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Midwest => Minnesota Renaissance Festival => Topic started by: William_MacKean on October 14, 2011, 05:00:12 PM

Title: Quarry
Post by: William_MacKean on October 14, 2011, 05:00:12 PM
Rumor has it the quarry has passed the A/B-Gate Road and is into the parking lot.

Anyone see this to confirm?
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: Kiss-me-Kate on October 14, 2011, 07:06:38 PM
There is a photo on the list serv.   We will have a moat soon enough.  :P
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: groomporter on October 14, 2011, 08:54:18 PM
Cross your fingers for parking, there was a rumor that they were finding less and less useable rock as they moved south.
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: Kiss-me-Kate on October 14, 2011, 09:04:12 PM
Like I said on FB, we will be parking at Eden Prairie Mall, and shuttled over soon enough.  Also, maybe the rumor about Apple Jacks is true, if he had someone else buy it, or a buried "corporation" buy it...
Who knows.  The next few years will be interesting.    I personally think he will break the lease.
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: William_MacKean on October 15, 2011, 10:00:19 AM
Anyone who thinks this will go th full 15 is fooling themselves.  It was never intended to.  There are a bunch of 'outs' in the lease.  There are always 'outs.'

Let's just make sure to have an awesome fun time with what we have left!  Maybe they'll move the faire to the other land?
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: groomporter on October 15, 2011, 11:52:45 AM
At the Master's Dinner JP said something about having made a deal after the lease was signed trading some parking lot for some other land they could use. I'm wondering if that's the area participants were parking in this year.
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: Kiss-me-Kate on October 15, 2011, 11:47:37 PM
I hated the parking this year.   I missed the nice flat, non axel breaking pit.   I hated the little road.  We were lucky it didn't rain this year.   That back area would have floated the cars up to the Main grounds. 
I don't mind the shuttles etc.  I can deal with that.  But I worried a lot that my car would be ruined by the end of the run.

The property I mentioned is merely rumor at this point.  It is a sweet spot, west of Minneapolis.   But it is a few years off from hosting a large festival like ours.  Not to mention the red tape involved with the City of Delano.  While they would welcome the extra business for a couple of months, they may not be easily swayed into improving roads etc.   We (Delano) have already told Target and Home Depot to take a hike.

Also, Patrons are not going to want to continue parking on this BS.  They aren't going to be cool with shuttles.  I heard they were parking cars on the shoulder of 169.  If that were me, I would be p*ssed!  Especially if I had a new vehicle.  I would have gone home.
Ness posted a very eloquent last weekend note about her last weekend.  Part of it included an a$$hat patron becoming unglued because of the parking and having to take a shuttle.  While this idiot was very vocal about it, most Minnesotans are stoic Lutherans, who are too polite to speak their minds, which includes emailing owners of Festivals.  (who wouldn't listen anyways, unless it involved a pedophile joke during a Vil Ten match.)  I digress.
I will keep my ear to the ground and see if I hear anything further on the Apple Jack situation.
In the mean time, we should probably draw up some plans for a drawbridge for the moat.   :P
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: DeadBishop on October 23, 2011, 07:11:44 PM
Here's a photo looking over B gate that Bill Moss took yesterday.  This is way past where the road into B gate was and quite a ways past where motorcycles and RV's would park.

http://www.pbase.com/mngatorguy/image/139068927
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: Kiss-me-Kate on October 23, 2011, 08:43:57 PM
Un*f'ing*real.  Where exactly do they expect patrons to park?
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: groomporter on June 17, 2012, 11:49:17 AM
Rumor du jour is the more valuable rock petered out as they went into the main parking lot, and that they may wrap around more towards the front gate, but they can't go too far in that direction because it would be getting too close to the Louisville Swamp wetland/wildlife refuge.
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: MissBubu on June 18, 2012, 03:53:23 PM
I was out at site on Saturday. They had an event going on (I think maybe a wedding), all of the dirt piles had been moved from the front gate area. The shack for "B" gate was sitting in the parking lot, and the road goes right behind the dungeon. There's no room for any of the shops to park from the main fenceline to First Aid. Everything from First Aid to "C" gate is still the same as last year.
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: Lady Renee Buchanan on June 18, 2012, 06:33:43 PM
I have fond memories of your quarry!  When 3 friends and I visited in 2010, we saw a sign for the faire & drove in.  It was Highland weekend, we were wearing Scottish garb, kilts for the guys, Buchanan for me, and another friend's clan tartan garb, and we pulled up to the first person standing in the road.  He looked at us and said,"Highland Weekend?" so we said yes.  He waved us through, and then we came upon the second person, and the same thing happened,

The third person pointed us to go to the left, and park in a big quarry.  I kept saying, "I don't remember this parking lot the last 3 times Steve & I visited.  So we took pictures of ourselves nearby cranes and huge piles of rocks, cause it was really wild1  Then we walked for what seemed like miles and ended up at a gate where we were asked for our performers pass.  Huh?

It seems all 3 of the people working saw our garb and thought we were performers and waved us through.  And we parked in the employee lot.  So 2 friends walked all the way back and moved the car, and security walked my other friend and me through the quiet, closed faire out to the front gate where we could meet our friends.

We still laugh about that!    ;D
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: Random Girl on June 18, 2012, 08:12:17 PM
Yes I remember that.  Fracking parking crew.  *headdesk*
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: Gauwyn of Bracknell on June 19, 2012, 11:39:10 AM
Will we still exit the faire on the north side, or will it be directed back through the main gate?
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: groomporter on June 20, 2012, 08:53:38 AM
It hasn't changed the main roads in and out, so the exit will still be to the north.
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: Cofeeguru on June 20, 2012, 01:41:15 PM
Anyone hear something about a new kind of mineral being discovered there?  I thought I had heard something about that. . . .
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: Jon Hanslow on June 20, 2012, 03:46:56 PM
Quote from: Cofeeguru on June 20, 2012, 01:41:15 PM
Anyone hear something about a new kind of mineral being discovered there?  I thought I had heard something about that. . . .

Yes, its called "Wedontgiveadamnaboutnolease-ium"

In all seriousness...no.
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: groomporter on June 21, 2012, 07:19:21 AM
There is another rumor du jour that they've found natural gas while doing test drilling, but that seems pretty unlikely they would be drilling that deep. That may have been distorted from the truth that there has been talk of mining gas fracking sand in the Scott County area http://www.startribune.com/local/south/140456063.html
Title: Re: Quarry
Post by: William_MacKean on June 21, 2012, 10:24:47 PM
Yup.  It is fracking sand under the baseball diamond sand.  A whole bunch of it, too.

I sincerely doubt the full term of the lease will be kept.  It makes less and less business sense for the Malkersons.  The big question is if MAF will move the site to an alternate location.