Port Washington Pirate Festival events -- posted by JohnPaul on Friday, January 25, 2008 9:36PM
Cedarburg Winterfest: Theme: Shiver Me Timbers February 9&10
http://www.cedarburgfestivals.org/Winterfestival.html (888)-894-4001
Parade, Chili Contest, Bed Races, Beer Tasting, Casino Night, Pancake Breakfast & Much More.
Cedarburg is 10 miles south of Port Washington on I-43
Come in Costume! Visit the Port Pirate Festival Booth

Treasure Sale: February 21—24
Rummage Sale to Benefit Port Washington Pirate Festival ‘08
To donate items or more info call 262-284-6652 or www.portpiratefestival.com

VENDOR DEADLINE for Port Pirate Festival: March 1
Forms available for download at www.portpiratefestival.com

Ghost Ships Festival: March 7& 8
Visit our booth at this great event of films, workshops & seminars devoted to the Great Lakes, Shipwrecks, Diving & Maritime History
www.ghost-ships.org

Port Pirate Festival: June 6-8 Walk the Plank!
Volunteers always appreciated. Sign-up today!

More information attached in pdf format or visit www.portpiratefestival.com

40,000... -- posted by JohnPaul on Thursday, January 24, 2008 11:08PM
Okay, so I miscounted. I just finished a complete regeneration of the entire AtTheFaire photo gallery (which took three nights) and is claims I have just over 40,000 photos.

Over 40,000.

That's, like, alot.

I will spend the next few days uploading a brand new fresh photo gallery, hopefully fixing any broken links that were there.

Midlands Pirate Festival - Sep 27-28, 2008 -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 7:40PM
Sep 27-28, 2008:
Midlands Pirate Festival
Bellevue Berry & Pumpkin Ranch in Papillion, NE

No details yet. It's another Festivals International venture that will be done in conjunction with the Pumpkin Farm place they are moving NebFaire to.

Nebraska Renaissance Faire relocates for 2008. -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 6:43PM
Nebraska Renaissance Faire (2008)
-News Release-

The 6th annual 'NEBRASKA RENAISSANCE FAIRE & Medieval Pageant' will move to the ever-expanding Bellevue Berry & Pumpkin Ranch as part of a combined plan to start creating a fantastic new permanent-structure "themepark" for the region.

It will take place on Mother's Day Weekend, May 10-11th, from 11am to 6pm. It will feature an indoor sit-down banquet for "feasting with mother and family" and a great day of special activities - - so that your mother can be treated as "Queen for a Day".

Come see how this growing attraction near Omaha will be adding new features for both the Nebraska Renaissance Faire AND for the planned Midlands Pirate Festival (set for Sept. 27-28th), as a lead-in event for the great Halloween fun that will take place at this themepark ranch.
The location is 11001 S. 48th St near Papillion, ideally located between Highway 370 and Cornhusker Rd. (in other words it's at S. 48th & Cornhusker) See Bellevueberryfarm.com for more particulars or call tel. #402-331-5500 to plan your next party, company banquet or wedding.
We expect this to be the final "home" for the Nebraska Renaissance Faire, since we'll be investing in attractive structures and new on-site features for serious Renfaire fans.

If you'd like to perform, sell artisan crafts, provide food/beverages/treats, demonstrate an educational skill or be wedded at the Renaissance Faire (or the Pirate Festival) contact Gregory or Bonnie Schmidt at tel. #641-357-5177 or greg festint.com.

*Have you subscribed to the REGIONAL RENAISSANCE REPORTER, yet? It's the best way to keep up on all of the region's history events. www.renreporter.com

-30-

CONTACT: Greg Schmidt *Photos available
641-357-5177 [more...]

Dubuque Renaissance Faire - Dubuque, Iowa -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 6:19PM
Here is there website --

http://www.dbqart.com/DMAFaire.htm

It is "A fundraiser for the Dubuque Museum of Art."

Third Jack Sparrow "Jackalike" located. -- posted by JohnPaul on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 7:48PM
Sky Chair John (also known as Jolt John) tipped me off to another Jack Sparrow impersonator:

http://www.pirate4life.net/

He passed along a link to some photos of this Jack in action (from John's Flickr album) at KCRF, which you can see here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/john_wright/1323194554/in/set-72157601864925679/

Thanks, John!

Any more Jackalikes? [more...]

Ren Faire of the Midlands and Nebraska Ren Faire 2008 -- posted by JohnPaul on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 7:45PM
Renaissance Faire of the Midlands in Council Bluffs, Iowa has apparently chosen a date and location for 2008. The official website is not yet updated, however. Traditionally, the organization running this event would only update the site about a month before the event.

http://www.faire.org/

However, their entry at Mike Bonk's Directorie has been updated:

http://www.faires.com/EventRecord.php?Id=69

Note that the event is now TWO WEEKENDS (Memorial Day and the weekend before it). Also note that the event is no longer in Iowa. It is moving to Omaha, Nebraska, to ... Scary Acres. The location that the Nebraska Renaissance Faire had used the last three years (since it moved to Omaha in 2005).

