Well the trip out was not too bad. We learned from last year that the better part of valour was to leave mid-day on Friday so as to arrive in time for a reasonable rest. Unfortunately, I forgot the headphones to my portable DVD player, rendering it sufficiently useless as to leave me no choice but to nap most of the way to MN. With starting a bit late, a few stops to pee, snack, and boggle at the seemingly endless varieties of cheese available at every struck stop, gas station, or quickie-mart, we arrived in the thriving metropolis of Elk River MN sometime between 8 and 9 PM. We had the same room as last time, but fewer insectile roommates this time around.
Up early for the “new and improved” Kings Island Renaissance Faire, one of the ‘fission products of Rosenthorne” as vakkotaur so neatly puts it. This time they set up in a park adjacent to an American Legion post. Once again, as with Rosenthorne, it proved a valiant but still not-quite-there effort. This time they clumped the shops etc much closer together, lessening the empty feel of the space, but there wasn’t much they could do to hide the fact that there were maybe a dozen vendors, 2 food booths, and 3 stage-ish spaces. However, they did use the space well enough that I did not realize until Saturday evening that we were on a baseball field, with the main stage at home plate and Rilla’s Hovel in the area of the pitcher’s mound.
They do deserve points for effort, though. There was a screen canopy over the audience at the Main Stage providing shade, and they managed to acquire a falconry show. There were some rather good belly dancers, a very nice madrigal group (Notesmyth) and a family pub act called The Black Velvet Band. Two of the regulars have put together “The Doc And Wayne Show”. which has some potential as long as they keep practicing and stop ripping off arrangements from the Minstrels of Mayhem. Also, ‘The Dark Cloud”, a group of goth/punk/barbarians had their encampment there as well. To me they seem a liability suit waiting to happen, but I have to admit that the fire show really draws the crowds. Rilla The Spinner was there on Sunday chatting with many of the patrons and generally being her friendly and slightly batty self. There was also a group of local Morris Dancers, but since not all of them could be there this weekend, they were just hanging about being colorful and practicing. mnfiddledragon was there with her fiddle, but I never got to see her play at all!
However, this faire does have a long way to go in the way of theatricality and general organization. There was no overall daily schedule so it was hard to know what might be going on elsewhere, and there were misspellings on the stage signs. (poor Notesymth!) The scenario was supposed to involve the King seeking a bride, but I talked to the man playing the king for about 10 minutes without realizing he was the king.
When will smaller faires realize that, for the average patron, if they haven’t got a crown they’re not royalty? They seem to either err on the side of minimalism, leaving the audience puzzled, or have so many “visiting royalty” that you can’t go to the privy without tripping over a king? This applies to SO many of the shows we have done.
So, in general , if you count the Rosenthorne show last year as the first try for these people, they have made slow but noticible progress. The closer layout and shaded seating areas encouraged visitors to linger longer than they did at the old Rosenthorne site. They have GOT to cut back to a 3-week show for a while to get established, need to do better advertising (most of the patrons I spoke with were locals who drove by and saw the site), and need to either get a joust or fight show OR cut the gate price. It’s still too small to justify a $10 admission. Still, we had a good time, and even though most of our audience consisted of other performers, we generally had someone to play for, and we sold some CDs.
Saturday night was dinner at Perkins with vakkotaur, mnfiddledragon, and markbs. Much silliness before an early bed. And a stop at the Quickie-Mart for next-day lunch. The food choices on-site were rather underwhelming. (Though I am told that the fried-bread taco was yummy for those who liked that sort of thing.)
Sunday night was Chinese buffet with vakkotaur, Rilla and three of the faire kids. It was distinctly an odd experience - when I mentioned how long I had been doing faires, one of these fledgling rennies said to his friend “Wow - that’s gonna be us in 20 years”. Now THAT’s a scary thought. Also, one should never let vakkotaur sit next to impressionable young minds. The conversation quickly turns to thoughts of homemade explosives….
Stayed over Sunday night, and headed out about 2 hours earlier than I was happy with. ( bloody jmthane morning person…) Breakfast at Perkins and a stop at JoAnn’s Etc (which seems to be a JoAnn fabrics with a lot more craft crap) where I found skirt fabric for tarsa for only $2.99/yd. Napped most of the way home, until the rain and resultant drippage began. A quick stop at Bristol to get photo IDs, check out the new performance space, and generally get muddy before sitting in rush-hour traffic the rest of the way home. See - I TOLD you we should have slept later!
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