TRF Improvements for 2013

[Terre Albert]

The Texas Renaissance Festival
Announces Updates for the 39th Festival Season

Festival plans Expansions and Additions for 2013
Todd Mission, Texas (February 25, 2013) The Texas Renaissance Festival, the nation's largest and most acclaimed festival of its kind, announces the completion of multiple festival improvements in preparation for the upcoming festival season, which will run every weekend from October 12 - December 1, 2013.
The lords and ladies at the Texas Renaissance Festival have been hard at work during the off-season to ensure that when the Festival gates open on October 12 for the 39th season, this year will be the best one yet. From simple updates to entirely new venues, enthusiasts will enjoy all of the improvements set to be made, making the experience fresh and exciting for even the most avid festival fans.
Noteworthy changes include a new stage for the 2013 festival. The Falconer Heath will create an opportunity for unseen performances and original entertainment. There will be a brand new Fairy Princess Venue, where the Festival's Fairy Princess will and make wishes come true with her magic wand. Moreover, a facelift is also being planned for the arena dais, the place where the Royal Court observes the jousting events, to enhance the look and feel of one of the favored locations in the King's realm.

The Texas Renaissance Festival will also celebrate the beginning of a new season with several additions and improvements to one of the fans' favorite location on the grounds, the Fields of New Market campsite. 2013 will host an array of additions to the camp grounds, including shower facilities, possible RV pads and expanded premium camping, which allows true Renaissance buffs to camp closer to the front gates, assuring that they have the best access to the festival during daylight hours.
Other improvements include a new water loop around the festival and road improvements. Among evening out the roads, the Texas Renaissance Festival plans to expand traffic lanes exiting the festival to cut back on traffic and congestion during high-attendance weekends. The festival also plans to add to additional premium parking, which will be reserved for guests who wish to park their "carriage" within the first several rows of parking, closest to the entrance gates. These improvements are sure to enhance the festival experience and make the visit more comfortable and enjoyable.
All improvements and additions are set to be completed before the opening of this year's festival, October 12, 2013. For more information about the Texas Renaissance Festival, please visit www.texrenfest.com or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

About Texas Renaissance Festival:
The Texas Renaissance Festival is the Nation's largest and most acclaimed Renaissance theme park where the sights, sounds, tastes and beauty of the 16th Century come alive for eight magically-themed weekends. The Texas Renaissance Festival welcomes nearly half a million guests annually and features nearly 500 costumed performers on 17 stages; 400 shoppes including international food purveyors, unique artisans, merchants and craft vendors; human-powered rides; an abundance of strolling performers and the Royal Finale at dusk. 

The Festival received the 2010 and 2011 Merchant Circle "Circle of Excellence" award and was recognized by H Texas Magazine as the "Best Alternative Wedding Location" in the 2012 Best of H Texas issue.

The Festival is held Saturdays, Sundays and Thanksgiving Friday. The Texas Renaissance Festival is located 50 miles northwest of Houston on more than 50 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds on FM 1774, between Magnolia and Plantersville, Texas. Parking is free. For more information, visit www.texrenfest.com or follow us on Facebook/Twitter.

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Questions?

[KiltedPrivateer]

...and expanded premium camping...

So this can be interpreted in multiple ways.  Perhaps Terre, you wouldn't mind expanding on this topic which is sure to bring the temps up on a couple of patrons (o:

[Lady Kaalyn]

There are some nice pictures of the new premium camping on the FB page.  It looks really nice. 

[Terre Albert]

Premium means closer.  Same price $20 just closer to the gate.  List any specific questions and I can answer them. 

[KiltedPrivateer]

That answered my question - Thanks Terre (o:

[nolekhan]

...and expanded premium camping...

...The festival also plans to add to additional premium parking...

I know this issue may have been like beating a dead horse a few months ago, however we may need a synonym.

Premium camping is a slight expansion to allow closer camping to the gates, no additional cost?
However, premium parking covers rows close to the gate, for a fee?

[Laird Fraser of Lovatt]

Is this where i should start getting my hackles up or should i wait a few months for eveyone else to catch up?

