The Renaissance Fair Beckons ye all faithful, attendance is mandatory if ye wishes to keep thyine head.

Actually I never witnessed any beheadings when I attended the Fair when it was located at the then Blockbuster Pavilion up in Devore, and according to history, neither did fair goers 1,000 years ago....But we were witness to some rather unique Festivities that have managed to transform present day Fairs into something akin to a Sodom and Gomorra Fest, just like the olden days of lore and King Arthur and William Campbell and my ancient ancestors, the D'Aults....We were renamed by the Romans, in 1079, who held the old Kingdoms of the UK, into the Halls, Campbell's, Lees and Smiths, so that they would know who was shooting at them.

What did the ancient Romans think of the Renaissance Fair....One must remember that they were then just converting into Christianity, so to them the fairs were nothing more than pagan witch craft...But who's to say they never attended, Not I, never.

The fairs more or less disappeared after the little Ice age ended in the late 1700's....But resurfaced in England in the early 1900's....It was not until the middle 20 century in the US did the fairs began appearing, but not by what you might consider as normal means.....In 1963, Ronald and Phyllis Patterson, who were Jr. High School teachers, began thinking about creating a Renaissance Pleasure Faire as an outgrowth of school projects the kids had been involved in.....The first Faire was held in North Hollywood as a fundraiser for a small unknown local radio station and drew nearly 8,000 people for the one weekend event....The Patterson's realized that they had created something unique and created a company called Theme Events Limited....With this company the Pattersons are generally credited with developing the Renaissance Faire concept as it exists today.

I first attended the Renaissance Pleasure Faire when it was located at the Paramount Ranch in Agoura, CA.....This ranch is where a lot of westerns were filmed, including Little House.....The yearly event drew the movie crowd in Los Angeles, so I was able to see quite a few people from the various film studios.....People like a very young Charlie Sheen, one of his sons Emilio Estevez and even Rosanna Arquette, except I did not really know who she was...I was still a novice at knowing who Movie stars were, until I became a Process Server, then I got to meet quite a few, or rather served quite a few.

In 1995, I heard that the fair had been sold and moved out to Devore....A lot closer but a lot warmer in the summer time, I went several times and actually got in free several times in 1997....I had a girl friend who worked at the fair, so i went in with her....Because it was so warm, a lot of people started attending in as little as they could get away with....Even the performers, especially the women, were wearing very low cut versions of clothing worm in the Middle Ages....The Fair was turning into a sex fair, and that is when, I believe, it ran into trouble....I wont say that having a bit of semi nudity was bad but obviously the fair began to lose attendance.....People will not take there kids to a place, even the Renaissance Fair if there is to much "perceived perversions" taking place.......At least that was the implication....The fair was held in Devore only one or two more years, then sold again and actually shut down, at least here in the Inland Empire.

Now comes word that the Fair has come alive once more....to bad I wont be able to attend, I would if I could make the trip, but alas that is not to be....But according to rumors that are aloof, The Poxy Boggards, Naughty Stitchers, Merry Misfits of Doom and the Belles of Bedlam have invaded the small mountain enclave of Fawnskin....The small community is located on the North Shore of Big Bear Lake and for the next two weeks the new version of the Mt. Renaissance Fair will be alive with jousting, bow and arrow contests, dancing and all sorts of drinking merriments....Maybe that's why its located near the CDF station.....Just in case.

Gary Hall, the ghostpainter