awesome little guitar. He’s a terrific musician. Dinner was pretty good, but the company was terrific.

There was a huge mess up with the noble parade on Saturday. Sir Guy, dressed as a noble, was to be in the parade, but with the screw up between all of the other participants, he ended up standing around (and doing meet & greet) for an hour and a half after it was supposed to have started before they got going. We had a 3pm meet & greet schedule both days. Saturday Sir Guy and I were it. Sunday Sir Guy, Tory & Merrick took the duty. Tory said Merrick even danced with her out there. Closing parade both days was a bit of a joke as well. The only group really doing it (when it should have been every group that was *not* in the noble parade) was Galbraith. We made ourselves present in there both days as well, but that was pretty much it.

As they were trying to preserve the grass (not like they put new grass in or anything), we weren’t supposed to stay on site with our vehicles for any length of time, and with the traffic issues they have, they asked that everyone move their vehicles out of the way so others could pull around. We completely tore everything down and put it on the side walk before we brought the truck/trailer on site. This was noticed and appreciated by the faire board. Steve (M&M) came over to confirm who we were because we were the only group that followed the rules (surprise surprise).

Tear down went fairly quick, we had a slight delay because we took everything down before bringing the truck on, so we made it in an hour and forty-five minutes. Then we all had dinner at DelTaco to finish off the weekend.