Des Moines Ren Faire press release. -- posted by JohnPaul on Friday, June 30, 2006 7:05PM
NEWS RELEASE

-for immediate release

"New Iowa Theme Park for Special Events"

FESTIVAL PARK --

Labor Day Weekend will see the grand opening of Iowa's new theme park for unique festivals and special events. With its 20 acres designed as a replica of a merry olde English castle town, this storybook setting has been christened 'Festival Park'. It will serve as a living immersion into various multi-weekend regional events. It includes merchant shops, an equestrian arena, a feasting hall, an old-fashioned pub, a guild hall, a Sherwood Forest area, a Pirate Cove, a vast corn maze, the Living-History Demonstration Field and one of the largest castles found at any Renaissance festival in the United States.

The flagship event for the initial audience will be the much-enhanced Des Moines Renaissance Faire. It will be presented on Sept. 2nd, 3rd, 4th; the 9th and 10th, and the 16th and 17th; with gate hours from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. It will feature both of the nation's touring horseback jousting companies, international and national headliner acts, eight stages of on-going entertainment by 25 professional performing groups, themed weddings, a royalty coronation pageant, numerous artisan exhibits, 18 food and beverage shops, a children’s realm, and literally hundreds of costumed village characters. [See www.dmrenfaire.com]

The next event, also this year, will be the inaugural Pumpkin Fest and Harvest Fair, Oct. 7th and 8th, 14th and 15th, and the 21st and 22nd; with gate hours from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. This new family-fun festival will feature the country's #1 Lumberjack Show, as seen on ESPN. Also appearing will be various stage shows by magicians, drum jams, the Faerie Court, storytellers, puppeteers, singers and the cast of the Bueno Gang children's movie series. There will also be a large petting zoo and numerous traditional October activities - from pumpkin carving and pie contests to hayrack rides and cider pressing.

The night time hours will usher in the various "haunted" activities that have made the adjacent Sleepy Hollow Sports Park the pre-eminent Halloween attraction in central Iowa. [See www.sleepyhollowsportspark.com]

Then, in 2007, this new indoor/outdoor venue will host a patriotic Iowa Country Music Jam and Cajun Fest on June 23rd and 24th, and June 30th and July 1st. It will showcase 30 bands from Louisiana, Nashville, Branson, and around the state of Iowa. Besides festive food and drink the music genres offered will be pop country, traditional country, rock-a-billy, folk, blue-grass, Cajun-Zydeco, Tex-Mex and Southern Gospel.
This village theme park will also be marketed as a movie and commercial production set. An independent pirate comedy production is planned for 2007.

The grounds and structures, themselves, are being built thanks to sponsorships by Hy-Vee of Pleasant Hill, Iowa Beverage Systems, Captain Morgan Rum, Gilcrest Jewett Lumber, Polk County Bank and Miller Nursery.

All of this takes place at Festival Park, the newest addition to Sleepy Hollow Sports Park, Des Moines' popular family fun center at 4051 Dean Avenue on the Des Moines-Pleasant Hill borderline (5 blocks east of the State Fairgrounds). Nestled in the timber behind the golf course, Festival park will no doubt be a magical and historical journey for the whole family.

The events at Festival Park will be produced in conjunction with Festivals International - Iowa's premiere special event production company.

For further information on Festival Park and Sleepy Hollow Sports Park, activities and booking events, call (515) 262-4100. E-mail Mary Flatt, Events Coordinator at mary@sleepyhollowsportspark.com or Max Kenkel, Marketing Coordinator at max@sleepyhollowsportspark.com

For details on the events, including the Des Moines Renaissance Faire, call (641) 357-5177 or e-mail greg@festint.com.

CONTACT: DM Renaissance Faire
Greg/Bonnie Schmidt
Tel. 641-357-5177

Sleepy Hollow/Festival Park
Rick/Mary Flatt
Tel. 515-262-4100 [more...]