Now, it's no secret that I've not been a major fan of the Nebraska Renaissance Faire and it's location at Scary Acres. The location was always too congested and too small for any kind of growth. In 2007, the layout was improved considerably, which gave me hope that more could be done to it in future years but now it looks like those challenges will be taken by the Renaissance Faire of the Midlands. I wish them good luck with this -- but I sure wouldn't want to be there (though I hear the Scary Acres Halloween event is superb!). It does have some of the best parking of any festival in the region, though.

Now, for those new to the scene, in 2002 the organizers of the Midlands event announced it was going away and they held their "Last Huzzah!" celebration. But, public interest was so strong, they decided to continue (though I did not personally attend again until 2005). In one of those years, they made the move away from the Iowa Western University college location to the Westfair fairgrounds where it was held for a few years plagued by some unfortunate bad weather and further declining attendance. After 2006, it was announced the event was closing again (though many of us didn't believe it; someone would save it).

And save it someone did. The White Knight this time was Renaissance St. Louis, operators of the Greater St. Louis Renaissance Faire in Wentzville (a truly amazing story of growth from some truly challenging early years). They threw together at the last minute an event for 2007. I did not attend (but would have liked to) and it was missing some of the major "traditional" RFotM acts due to short notice for scheduling it. I have been told attendance there was only 4000 (and I was told back around 2000 that the old Midlands had topped around 14,000). But the point was -- Midlands was saved, and would continue.

Now for 2008, Midlands will return, expanding to two weekends, but leaving Iowa and going to a site formerly used by another event. My question: Was NebFaire really such a great event at that location that moving an event there will be seen as a positive, and feed off the audience based NebFaire has? Or was NebFaire the lesser of the two events, with a lesser reputation, and this move will negatively impact Midlands 2008? We'll see.

So, what about Nebraska Renaissance Faire? I host their site and get carbon copied on tons of stuff from Festivals International, so this information comes from what I know has been sent out to merchants. Since Memorial Day (former NebFaire weekend) is no longer available due to Midlands moving the date up, the new date for Nebfaire will be May 10-11, 2008 at the Bellevue Berry & Pumpkin Ranch (not sure what that is yet). The letter states that "We are constructing a permanent "themepark" site at this new location for a multi-weekend run in future years." The website for the Berry Patch is:

http://bellevueberryfarm.com/

I'm not sure if Midlands got to Scary Acres first, or took the location over after NebFaire chose to relocate, but I'm sure there's some juicy politics behind that somewhere (and I could probably ask either Greg at NebFaire, or Harry at Midlands and get stories from them).

So there you have it. Midlands changes dates and adds a weekend, then moves to the former location of NebFaire (it's third location I guess), and NebFaire moves dates a third time and moves to a third location as well.

And what's the end result? Iowa loses yet another festival. As far as I know, the only festivals in Iowa this year will be:

Iowa Renaissance Festival (Amana Colonies, Spring)
http://iowarenfest.com

Des Moines Renaissance Faire (Des Moines, Fall)
http://dmrenfaire.com

Siouxland Riverssance Festival (Sioux City, Fall)
http://www.river-cade.com/riverssance.cfm

I haven't heard if the Fall Amana Colonies festival is returning this year, or if the other small event held last year in September will be returning (I missed out on that one completely), so if you hear of any others, please let me know and, more importantly, let faires.com know.

Oh, one more thing, not in Iowa:

Midlands Pirate Festival
Bellevue Berry & Pumpkin Ranch
Late September

UPDATE: Greg of Festivals International reminds me of another Iowa event I didn't remember -- the Dubuque Renaissance Festival, which is being organized by our own Queen Cate (Dubuque is her home town).

Wanted: Jack Sparrow look-a-likes -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, January 13, 2008 2:27AM
I am trying to track down Jack Sparrow impersonators. A quick glance led me to two:

http://www.jacksparrowlive.com/
http://www.signsofthewest.com/pirateloothomepage/captainjack4hire.html

And I'd like to round up a list of as many as possible who are doing this gig commercial (festivals, malls, corporate events, etc.) for an article. If you know of any others, drop me a note. (Sith Camero in Illinois comes to mind, as well.)

Thanks!

TRF clarification -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, January 6, 2008 8:08PM
Ah, misunderstood the note. TRF owns the land it is on, and isn't part of the rumor mill. It's just that "at TRF" they have also heard about MRF being at the end of lease. Consider this rumor corrected.

Texas Ren Fest lease? -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, January 6, 2008 6:20PM
Well, ask about one thing, and you hear about two others. My inquiry the other day about the status of MNRF brought along some other tidbits. The rumor down South is that the Texas Renaissance Festival may be nearing the end of it's land lease as well. (Don't any of these festivals actually own their land?)

Anyone heard more?

Minnesota Ren Fest status? -- posted by JohnPaul on Saturday, January 5, 2008 2:09AM
A friend of mine who lives near Shakopee asked me today if I'd heard anything about the Minnesota Renaissance Festival being sold. Other than ongoing rumors for several years, I'd certainly not heard anything new on this subject. A quick Google search did not turn up anything obvious on the first few result pages (though I did find some miscellaneous things like an old suit filed against them concerning the ADA).

Anyone know why this rumor has resurfaced? Is it finally coming true?