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Faire Info

Started by Monsignor de Beaumanoir, August 27, 2008, 02:02:14 PM

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Monsignor de Beaumanoir

Why isn't there any? How can I go, if I was able, to a place I know nothing of.... ;)

Lady Catherine

2008-2009 cast TNRF
Fishers, GARF, TNRF, ALARF, Fishers, KYHRF and BRISTOL
Coming 2011- Bella the Troll at TNRF!

Monsignor de Beaumanoir

Thank you M'lady, but they sure don't publish this years date too obviously..do they? :-\

renfairephotog

No they don't. But it's always the fourth weekend in October.

Here's my pics from the past few years.
http://www.renaissancefairepictorial.com/bama/bama.html
Twenty seasons of covering renaissance  festivals. Photos/calendar/blog.
Fairy photographer

Monsignor de Beaumanoir

Splendid shots, thanks.

BLAKDUKE

Quote from: renfairephotog on August 28, 2008, 12:09:10 AM
No they don't. But it's always the fourth weekend in October.

Here's my pics from the past few years.
http://www.renaissancefairepictorial.com/bama/bama.html

The feast is always the weekend before the faire.
I hope we can make it this year
Ancient swordsman/royalty
Have Crown/Sword Will Travel

Just Jesse

ive only been once, but i looooved it!

BLAKDUKE

Is there a need to make reservations for the feast?????
Ancient swordsman/royalty
Have Crown/Sword Will Travel

renfairephotog

I think you need reservations for the feast. I can't find the info on the site but I'll email people that attended the feast  last year.
Twenty seasons of covering renaissance  festivals. Photos/calendar/blog.
Fairy photographer

renfairephotog

From the faire event page http://www.alarenfaire.org/Schedule%20of%20events.htm

Renaissance Feast (authentic food and entertainment of the period), $25 per person; seating limited to 200
Saturday, October 18, 7:00 p.m.
Florence-Lauderdale Coliseum (ticket sales begin Wednesday, October 1, at Kennedy-Douglass Art Center in downtown Florence)
Twenty seasons of covering renaissance  festivals. Photos/calendar/blog.
Fairy photographer

Lord William

Greetings...

So sorry I haven't been able to answer any info questions about the event, due to my pc motherboard and harddrive deciding to die at the same time.  :P

We also have a myspace page to go along with our main site:

http://www.myspace.com/alrenfaire

The myspace also has a variety of info, pics from feast and faire, and a host of blogs on medieval/renaissance history written by our resident medieval scholar (who also runs our local library local history/genealogy dept).

The feast this year is Saturday October 18'th at 7:00 p.m. at the Florence/Lauderdale Colesium {702 East Veterens Dr, Florence, AL 35631}. It's always the 3'rd Saturday of the month. Those new to the event, it's a 4 course meal with 10-12 dishes total, spanning approx 3 hours, complete with entertainment. The food is cooked by chef Jim Matterer, who has been featured several times on the Food Network via "The Secret Life Of..." show. He owns and operates http://www.godecookery.com, one of the best places on the net for medieval food and cooking!! Costumes not required but admired. This is also where we choose the King/Queen for next years faire.

The actual Ren Faire is the 4'th weekend (always) and this year it falls on Saturday the 25'th, and Sunday the 26'th. It is held in Wilson Park, Florence, AL 35630. We have a map on our Myspace noting the location of the park. The times are Saturday - 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, and Sunday - 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Admisson is totally 100% free.

If you desire a costume to join in the fun, we have a free costume workshop on Saturday the 11'th of October, at the Kennedy Douglas Art Center in Florence. (map and further info on our myspace blog). It's totally free, and all you need is 3 yards of fabric 60' wide. We'll cut and sew it on the spot!

That's some basic info... and if I can help answer any further questions, I'll do my best. Now that I'm back online (at least for now) I'll try to be avaiable more in that dept.

BLAKDUKE

I have sent my check in for tickets to the feast to B.Warren and asked that he hold the tickets for me at the door.  The turnaround time for snail-mail here is such that they would deliver the tickets right about the time that I am walking up the driveway to the door of the feast sire.  What entertainment is slated for this year. 
Ancient swordsman/royalty
Have Crown/Sword Will Travel

Lord William

Quoteorigonally posted by BLADUKE:
What entertainment is slated for this year.