Regional Renaissance Reporter, Issue 8 advertising. -- posted by JohnPaul on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 11:05PM
Friends -- It's not too late to run your display ad in the summer issue of the REGIONAL RENAISSANCE REPORTER magazine. It will get to 3000 Rennies, performers, merchants and producers of Celtic/Medieval/Renaissance/Pirate events. See www.renreporter.com Ad space will run 1/8 page for $50, 1/4 page for $90, 1/2 page for $170, full page (b & w) $320, full page color for $480.

If you have a catalogue to get out to this genre of clientele, then you want to put that into the advertisement.

Our summer issue deadline is July 5th for a mid-July to mid-October run. Contact Allen Huffman at editor@renreporter.com with a cc to publisher@renreporter.com. You can e-mail him your ad, then we'll bill you after the issue comes out.

Greg Schmidt
641-357-5177

Des Moines Ren Faire construction update (photos). -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, June 25, 2006 12:37AM
Photos from 6/17 and 6/24 showing the construction progress at Festival Park have been posted to the www.dmrenfaire.com website. The latest pics start on page 7:

http://dmrenfaire.com/gallery/TOC-7.shtml

Also, video journal 7 and 8 are also now available on YouTube.com, and should be in the video podcast feed shortly.

Des Moines Ren Faire vidcast #6 posted. -- posted by JohnPaul on Saturday, June 24, 2006 9:55AM
Originally recorded on 6/17/2006, episode 6 of the Des Moines Renaisance Faire video journal has been posted. It is a 7+ minute chat about entertainment, the future of Festival Park, and other topics.

http://dmrenfaire.com/podcast.shtml

Episode 7 (a construction update, also recorded on 6/17) is being edited and should be posted soon.

[more...]

AtTheFaire in the newspaper again! -- posted by JohnPaul on Saturday, June 17, 2006 10:05PM
Today the local Des Moines Register ran a story on the upcoming Des Moines
Renaissance Faire project. It includes several photos of the park, including some concept artwork of the main street buildings. The mention AtTheFaire.com and also published a link to my video journals (at least in the online version). If you can't pick up a copy, here's an online link:

http://tinyurl.com/e5536

I now have five video journals posted (trying to do at least oen a week), and
you can find that playlist here:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=43A3000964498D2A

Between three weekends of Des Moines Ren Faire, Council Bluffs, Nodaway, and Sioux City, we finally have a year with as many renfests weekends as we had about six years ago.

More Des Moines Ren Faire videos posted... -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 6:33PM
There are now five video journals posted showing progress at the "Festival Park" site for the Des Moines Ren Faire. #5, recorded Tuesday, has interviews with the architect and two merchants who were out there checking on progress.

Photos will soon be added to the gallery showing even more buildings going up.

http://dmrenfaire.com

[more...]

More Des Moines Ren Faire updates... -- posted by JohnPaul on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 1:10AM
Two more entries in the Des Moines Ren Faire video journal (#3 and #4) were posted a few days ago. As a test, here they are inline. They were filmed in HDTV widescreen, so the YouTube player will squish them tall. To really see them, you need to subscribe to the podcast feed, or go to YouTube directly and click the "Size:" button to resize them.

Vidcast #3:


Vidcast #4:
[more...]

Des Moines Ren Faire new sponsor. -- posted by JohnPaul on Friday, June 9, 2006 11:10PM
A few more updates to the Des Moines Ren Faire website include a few new colorized building drawings (final plans), vidcast #2 posted to YouTube.com, and a new sponsor, Miller Nursery.

http://dmrenfaire.com

YouTube.com videos:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=43A3000964498D2A

And this news, posted here first (even before it hits the official website):

"The Des Moines Renaissance Faire has been selected to have a booth in the Varied Industries Building of the Iowa State Fair, taking place from August 10th through the 20th from 9:00 AM until 9:00 PM each fair day. The Des Moines Renaissance Fair booth will be providing fair visitors with the opportunity to have their photo taken with a costumed character, and THEN to go home and download their photograph onto their home computer at no charge.

Check back to www.dmrenfaire.com for details on staffing opportunities at our booth!" [more...]

