Thursday, April 1, 2010

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment