The Faire, day three

On the last day, we decided not to have breakfast at Terrible's despite the nice buffet (did I mention the omlette bar? Oh yeah, take that, reorganizational bankruptcy!). Instead, we decided to get to the faire a little earlier and have breakfast at the great coffee and crepe place on the other side of the lake by the stage! Mine had ham, cheddar, mozzarella, spinach and tomatoes! It was a good thing we got there when we did, because the guilds were having a parade right along the lake!

Here are those barbarians I mentioned who looked as though they came out of WoW or a Raiders' game:

One of the gentlemen in this particular guild shouted, "God bless the women!" Then all of the other men shouted, "God bless the women!" Then I shouted, "Yay! God bless me!"

The Scottish guilds seemed to have the most authentic-looking garb.

Why yes, those are samurais.

This is the guild who hosted the fire eater and the uncomfortable belly dancers. The dancer in the picture is not the dancer from the story, by the way.

This is the cardinal who was whispering in the noblewoman's ear (the woman in the picture above, whom the lady is holding an umbrella over). I don't suppose he recognizes me from watching the night before. I'm assuming he's just smiling for my magic devil picture box and blessing the crowd.

We knew we'd reached the end of the parade when the gentleman in the back of this picture shouted, "The end is near!" And then the woman behind him shouted, "The end is here!"

 

Day two, continued

By now, I'm sure some of you are dying to ask me:


"Hey, Pretty, you're pictures are stunning! What camera are you using?"

Well, frankly, I'm flattered. And I'd be happy to tell you. I'm using a Kodak Easyshare from 2002! And apparently, the lens needs to be cleaned, because I took no decent pictures at night. This is the best one:

This is on the other side of the lake. A small motorboat done up like a pirate ship was shooting canons at a camp, and they were firing back. Occassionally, a camp on the side of the lake would fire randomly, just to be in on the fun.

At night, we wandered around. Mainly to keep our circulation going (did I mention it got cold?). We wandered past a lot of camps, and eventually came upon a guild having and outdoor feast and being entertained by a handsome fire-eater. A lot of people, including us, had stopped to watch. The guild themselves were actually very entertaining to watch. There was a noble woman of some sort sitting at the head of the long table. A Cardinal was sitting next to her, confiding in her every now and then when someone would exclaim something. She had many guests eating at the tables, and several servants standing behind her, watching over the feast. I would've taken a picture, but you saw my boat pic.
Suddenly, this peasant-like man who was keeping watch by the fence invited the bystanders to come in and enjoy the entertainment. We decided to stay on the outside of the fence, as we had a good spot.


The fire-eater left, and two belly dancers came out. One was a girl and the other was a guy. Both had bob hairstyles and long skirts. As the music started and the two began their dance, one thing became very obvious: the guy was way better at this than the girl. It started to get a little uncomfortable, however, when the guy began to have a wardrobe malfunction. The waist of his skirt began to sink, and he just kept twisting and turning. I was wondering if the dance would stop, because he was pretty skinny and didn't even bother to pull it up. As the dance went on, I wondered if maybe the cold was just getting to me and it was playing tricks with my mind. Then people stood up, grabbed their kids by the wrists and left the camp. More and more people left the camp, not just the ones with kids. The peasant kept asking the people not to leave, exclaiming, "It's amazing!" I think the guy dancer started to catch on, because he then hiked up his skirt. But it was too late.

The rest of the night was just cold. But there was one more day of the faire to go.

The Faire, day two

We did not camp at the faire. We actually stayed at Terrible Herbst, now the Hard Rock Hotel. It was pretty nice! I have nothing but respect for those who do the authentic thing, but there's a lot to be said for living in the future (like plumbing)!

The next day, I decided to ready myself for the elements as best I could. I went down to the gift shop and purchased allergy medicine and little packets of kleenex for everyone. I opted out of my contacts, because the wind and dust had swollen my eyes the night before. Brigg was kind enough to braid and wrap my hair. And since it was freaking cold, I bought a shawl at a lady's tent. I was ready!

Allergy-wise, it was a much better day. Weather-wise, it wasn't nearly as bad as the day before, with the exception of the cold. Rain had been forecasted, but it never actually hit. This surprised no one, although I was told it rained the year before (or the year before that). Either way, the clouds stuck around all day, keeping the sun away and bringing the temperature down to the 40s at night. Blankets, boots and cloaks were being purchased at an incredible fast rate.

Since we were right in front of the Field of Honor, we got mobbed every time a show let out. This was pretty cool, and considering our low prices, we did pretty well. Lots of interesting customers, and loads of cute kids!

A bag piper decided to play outside of our tent at one point:

If you are a die-hard renn faire-goer, you might be wondering about his ability to wear sun glasses. As I may have mentioned before, the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism - they're the heavy reenactors in fairs and recreations) does not have as heavy of a hand at this faire as they do at others, the Rennaisance Pleasure Faire in Irwindale, CA for example. There were a few guilds who had their own strict rules. A girl from one guild that Brigg met had McDonald's food in her tent, and they scrambled to hide it under blankets when their guild leader came by for inspection. I think the rule for those working the faire was pretty much this: Dress appropriate, and have common sense. Things such as sunglasses and windbreakers at night tended to be overlooked. The windbreaker thing was especially good for Jan, who dressed as a summertime gypsy.

Once a day, there was a parade of the giant trees and the faerie folk! They'd go all around the park, with the faeries shouting, "Make way for the trees!" And people beating drums and shaking... shakey things that made noise. As a worker of the faire, we had to be discreet with our cameras (or as I liked to call it, my "magic devil picture box") but I managed to take a few pictures:

This little guy was a shrub! Make way for the shrub!

The Faire, day one.

My friend, Brigg, and her cousin, Jan, at our booth.

 

Brigg took a photo of me working. She gave me another chance to pose, and Jan exclaimed, "Fosse!"  This is me doing my impersonation of a Fosse pose in a renn faire costume.

The work itself was really easy.  I don't think we had one lousy customer.  On the first day, schools piped over children, and they just loved the metallic garlands. For some reason, they didn't stay at the faire as long as they normally do. I've been told they've stayed till about 2:00pm, but they didn't stay much longer than noon.  Also, since there were at least five of us working the tent, we got lots of chances to go on breaks and explore the faire!  The green purse you see on me in the picture above is something I purchased there.  Also, the bodice Brigg is wearing is something she purchased there. The lady working that booth suggested I latter-lace (ladder-lace?) the sides of my bodice so as to get that more "authentic wench" look.

There were some great food items at the faire.  We all ate these teriyaki chicken breasts on a stick at this Chinese food stand.  There is a booth that sells meat pies.  And later on in the day, we found a coffee and crepes stand!  The had, like, ten different kinds of crepes.

The first day of the faire was nice, except for the ginormous winds that came up and occasionally blew our merchandise over.  The fine people who ran the park placed a trash can right outside of our tent, as we were right in front of the Field of Honor (where the jousting took place). The major consequence of this was that our tent quickly became filled with bees. Fortunately, one of our customers was a lovely (real) British lady who's dad used to keep bees.  She suggested to sprinkle clove oil around the tent to keep the bees away.  *She also mentioned to keep the clove oil out of reach of small children* There just happened to be a spice tent accross the way from us, so Brigg went and came back with a vile of clove oil and sprinkled it around the tent.  In about twenty minutes, the bees were gone!
As the sun began to set, the wind picked up even more. An advisory warning was spreading around the fairgrounds, calling for 50 mph winds from 3:00am to noon the next day, but they came early.  For the next two nights, the temperature dropped to somewhere in the 40s.  It blew everything around. Another thing it did was seriously stir up my allergies.  I was not doing too well on the first day.  The wind turned my hair into one big knot.  I vowed the next day to be ready.

My Big Renn Faire/Vegas Vacation!

Earlier this month, I took part in the Age of Chivalry Rennaisance Festival in Las Vegas, NV.  Originally, I had planned on taking a vacation to Vegas and visiting my friend and her family.  However, her family heard I was coming and decided I should work it with them.  At first my reaction was, "Great. I'm taking a vacation off work to go... work."  But then it occured to me that I had never worked a rennaisance faire before, so why the heck not.  So I made plans to work the faire and then spend some time in Vegas doing the Vegas thing.

The Age of Chivalry Rennaisance Festival is held in October, usually on Columbus Day weekend.  It is three days long and is held at MacArthur Park.  Whereas the previous faires I have been to feature one setting, such as Elizabethan England, there is no particular setting.  It is simply a faire, and many countries and kingdoms are represented here.  There are even some vendors, guilds and what-have-you that I shall list in the categorie of "other".  These would include ancient Romans, faeries, barbarians and some other barbarians that looked like a cross between characters out of World of Warcraft and Raiders fans.

One cool thing about this faire is the size.  This thing is huge!  There is just row after row of vendors.  There are also several stages, a field for jousting, a lake and many guild encampments.  Also, everyone there was really nice.   

I arrived Thursday afternoon to help set up and decorate the rest of our tent.  My friend's aunt makes head wreaths, wands, flags, unicorn horns and dragons teeth.  She started doing this because she wanted people to be able to go to faire and actually leave with something.  So, the garlands made out of metallic garland sold for a dollar each.  Everything else in the tent sold for six dollars or two for ten.  This, I've been told, was and has been much to the chargrin of other vendors, who sold almost an identical item (usually the metallic garland we sold for $1) and $6 or more.  One vendor, I believe, tried to sell theirs for over $20.  It would be interesting to see customers come in and get angry because they very much over-paid for their item, when they could've purchased the same thing at our booth for barely a fraction of the cost.

But I digress.  On to faire!

I just wanted to point out that I stopped at Baker on my way there.  You can't get to Vegas from southern California without passing this place (well, maybe you can, but not from where I was coming).  I stopped for a munch and took a picture of the world's tallest thermometer.  You can't read it, but it says "98" degrees.  We shall see about that.

So, as I mentioned, I arrived and help set up the tent.  The wind was really blowing in Vegas.  Really blowing!  Several vendors who didn't have proper tents had seen theirs blow right over or further down a few spaces.  Fortunately, ours was fine.  This is on a different day, but this is our tent.

Here are some of our wares.

More to come.

Demotivational LOL

I Can Haz Cheesburger now has a feature where you can take a picture and make it into a poster. Here's my first one!


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Homage LOL

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