How would you change your local faire if you won the lottery

[cowgrrl]

(Local Faire is Scarborough)

-Truly indoor pub/dining hall available for weddings & events.  Could also host a 'Kings Feast' 1-2 times per season.
-More flushies & more money towards keeping everything involved with those maintained. 
-Full covering for the Ivanhoe stage.  Its in the sun 100% of the Faire day. 
-Camping area (not something I'd ever utilize {I consider Motel 6 'camping  } but I know others would)

[Lady Toadflinger]

Buy suitable land and give it to Northern California Renaissance Faire so they don't have to hold the faire where they are now! (and maybe they could have some permanent buildings!) Real estate is sooo expensive in California....

[robert of armstrong]

No permanent local Faire either, so that one's easy, buy up land (at least 200 acres) in southwestern Ontario, build my dream home with Castle Magic http://www.castlemagic.com/color.html and build a Faire with the Castle at or near the entrance.  And since money would not be a problem any more, I would have to operate the faire not for profit, so as to make it so profitable for the merchants that they would come from far and wide, and have as many acts and and cast as could be supported by the gate.  And food would be cheap, but great quality and relatively H/A, and it would grow each year until I had to buy up the neighbouring 100 acres...........

[will paisley]

I would hire tons and tons of musical acts for the whole run of the faire, not just some weekends, because we love seeing them, and these past few years a lot - and I mean a lot - of our favorites aren't there anymore.  For $$$$ reasons I'm sure.  The average person hoots and howls at the Washing Well Wenches & the Mud Show, but we'd rather see more music.

...

Cover the pubs!  Have a place to sit down and congregate so you feel like you're in a real pub, not just go to the window, buy your drink, & stand around.  And the Pig & Whistle.  Put the bar in front, move the stage to where the bar is and the seats in the middle.  The acoustics on the stage are terrible, plus with people standing around talking - which of course is what you want to do in a pub - sometimes you can't hear the shows.

Don't know if you've ever made it to MDRF, but if you haven't, try to make the trip - you'll fall in love.  Musical acts out the wazoo (Pyrates Royale, The Rogues, The O'Danny Girls, The Interpreters and some variation of the Strumm minstrels are there for the entire run, plus guests like Wine and Alchemy, Gypsophilia, Barleyjuice, Icewagon Flu, Seven Nations and others, not counting the lane musicians like Thomas Tallis (concert pianist who performs on the pipe organ and harpsichord/virginal) and Gregory of Carrolton, classical guitarist.  Four sit-down pubs with cover, three with musical entertainment pretty much throughout the day, two with amplification.

[kcdcchef]

Don't know if you've ever made it to MDRF, but if you haven't, try to make the trip - you'll fall in love.  Musical acts out the wazoo (Pyrates Royale, The Rogues, The O'Danny Girls, The Interpreters and some variation of the Strumm minstrels are there for the entire run, plus guests like Wine and Alchemy, Gypsophilia, Barleyjuice, Icewagon Flu, Seven Nations and others, not counting the lane musicians like Thomas Tallis (concert pianist who performs on the pipe organ and harpsichord/virginal) and Gregory of Carrolton, classical guitarist.  Four sit-down pubs with cover, three with musical entertainment pretty much throughout the day, two with amplification.
[/quote]

i havent made it since i moved out of the DC area 6 years ago, but oh how i do miss it. it is a GREAT faire.

[Molden]

@ Carolina Rennaissance Festival...the mynd fairly reels with ideas!

- A couple of Real Pubs - one open air - one closed in and adult - I'd LOVE t' replicate the Prince of Wales pub at TRF - complete with kitchen serving fish n' chips an' prime rib trenchers!
- add a King's Feast
- benches - I'd add many more benches
- add more food and drink opportunities (time spent in lines is time not spent shopping or watching shows, and there are a LOT of good ones here!)
- continue the lanes so instead of a 3 sides of a box, it'd complete th' circuit
- bring in more vendors that cater t' th' clothing needs of the Men - kilts, tights, jerkins, shirts, you name it
- bring in some TRUE eye-candy acts for the males in attendance - th' ladies have Salvadore and Raphael from the Tortugas, let's have something for th' boys.
- start some trees growing around the areas at th' top o' the shire - it's a shame that in such a wooded area that it is so barren - there needs t' be some shade.
- carve out a shady grove where folks could lounge on grassy knolls and nap a bit.

[Dayna]

Bristol is my local faire, and yes, I am one of the people Lady Renee so kindly calls "angels" aw shucks ;-)

Expand the Friends of Faire garden to at least twice its current size, with a roll-up awning large enough to cover the entire place in event of rain (just have the studly men haul on the ropes).

