Well, after receiving passes from a good friend at the Ren Faire, we decided to pay it a visit this afternoon. Now, you have to remember that we haven't attended for about 10 years - after having been vendors for 5 years and selling our herb shop there. I guess it's necessary to visit from time to time to remind ourselves of what we left and why....
It was wonderful seeing the old friends that are still there .. and kinda sad realizing just how few we still know. Laura, who sent us the passes, and Val, both at the Nature's Heirlooms Shop. Across the street was Judy whose head wreaths were always a big part of the faire day. Mark the potter, who we knew first as a patron and then, as a fellow vendor. The Marquis, who we thank effusively on the rare occcasion that we see him for steering us in the right direction for an amazing night out many years ago.. long story, but it involved a group of almost naked men! We enjoyed surprising "our" queen who is again the queen in honor of the 25th anniversary. She dragged us aside for a few brief moments to catch up and take a good look at Molly, Tina's daughter who followed her around for a few years when she played a gypsy and Molly aspired to be her child, I think!
Another bright spot in the day was the group, Corvus Corax. They are from Germany and are described as a Medievel Rock Star band... Yep, that's about right. If you like drums and bagpipes... lots of drums and bagpipes... kinda oboey bagpipes... and men jumping around in long robes, but scantily clad underneath... very interesting group. We loved them so much we needed to purchase a CD.
The grounds have grown hugely, booze is now sold, and apparently there is next to no "street play" or interaction of the characters of the Shire with the patrons. The street play was always the highlight of the day there for us... and the side conversations of all the villagers in their Olde English accents.
Even the vendors were given lessons on proper speech way back when. We were even encouraged to develop back stories for our own characters so that we all came together as a community... and you know, we did.
Nowadays, anachronisms abound and apparently it isn't important for even some of the actors to speak with an accent.... sad. We even overheard one of the actors on stage discussing the sports scores for the football game that day with the audience... unheard of back in "our day".
Well, we know that we miss a bit of it all, but the changes and growth certainly don't make us miss it all.
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