[Breandan]

I think it should be explained why so many peoples' hackles get up whenever things like this are discussed, as it will help everyone from Terre to the average viewer understand the various sides that are taken and the reason friction exists. TRF is going to try to squeeze every last penny they can out of whatever sources they can find. It's a business, businesses exist to make a profit. The problem that has cropped up in the past with TRF- and is nearing epidemic levels with many major businesses out there these days- is that they will take actions that they believe will increase profits without looking at the long term ramifications. The fact that, over the very short term, these actions actually DO generate some additional income just reinforces this behaviour. Over the long term, however, many of these actions will drive customers away, especially if competitors exist. TRF has long existed without any direct competition, thus the various general managers over the past few decades- especially George- became complacent in the expectation that the people would show up no matter what they did, and any vocal anger was to be ignored as it was just a bunch of people with sour grapes who would buy tickets anyway (just to clarify, it wasn't Terre that said this, I overheard this snippet before he came on the scene).

The problem with this view is that there ARE competitors now and TRF actually HAS lost significant numbers of patrons over the years as a result of this seemingly-condescending attitude. Sure, they still bring in huge crowds, but those crowds would be significantly larger had the reputation of TRF not suffered. I hear many people say they would rather go to X festival than "that medieval flea market", as it is often referred to. On this forum alone are many folks who will tell you outright that they left TRF in disgust long ago and have no intention to return, and those same people spend thousands at other festivals that could be going into the coffers of TRF and it's vendors.

Terre, you are in a unique position. Unlike any other GM before you, you actually get on here and elsewhere and talk to us. I can speak from personal experience that you have a lot of damage control that winds up being dropped in your lap because of the behaviour and actions of other members of the TRF team- the incident of trolling on these forums by a member of your own staff being a good example- and I know you catch flack for their actions. To your credit, you have not crucified them publicly to take the heat off of your own head. I think we should all try to remember this and not drop the hammer on you for something someone else did, either here or on the TRF Facebook page. So, it is important that we deal with you based on the actions that you take as the general manager rather than the actions of others, which will help keep the focus on improving this festival. I mention this first because a lot of the heat you catch has been created by other people, and it is important that you- and the viewing public- realize that a lot of the antagonism that is directed at you in these discussions is actually generated by other sources. We all need to remember this and try and pare it down to the issues that you- as GM- have direct control or influence over.

To that end, when dealing with the public here and elsewhere you have to remember that you are making decisions and taking actions in an attempt to increase TRF's profitability that will anger some patrons. Sometimes it is the action itself- the cutting back of cast, removal of certain acts, allowing immersion-breaking things into faire for profit without considering the impact it has, etc.- and other times it is how the action is presented. This is where things get dicey. Some of the decisions made could be presented to the public in such a way that will not irritate them, or the complete opposite can happen if it is mishandled. The introduction of premium parking last year is a prime example. The problem wasn't the idea of premium parking, it was the fact that it suddenly cropped up without warning mid-season. Thus, an action that was taken to help keep TRF from going into the red was handled very poorly from a PR perspective, and unnecessarily angered a lot of people. If- as happens at other faires with premium parking- it had been announced and on the website in a prominent spot (as opposed to hidden in some obscure corner), there would have been little to no outcry. It is important that this sort of thing be avoided to keep unnecessary blow-ups from happening, and I am glad to see you coming out with these changes early on. You're not going to make everyone happy, but handling it in this way helps keep things from going nuclear.