Set aside an actual "backstage" area for the henches, as Lady Renee said, we work hard, and we need a place to "get away" from our beloved members  and have a sit (other than heading into the lanes).

Pay the henches, we work a 12 hour day in exchange for a participant pass.  We love doing it, but yeah, it does get spendy, a few "free meal" coupons or $10 a day would help.

Expand the site so there can be more stages and more musical acts, and please repaint the white and primary colour MidSummer stage.  Love the build, but it needs to be less "pre-school".

Roofed pubs, a real tavern where you can sit and listen to music inside, roofed or at least shaded stages, spiff up the Dreadnaught and turn it into a real working ship.

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

Dayna, I had no idea you didn't get paid!  You guys and gals are worth your weight in gold!

If I won the lottery, I certainly would pay all of you a decent wage.  Heck, I'd be willing to add another $5 each to our FoF passes now, without winning the lottery, for all of you to split the money.  It's not what you are worth - priceless - but it would at least be something.

[Tipsy Gypsy]

Home faire is TRF..hooo boy, I love the place, but where to start...!

Better pay for performers, definitely. A place backstage for performers/boothies to rest and get a hot meal. Clean up the campground of troublemakers. More cover from the elements at the stages and the Sea Devil. And bring back the marigolds.

[dbaldock]

One thing that money can't necessarily buy is a change of attitude, if the faire isn't being run the way you envision.  If you were to put your money into improvements, would they be kept up the way you expect, or would your changes even be accepted by the owners / managers?  It's a completely different thing than just giving a bunch of money to them to do what they want with their Faire.


Take Care,
David Baldock

[DonaCatalina]

One thing that money can't necessarily buy is a change of attitude, if the faire isn't being run the way you envision.  If you were to put your money into improvements, would they be kept up the way you expect, or would your changes even be accepted by the owners / managers?  It's a completely different thing than just giving a bunch of money to them to do what they want with their Faire.


Take Care,
David Baldock

You must be a Scorpio.
I'd like to expand Scarborough just enough behind the jousting arena so that water and sewer lines could be brought in to build flushies. It's a long uphill walk from the Cat-n-Fiddle to the nearest privy.

[dbaldock]

One thing that money can't necessarily buy is a change of attitude, if the faire isn't being run the way you envision.  If you were to put your money into improvements, would they be kept up the way you expect, or would your changes even be accepted by the owners / managers?  It's a completely different thing than just giving a bunch of money to them to do what they want with their Faire.


Take Care,
David Baldock

You must be a Scorpio.
I'd like to expand Scarborough just enough behind the jousting arena so that water and sewer lines could be brought in to build flushies. It's a long uphill walk from the Cat-n-Fiddle to the nearest privy.

Actually, I was born on Epiphany (6-Jan).

With management support, I think it would be nice to build some sort of Castle in the outer perimeter wall that houses an Inn, a Pub, and a Dining Hall that can be used in all weather.

Take Care,
David Baldock

[Blackbead]

Middlefaire . . .

Finish my pirate fort.  Then, dig a four acre lake and build a ship-shaped booth sitting at dock in a brand new section of the park.

Then, build two permanent "campsites" on opposite sides of the village for LARP armies and have a yearly event open to these folks where each individual event attendee gets drafted into one of the armies, have two daily battles (with maybe a third very early in the morning that is just for them), and create a storyline where the armies meet to do battle and the village bribes them with food to not destroy the village.

[Kiss-me-Kate]

My home faire is MNRF.
I would buy it outright from the owner, so it isn't a cash cow for the rest of his enterprises.   
I would then relocate it to a permanent site that isn't swampy on one side, and built in the middle of a quarry on the rest of it.
I would provide shade at all stages/games.
The pubs would be larger with more room to sit and enjoy the music.  It is PACKED like sardines at just about all the pubs.
The shops wouldn't be gouged for rent six ways
FLUSHIES!
Our street cast is top notch, but I think they are also not allowed as much creative freedom as they would like.
There would be a separate area for families to attend with little children-gotta get them when they are young.  The area would be maintained well, not as an after thought like right now.

In the same vein, there will be an area for PG13 and up, where little bitty children won't be "welcome".
And adults can enjoy the more bawdy shows without righteous indignation from clueless parents.

Campgrounds for the participants wouldn't be packed like a sardine can in the swamp.   
If space allowed, campgrounds for patrons too.

I am sure there are other things too, but can't think of it now.  Too sleepy.

[Zardoz]

TRF is my local faire, and I figure one of the biggest faires in the country will get along OK without my input. So about the only change my lotto winnings would bring there would be my presence every weekend, camping in my new camper!

My other local faire (110 miles away) is the new Sherwood Forest Faire. I can't complain about the way it's being operated, but since it's still building, I would offer them a contribution to help with that.
'Zardoz Memorial Flushies' anyone?