We do have a pirate King this year, so the feast should be quite interesting. We have belly dancing, the Tangle Bransle (for all who desire to dance it), live fencing swordplay, a fashion show composed of feast goers picked that evening to give them a chance to show off their garb, interactive improv theatre - last year we did the complete and totally abridged version of Robin Hood... this year we're doing King Arthur; we draw feasters out of the audience to help tell the story, and involve the rest of the audience in adding sound effects, e.t.c. Perhaps even a surprise or two as well...

Should be a fun evening.

Monsignor de Beaumanoir

What is this year's faire theme? Is it Pirates due to the King's affiliation, or will it also be Authurian in nature?

BLAKDUKE

My friend

We do not usually have any kind of theme per se.  A theme more or less requires skits to be set up and pre-written lines for everyone.  Since this is a one weekend faire there is not time for all of the cast members to get together to do any rehearsing.  if you fall back to the original concept and reason for the faires to exist in the first place, I.E. trade and exchange of merchandise, ideas, customs etc.  that is pretty much what we do.  That is why you see such a divergance of costumed characters at the faire.  My king is pretty much patterned after an Elisabethen monarch.  I have sprinkled him with a bit of Plantagenet genes at a period between Bloody Mary and QE I.  We do have pirates and a couple of knights templar, along with a smattering of characters that would be so out of date in an Elisabethan setting, including yours.  If I have my times right weren't the Templars pretty much wiped out somewhere in the 14th century??   So we do not do themes.  We concentrate on giving our patrons a broad range of characters and hope they enjoy themselves.
Ancient swordsman/royalty
Have Crown/Sword Will Travel

Monsignor de Beaumanoir

Quote from: BLAKDUKE on October 14, 2008, 02:53:01 PM
  If I have my times right weren't the Templars pretty much wiped out somewhere in the 14th century?? 

Sorry great King, I thought I had read somewhere that the Faire in Florence did themed events, like one year they had a Viking Queen.

As for the "dissolution" of the Order....well....that's a secret. Rumor has though we may have survived in Scotland, Spain, the South Eastern United States (Dan Brown didn't see that one coming!) ;)

Lord William

QuoteOrigonally posted by: Warrior_Monk
Sorry great King, I thought I had read somewhere that the Faire in Florence did themed events, like one year they had a Viking Queen.

The Faire was begun as a way to educate through entertainment, the life and times of the medieval/renaissance period of history. We do celebrate the Itallian renaissance, as our host city, FLorence, AL was origonally surveyed and designed to resemble Florence, Italy of the early 1800's. Generally, we don't have a specific theme... however in recent years those who have won the coin of the realm to become our Monarch have been such as a Scotsman, and yes even a Viking Queen.

We do have a time frame that runs roughly from 800 ad to 1650 ad with an emphais on 1300-1500 thereabouts. Basically, we like to be a catchall for the entirety of the medieval/renaissance period, as the two do overlap, and it isn't like one ends, and the very next day the other begins. As we do have Vikings from the earliest medieval period, and regimental soldiers from the early 1600's, we don't nail ourselves down to one specific year. One thing I like to tell folks - we know that we can't be 100% authentic to our time frame as we would like, but we do strive to hit as closely to the mark as possible.

The faire itself is run by an all volunteer staff, who do it for the love of the time period, and the want to share that love with others. The faire is a not-for-profit event, so the staff are not paid, and entertainers settle for much less than they would make at a larger comercial event; however, we feel that what we lack in size and money, we make up for in atmosphere & down home southern hospitality. To be on staff with the event, you only need to profess the above - a love for the time period, a want to share that love with others, and a willingness to do a little work. We are named "The Roundtable" and meet once a month on the third Thursday, from January to September, at the Florence City Schools Board of Education building in downtown Florence, AL. In September we meet twice a month, with a meeting every Thursday in October. We close down for November and December to sort of "recharge" the batteries, then it's back to business in January.

In addition to the faire and the feast in October, we also give lecture's, workshops, demo's, e.t.c. to schools, public libraries, anyplace or anyone who has an interest in wanting to learn more about the medieval renaissance times. Many of our staff have collected a variety of weapons, armor, clothing, and other "props" with which they use for our demo's, and several have amassed a vast knowledge of medieval trivial factoids and info to present as well.