A Faire to Remember

Revelers and carousers in motley, with the wind in their faces and ribbons in their hair, can dance a jig and rejoice: The annual Renaissance Pleasure Faire is back, starting this weekend and continuing weekends through June 25. After a long search for a place to relocate the elaborate 16th-Century setting, a home was found near Devore in San Bernardino County.

So, m’lords and ladies, freemen and women everywhere, ‘tis time again to pull out your leggings and leather vests, the long skirt and peasant blouse and your desire for a Renaissance good time.

For more than 15 years, the Faire was held in the soft, oak-shaded hills of Agoura at the old Paramount Ranch. When that site was tentatively approved for a single-family home development, the search began for a new location. In late March, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors gave permission to hold the event at Glen Helen Regional Park, site of the 1982 and 1983 U.S. Festival, which drew 175,000 a people a day. (The Faire is expected to attract about 12,000 people a day.)

The new site, several acres larger than the previous one, has two lakes (aptly named Willow Pond and Lake Elizabeth, which the Faire will surround on three sides), ample shade from a plethora of trees and cool grass instead of dust and straw to stroll over as you appreciatively eye the handmade wares for sale. And, like the previous Faire, to keep the mood Elizabethan, the parking will be out of sight behind Faire structures.

The setup will remain pretty much the same personable yet grungy affair, what with hawkers, buskers, men and maids of “questionable reputations” strolling and entertaining through the crowds, bright banners and flowered garlands overhead, and many, many places to part a soul from his coins.

Coins From Metal

Booths that show as much character as their owners will once more display handmade ceramics, glass, clothes, jewelry and perfumed oils.

New this year in the crafts area is a coin striker who will demonstrate the production of finished coins from raw metal. Also new is a woodworker who will make lathe-turned vases from hardwood. In its second year is a bronze foundry, where the smith casts goblets and sometimes face masks (your face can be done--from a plaster mold, of course).

You also can have your fortune told, your body massaged, your runes cast and your aura read, but it’s those “past” entertainments, and not so much the future, that are so engrossing in this little bit of the 16th Century.

New on the agenda also is a rounders tournament (a predecessor to baseball) organized by Wells Twombly, sports director for Community Outreach for the Living History Center, producers of the Faire.

Renaissance Rules

“We have 14 teams signed up (with 12 members each; though only eight play at a time),” Twombly says. “In rounders, there are eight outs because there are eight players, so a whole inning entails 16 outs. On top of everything else, there are no strikes and no balls.

“Outs occur by catching the ball in the air, catching the ball on one bounce with one hand or hitting the runner with the ball as he’s running,” Twombly says. “Everyone has to get a hit. Just touching the ball with a bat constitutes a hit. The only foul area we recognize is hitting a ball into the stands.”

The game was the predecessor to a game played in the United States in the early 1800s called “townball” (played on the town green). The tournament will be played every day at 4:30 p.m. until the Faire closes at 6 p.m. There will be feature games earlier in the day and pickup games with Faire-goers joining the teams. See the schedule board at the horse-tournament area for specific games.

There also will be demonstrations of battledore (predecessor to badminton, played with leather paddles), goff (the old version of golf, played with a 4 1/2-foot club) and football--sort of a combination of Rugby and soccer, from which both games actually were derived.

Time to Eat

In the delectable, savory, mouth-watering and messy food stuffs, one may wander and make a splash with a turkey drumstick dripping with sauce, or attempt to keep sherbets and ices from running down the chin. There are cookies and artichokes and baklava and piroshki, Turkish coffee, English ale and lemonade.

A new catering booth, aside from its a la carte service, has set up a feast you may join (for $12.50 and a reservation). You sit at a communal table, are served by costumed performers and partake of a grand meal consisting of a Cornish hen in nutted wine sauce, pork baby-back ribs, steamed vegetables with cheese sauce, fresh baked loaves of bread and your choice of a poached pear filled with carob cream or baked apple, all washed down with iced tea. Beer and wine are extra.

Reservations Required

Keep in mind that reservations are required in advance (taken the day you are there only if there’s room). The number for reservations: (714) 642-0262. Seating for 30, twice a day.

But more than all the food, crafts and extravaganzas, mummers, jugglers and belly dancers, it’s the ambiance, the whole fragrance, color and swash of the Faire that make this event so special. Take a moment to sit somewhere and watch the Faire-goers and players. Take a moment to really drift back and imagine yourself in the 16th Century.

It’s better than beer and much more soul-satisfying than an amusement park.

From downtown Los Angeles take Interstate 10 (San Bernardino Freeway) to Interstate 15 north. Follow the signs to Interstate 215 south and exit immediately at Devore Road. From the east, take Interstate 215 north to Devore Road. Follow signs to parking. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster or May Co., by telephone (800) 52-FAIRE and at the gate. Admission: adults, $14.50; children 3-11, $7.50; seniors and students at the gate, $11.50. Children under 3, free.