Well, it's been a couple weeks since the revived Olde English Faire at Wildlife Prairie SP, outside Peoria, and I'm wondering if there are any comments. I was a 1st time vendor there, and I was very surprised at the large number of merchants. I was expecting 50, but there must've been closer to 75.
I think it was the only 2 days without rain in 6 weeks. Crowds were good, and sales were brisk on Sat, but dropped on Sun.
Overall, a very good job done by Scott Carlson, a 1st time RF organizer, and the State Park staff were outstanding with their helpfulness. Three times I had vehicle problems, and each time they were there helping me out, like I was a relative (one they liked).
There were some grumblings from a few vendors who never have anything good to say. There were a few muddy spots. So...?
Did anybody out there attend?
Doug
We drove down on Sunday. We were very disappointed in the location. The day was blazing hot with high humidity, and there weren't enough seats and no shade. It was in the middle of a field. We saw 1 tent with 2 picnic tables under it. The rest of the seating was in the sun. We didn't like the bales of hay to sit on.
We ended up staying only 2 hours, after a 3 hour drive each way. We noticed there were a lot of vendors, but only saw about 1/3 of them, due to the heat and the sun. Didn't even get to see the musical act, but noticed on the program there was only 1 act. We expected more, because at Jubilee, there was lots of music.
Unless we find out something drastically changes for next year, we won't be back.
I'm sorry to sound so negative, but we've been going to faires since 1981, and have seen lots of different venues. This one was lacking in the basics for what we think provides a good faire environment.