20,000 on 1st Weekend : Renaissance Faire Draws Large Crowd at New Site

The Renaissance Pleasure Faire, forced to move from its longtime site in Agoura because of a new development project, attracted more than 20,000 people during the festival’s opening weekend at its new San Bernardino County location, officials said Sunday.

“It’s been a very successful opening weekend, considering all the changes,” said Angela Davis, a fair spokeswoman.

Davis said the festival, a recreation of a 16th-Century English country fair, attracted about 10,000 people Saturday and a slightly larger crowd Sunday at its new location, a 30-acre site in Glen Helen Regional Park.

“It’s about what we expected,” Davis said of the crowds. “We’ve had a real positive response from San Bernardino residents.”

The festival, which runs every weekend through June 25, drew an average of about 12,000 people a day at its Agoura site, fair officials said.

Organizers were forced to find a new location this year after the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission approved a developer’s request to build a gated residential community on the Agoura site.

In January, fair officials announced that they had rented a 139-acre parcel between Moorpark and Thousand Oaks in eastern Ventura County. But residents near the proposed site objected, saying the festival would create intolerable traffic congestion.

Organizers said eventually they were invited to hold the festival in the 1,425-acre Glen Helen Regional Park by the San Bernardino County Convention and Visitors Bureau. The hilly park is south of the intersection of Interstates 15 and 215 northwest of San Bernardino.