Faire!!!

I have to admit, I was kind of prepared to write yet another grumpy old man entry (see Show!!!) about how things used to be better, the world’s going to hell, blah blah blah. The reason for this is that we headed out to the Renaissance Faire this weekend, and the last time we were there we were pretty disappointed. We last went about 5 years ago, and the Faire really seemed like it was on its last legs – cheesy crafts, lousy location, and a general lack of that mysterious Shakespeare on acid vibe that used to make the Agoura Faire so great. We went to a Faire in Santa Barbara a few years ago which was pretty cool, but it was much smaller than the L.A. Faire, and a much longer drive. So we have been Faire-avoiding for a while now. But this year I got discount tickets from school, and since old memories die hard, we decided to be optimistic. We went with Josh, Adrienne, and Lorelei, and if nothing else, we could gripe about the Faire with them.

It was not encouraging when we got off the freeway to get to the new location and drove through Irwindale, which has to be a contender for the ugliest city in the world. We drove into the Santa Fe Dam recreation area, and the enormous rock pile surrounding the Faire location didn’t exactly inspire confidence either.
Well, as you can probably guess from this set up, the Faire did not suck. In fact, wonder of wonders, it was actually pretty amazing!! Although we will never think of any location as being as cool as Agoura, the new place is not bad at all, with plenty shady trees and a nice lake next door to cool things off a little. Also, there were some really great craftspeople there, and it was REALLY hard not to spend a fortune. Actually we did spend a small fortune (for us) just for food and some fun things, but that’s the same as the old Faire, so no foul. It really turned out to be a great day!!!

There were tons of fun things for the kids to do. They loved the bubbles, but the real killer was the reptile handling - nothing could make Finn happier! Even Jack seemed OK with it - I was kind of worried that he would throw the skink or something, but he was great!!

There were so many amazing costumes too. It really seems like a bunch of people are committed to keeping the Faire spirit alive. I could have taken a million pictures of the characters there, but this Green Man shows how much creativity is still alive.

Like Dodger games, the Faire is largely about food. We were pleased to see most of the olde favorites - fish and chips, bangers, etc. It was all delicious! Didn't see the queen's buns though.

We really lucked out with the jousting! I've almost always manage to miss it at past faires because it's hard to keep track of time there. But we somehow got there right on time and had so much fun. Our knight was the guy in green, and he would have won except for some skulldugery on the part of this other knight. It was tons of fun rooting for him though. The funniest thing was that we were all shouting "huzzah!" as is customary, and Jack, who had a new furry sheep, kept shouting, "Bahhhh!!" It cracked me up : )

There was so much fun stuff. The main thing though, is that there is still a bunch of that olde Faire magic in the air (Eric might remember the mystifying “beware of the rock” episode). My own favorite moment came towards the end of our day there. As we stopped to eat a cup of delicious strawberry ice cream, there was a woman doing an acrobatic routine suspended high in the air by some floaty cloth. Suddenly, a huge procession came up, and the queen herself was deposited right next to where were were standing. The pictures can’t do justice to the weird dreamy atmosphere, especially since you can’t taste the ice cream or hear the beautiful music that accompanied the acrobatic routine. Suffice to say that it was a great Faire memory. Thanks for coming Josh & Adrienne!! We’ll be looking forward to going next year : )