Extra Weekend Added to the MIRF run

[Carl]

They had about 4 or 5000 through the gates as I was told.Saturday was cold ,the furry hat vendor did great,sunday was just one of the best days of faire sunny and 60, at times you looked around and all you saw was people in garb making it look like some rennaissance trading town with people from all walks of life and countries.I hope next year the weather is the same.Great day to mingle with friends and to walk around shop and not have to elbow your way through crowds.

[groomporter]

at times you looked around and all you saw was people in garb making it look like some rennaissance trading town with people from all walks of life and countries.

So lots of "playtrons" in costume compared to un-costumed patrons??
Were there booths that were closed due to other commitments?

[Carl]

Early on Sunday it was hard to find a mundane or it seemed like that to me. Most of the vendors were open.Though there were a few differant acts but that was okay since we go every weekend it made for a change.

[Captain Cornelius Howard Duckman]

What acts?

And were there some booths that only had people in it, no product?

[Cyron]

not sure.. some guy that played with firea dn walked in it.. and then some dancer people with drummish things at manolete/zuccini bros stage.. as for boths.. from what i saw they alll had at least something, even if not full selection.. or were gone.. only a few were gone though.

[nliedel]

It was announced and official now, according to management, we are going to eight weekends from now on. The acts  were different. I saw two closed vendors.They brought in acts from Florida and it was an interesting and fun weekend. I even managed to talk some insane people into the grape stomp.

Saturday was cold. I played the end song for the first time and my fingers did not want to work, but Sunday was much warmer. The queen was first through the gates ever and it was a great bit of laughter. The best part was all of the women in cast planning to rush Norfolk for the Pavand (sp).

There was a very handsome young man who danced with me and managed to dance with the queen. Okay, he's my son, but he did a great job and I'm so proud of him. It was a fun weekend.

I'm glad I was there. There were some mundanes, but it was only advertised for a couple of weeks. Next year I'm sure the Fall Harvest Festival will be a nice change from 94 degree heat and 100% humidity.

Nancy, who always looks on the bright side.

[Lord Virgil]

The Pub sing was awesome on Sunday.  Three Pirate Lords dancing with the Queen (The Dutchman, Admiral Morgan and Graybeard), me and Graybeard dancing (did anyone get a picture of that? if so please post!) and an emotional goodbye speech from her Majesty (Caroline, we'll miss you so much over the winter)!!  To all our Rennie friends, especially who won't be invading Ohio or attending the Mid-Michigan Faire or the Masque, safe travels and a safe and prosperous new year to you and yours and we'll see you in 10 long months!!  To those that we will see again soon, we will be blessed to say these words in person.  We love you all and thanks for another GREAT year at Faire.

Three cheers for her Majesty Queen Elizabeth Glorianna!!!

Hip Hip Huzzah!, Hip Hip Huzzah!!, Hip Hip Huzzah!!!  

[groomporter]

It was announced and official now, according to management, we are going to eight weekends from now on.

Is this still the case? Or is it just that the show is shifted back a weekend so it over-laps October? The MAF website says "August 22nd through October 4th, 2009" http://www.renaissancefest.com/
(Or did I count the weekends wrong?)

[Lord Virgil]

MiRF has traditionally run 8-weekends from mid of August to the last weekend of September but since this year they were filming a movie and one weekend was rained out, they extended it to the first weekend of October to accomodate filming.  After doing so, they realized that the first weekend in October is open on the schedules of most acts/vendors, so they decided to make the extra weekend an annual affair and the 2009 schedule is now 9 weekends, and includes the first weekend in October.

[groomporter]

Okay, maybe they just haven't adjusted the dates on the entry main page of the MAF website http://renaissancefest.com/ to include an extra weekend. The "August 22nd through October 4th, 2009" listing there still looks like 7 weekends when I count them on my calendar.

Running into October may be a bigger problem for us here at MNRF. Two of our popular stage acts also do the Carolina show which starts the first weekend of October, and close to 24 crafters who leave for either there, or TRF. Sounds like they shifted MNRF back so we would have 4 weekends after Labor Day in stead of just three since it's always busier after the holiday weekend. MNRF has traditionally always ended the last weekend of September.

[Katie Bookwench]

And MIRF and MNRF have always run concurrently -- a money saving measure, if I remember from my office grunt days.

I was kind of mystified that I hadn't yet seen or heard any rumblings of MNRF running an extra week yet. maybe it's still in the works? Who knows with MAF.

Though I think it would be wise to take that extra week onto the FRONT of the run, so at 7PM, the poor patrons aren't trying to find the exit in the dark on that last weekend.

But again...who knows with MAF. 

[groomporter]

I heard directly from our craft coordinator at MNRF that there was no plan to add an extra weekend to MNRF.

[max and kate]

MiRF has traditionally run 8-weekends from mid of August to the last weekend of September but since this year they were filming a movie and one weekend was rained out, they extended it to the first weekend of October to accomodate filming.  After doing so, they realized that the first weekend in October is open on the schedules of most acts/vendors, so they decided to make the extra weekend an annual affair and the 2009 schedule is now 9 weekends, and includes the first weekend in October.

MiRf runs 7 weekends now and from what I've been hearing another weekend will be added making it 8 weekends, this year was a truly a weird run seeing as we have been attending MiRf for over 20 years and have seen many evolving scenarios.

[battlemonk]

The official word from our entertainment director is that from here on out, we'll run 8 weekends, the extra added on to the end (so it'll be like this season, from now on.)

Now, things do change, so this may be decided otherwise in the interim before next year, but that seems to be the plan.

As for this year, the official explanation was that due to the massive rain-out, we were going to attempt to recoup some of our costs. I don't know if the movie was a consideration in extending the run, though it's certainly possible that they wanted another day of crowds to film.

[Cyron]

cool.. and welcoem toe the forums aaron