To The Faire We Go

Jul 15, 2008 08:38 AM Filed in: On The Road
RosieCotton
Flaming Red Hair
Years ago, about 25 years ago actually, when I lived in Texas I stumbled across what proved to be one of the largest Renaissance festivals in the country, Scarborough Faire near Waxahachie, TX. From the moment I first walked through the towering gates I was hooked, and Scarborough Faire became a favourite haunt of mine every late spring that I lived in Texas. That was my first Renfair experience. Growing up in central Illinois in the 60's and 70's I had never been exposed to anything quite like that. The closest I came was the annual Madrigal Dinner at Western Illinois University which I was lucky enough to see twice when I was in high school. It was a major outting for me back then, but one of my good friends (Thank you, Dave!) who was a few years older than me was heavily involved in music at WIU and in the Madrigal Dinner in particular, and he convinced me it was worth the trip from Beardstown to Macomb. And he was right. It was fantastic, and it introduced me to a whole new concept of what theater could be, and reinforced in me my affinity for period music. Scarborough Faire was the madrigal dinner times 1000! As my Oz friend Laura would say, Oi!
RenBoots
Over the years as I moved from region to region I've managed to track down different renfaires just about everywhere I've lived, and I always enjoy a day or two of walking around the grounds just soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the sights and the sounds. But through all of those years I have never donned a costume and blended into the scene. I sang madrigals for two years in high school, and I've done medieval productions on stage a handful of times, but for some reason over all these years I've never taken that last step and costumed myself for an event just for the fun of it. Until now.

In September, I will be attending a Tolkien themed event here in Kentucky, an official Bilbo Baggins birthday party. It's a mutli-day event to be held at The Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, and for the actual birthday party itself costumes are required! LOL! So knowing I had to find something appropriate to wear in a few months, I went ahead and grabbed a costume that will work for Bilbo's party and also for any renfairs I happen to wander into this summer in Kentuckiana.
RenMan
Wallah! The new me. Or rather the very old me I suppose. The RenMe! Actually that's not me in the picture, but that is my new costume. I think this "getup" (as we would say back home) will do the trick rather nicely. For Bilbo's party I can lose the hat and pass for any old roust about kind of bloke you might run across at say The Prancing Pony, and for the renfairs I can (if I so choose) now wander the grounds as part of the ambience rather than as a tourist, so to speak. It should do nicely. And I even have a nice leather satchel to add to the ensemble and a short sword too if I am feeling bellicose and am so inclined. It will work. And it is timely too because no sooner had I begun to think about renfaires again than I found a few here in my new neighborhood that I can check out. In fact, I will be on the road this Saturday to visit The Highland Renaissance Faire near Emminence, KY. It will be Celtic Weekend at the faire. Perfect! And then in a month or so I'll be wandering up above Cincinnati to Harveysburg, OH for the Ohio Renaissance Faire. This looks to be a nice big faire on the scale of Scarborough Faire in Texas or Bristol Faire just north of Chicago, another favourite haunt of mine. And then to wrap up the renfair season in October there will be The Fishers Renaissance Festival at Conner Prairie in Indianapolis.
HobbitDrinking


All I can say is Life is good! LOL! I think the new RenMe is going to have a lot of fun this year. And maybe I'll find me a Rosie Cotton of my very own.

Cheers all!
JB