Now, for the patrons- we all love our ren faires, but it is important to remember that they will evolve, and that they are- first and foremost- businesses. They exist to make profit by entertaining folks. Our passion for our faires can be invaluable in helping them shape the future of where those faires go. This is the whole reason why I started the improvements thread, so people could talk to Terre directly and say "Hey, this would be cool" versus the previous gripe-fest rants we all engaged in. Voicing a concern or complaint can also be mishandled, and turn into a blow-up as well. Finding the balance between what we all want and what the drive for profit (and the oft-erratic dictates of George) demand is not easy. There will be headbutting moments, and there will be actions taken by TRF that will be fiscally foolish and/or serious PR flubs. Likewise, there will be tirades that blow up into flamewar rantings by angry patrons/playtrons, some legit, some completely bunk. The end sum is what is important- does Terre listen to the valid complaints and suggestions that are viable and improve the faire, and do we stop ranting and try to help him make that happen? If we can both do this, TRF will recover from the reputation as a themed Taiwanese-junk-peddling mall with no soul it has in many circles and come back to what hooked us all in the first place.

[Laird Fraser of Lovatt]

Errrr... yeah, what he said.   

I have to give Terre props for actually listening to all of our suggestions and gripes.  We, as a whole, can be a nagging tiresome lot.... and some of us enjoy it! 

[Merlin the Elder]

Breandan, I love hearing the voice of reason. Thanks for that.

[Zardoz]

Agree with most of Breandan's points, it's important to remember it's a business. I'm not sure they are really loosing "significant numbers of patrons" though. Yes, any business is going to loose customers, they get mad, bored, priced out, aged out, change hobbies, move away, etc.. there are limits to what any business can do to fix all those issues.

But if you look at attendance numbers, I submit these losses are offset by growth- in the last few years TRF has added about 50,000 patrons per season, and actually 100,000 from 2011 to 2012.

[Breandan]

Not saying the number of patrons they have lost is going to kill their business, as I said, they still continue to grow, it would just be an even larger growth had some of those folks not been alienated. It's not just us playtrons that I have heard from who walked away, a lot of the "beer-n-boobies" and "Medieval Disneyland" patron crowd have been put off to the point of no return as well. The majority of non-playtrons who have expressed negative opinions of TRF when I mention it were largely put off by the sudden jacking-up of ticket prices a few years back, when they jumped several dollars per ticket with very little notice. This was, again, before Terre's time, and not something he takes the blame for. Considering that a lot of that additional revenue from raised ticket prices was not put back into faire, but instead into "other avenues of investment" as it was explained to me, it wound up hurting faire twice over.

When it comes to playtrons, I personally know over a dozen people who walked away from TRF over the past ten years to other faires, angered by everything from mismanagement to cast cutbacks to poor vendor jurying to- most recently- the "strip-club restaurant" (the Brazilian place). These people represent a sum total of several thousand dollars that TRF has lost in annual revenue- in ADDITION to the growth they still have- because of issues that could easily have been avoided. I know that some folks will consider that to be a pathetic amount of money for a multi-million dollar business, but consider this- as tight as we are being told TRF's budget has been of late, would it not make more sense to try and win those customers back rather than dismiss them as expendable patrons because they don't bring in massive money individually? Businesses can still bleed out from small sales losses as well. The income they could have gained from the folks here and elsewhere who no longer go to TRF could have hired new acts, paid considerably towards site improvements, built a new gazebo stage, etc. Every little bit counts, and this is why I try to get people to work with Terre first rather than walk away in disgust. Hell, he's kept me from doing so by responding to our concerns, so I think we can make this work.

[amandowar]

The improvements sound wonderful, so thank you!

I just have one point of concern... Has security been taken into account during the design of the patron showers? Lots of drinking and unknown chemicals + known location containing naked women might not make for the safest combination. Just a thought.

[LadyJessica]

The improvements sound wonderful, so thank you!

I just have one point of concern... Has security been taken into account during the design of the patron showers? Lots of drinking and unknown chemicals + known location containing naked women might not make for the safest combination. Just a thought.

Most of the women out there know this and therefore we travel in packs.   

[amandowar]

Most of the women out there know this and therefore we travel in packs.   

Ha! Makes sense. I guess I will have to find some females, or station one of the men in my group outside the restroom, if I feel the need to shower. Hopefully he won't be mistaken for a lech.  I trust the faire participants well enough, but the patrons scare me sometimes. A few years ago we had a guy doped up on something wander into our car, take a seat, and light up. o__O Apparently he thought it was his friends car or something.