Renaissance fair hits the road

After death and divorce, moving is considered one of life’s larger hassles. For the 43rd annual Renaissance Pleasure Faire and Artisans Market, which made its home in San Bernardino’s Glen Helen Park for the last 16 years, the move to its new location, Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area, was no walk in the park.

“I like to say we’re the largest traveling road show in the U.S.,” says Faire chief executive Pete Leavell of the 6,500 worker hours it took to fill 98 semis with props, costumes, merchandise, shops and encampments, then trundle it 35 miles closer to Los Angeles.

“The box office alone was one load,” he adds, “but we’re used to dismantling. This site suits our needs.”

Like being able to accommodate 200,000 visitors over the seven-weekend event that begins Saturday and features 1,000 costumed performers. Among them are Poxy Boggards (“drinkers with a singing problem”), flocks of Pilliwiggins (flower faeries), fishwives, jugglers and the crowd-pleasing Knights of Avalon, who present three jousting shows daily.

New this year, Leavell says, are the Washing Well Wenches, a duo of damsels who elevate doing laundry to an art form, and an exotic animal act of panthers and chimps. This return to 16th century Elizabethan England also showcases craftsmen such as weavers and glassblowers, as well as a lot of grub: Seventeen food purveyors supplied 15 tons of turkey legs and 1,000 barrels of beer to faire-goers last year.

As for Leavell, when asked if he’ll be wearing a suit of armor or velvet breeches at the Faire, he said: “No, I go in a polo shirt, jeans and a baseball cap.”

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-- Victoria Looseleaf

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Renaissance Pleasure Faire, Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area (off the 210 Irwindale exit, east of where the 210 and 605 freeways cross), Saturday to May 22; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. $12 to $22; children under 5 free with parent. (626) 969-4750, Ext. 238 or www.renfair.com/socal.