By all Book of Face accounts the opening weekend of PARF was a roaring success. Not much activity in the lanes but the cast of 10 held their own in scheduled appearances. The various acts filling the rest of the performances kept the patrons entertained. The size of the crowd was limited to online pre-paid tickets, so crowd control was not a problem. They were blessed with 3 very comfortable days weather-wise. The merchants and food vendors did well, not overwhelmed as is the case sometimes during a normal season.
And, I might add, strict safety protocols were in place. Masks were required, sanitizer readily available, and seating at all venues was segregated.
Sounds like the path that TRF will be taking for their upcoming season. Was PA the first to open with these new procedures?
I suspect PARF was the 1st to open with restrictions in place. However, instead of a 3 month run, they started a month later, giving them a 2 month season.
That's still good if they were able to stay open the whole time. There have been concerns voiced about whether TRF will stay open the entire 2 months. But if PARF did it, I suspect that there is a good chance TRF will pull it off. Until this post, I wasn't aware that any other faire had attempted to operate with restrictions in place. Every other faire either had to cancel their season in progress, or cancel before even opening the gates. It's a good precedence. And if this distorted world continues in to next year, and why shouldn't it, at least we may see some of the faires that were forced to shut down early get a chance to reopen, albeit under new restrictions.
It will certainly be interesting to see if the cost of opening will be worth it. Lower attendance will certainly mean lower revenues for both the faires and the vendors. I don't know if the faires are adjusting fees for vendors or making any other allowances. For those who rely on faires for their livelihood, this year has been disastrous.
PARF is only one of the businesses run by the owner in the Lancaster area. There is the Divine Swine Restaurant, Mt. Hope Winery, Wine Gallery & Craft Brewery, Swash Buckler Brewing, and Spirits Distillery. So opening the Faire is only additional income for the enterprise. I would assume they calculated their expenses versus anticipated income and juggled things to make it work. From what I've read on FaceBook the cast of only 10 actors has done a phenomenal job.
I might be talking out my @$$ a little bit, but for some reason my brain tells me that I read somewhere that TRF did make adjustments for the vendors this year. But, I don't recall exactly what those adjustments are.