Casting Call: Magician's apprentice wanted in Des Moines. -- posted by JohnPaul on Saturday, June 3, 2006 10:56PM
As part of the ongoing effort to cast for the upcoming Des Moines Renaissance Faire, it looks like one of the long-time Des Moines area magicians is going to be offering to train a few young magicians. He's done this in the past, and it looks like it could be a good opportunity for anyone interested in performing magic to become part of the show.

Details will be posted on www.dmrenfaire.com in the near future, but feel free to drop me a note if you are interested. Ideally, the potential magicians should not be planning on moving away (ie, after graduation or whatever) in the near future, since this could become an annual position with the Des Moines Renaissance Faire (and other events) held out at Festival Park in coming years.

Des Moines Ren Faire vidcast and photo gallery updated. -- posted by JohnPaul on Saturday, June 3, 2006 10:52PM
First, new photos (from 6-3-2006) have been added to the Des Moines Ren Faire website, showing construction progress in the past four days. Also, some older pictures were uncovered and added showing some past progress.

http://dmrenfaire.com/gallery/TOC.shtml

Second, the Des Moines Renaissance Faire now has a video podcast you can subscribe to. Using iTunes or other podcast software, you can use:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/dmrf

...to download and view new videos as they are posted. Currently the plan is to post an update every week, but two have already been posted in 5 days, and a third is waiting to be edited together.

You can also view them on YouTube.com (when posted there) by doing a search.

Nebraska Renaissance Faire "music video" posted. -- posted by JohnPaul on Friday, June 2, 2006 6:50PM
When I visited the Nebraksa Renaissance Faire last Saturday, I shot some raw footage for use in future TV commercials. Last night I decided to edit some of that video together and the result is a ground-breaking music video experience... Or, more honestly, just some random video snippets on top of one of our Pirate Comedy Show songs.

You may view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5i34H7aMEw

Keep in mind, it was shot in HDTV widescreen, so you have to click the box next to the "Size:" to see it in the proper aspect ratio. YouTube.com isn't the best video player around, but you get what you pay for... [more...]

Press Release: Tudor Rose Ren Faire (Arkansas) -- posted by JohnPaul on Friday, June 2, 2006 6:23PM
(So much for a hiatus... More stuff to post!)

Press Release May 18, 2006

The Tudor Rose Renaissance Faire founded in 2005 by Ms. Dawn Tennant, is the first of it’s kind in Arkansas. With the support of the local communities and “rennies” alike she and, her now husband, Mr. Jonathan Ellis are gearing up for the celebration of their first season September 15 & 16, 2007. The Tudor Rose Renaissance Faire will be held on 90 acres in Wrightsville, Arkansas, just outside Little Rock off Interstate 530. “Our first season is going to be bigger than we expected, we have 5 stages for performers, room for 70+ artisan merchants, 15+ food merchants, musicians, games, an archery glenn and a medieval encampment”. With turnout projected at approx. 5,000 patrons opening season this is sure to be a great family event for young and old. “The great thing about this faire is not only is it a renaissance faire but also a fundraising event for local organizations. We are a non-profit, volunteer driven faire and a portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will go to benefit local charitable organizations. So even if you are not a big fan of renaissance & medieval faires, you and your family can still come out and enjoy some great food and fun to support these organizations”.

Let us take you back to the days of old, the years of our Lord 1509-1520’s. Come out and celebrate this wondrous age of chivalry & mayhem, spend the day, meet the King and Queen, listen to music, watch pirates, jesters, wenches and faeries perform for patrons, watch the Little Rock Zoo’s Wild Wonders show, be a pawn in our human chess game, eat some wonderful food, and have all the medieval fun you can handle!

Tickets are sold at the gate: Adults are $8.00, Military & Seniors $6.00 and Children are FREE. Camping is available onsite at $5.00 per person, this includes a BBQ Saturday night. There is free parking for all. Group rates are available, call for more details. For more information visit our website at http://www.tudorroserenfaire or call us at (501) 833-3130.

The faire is excepting applications for artisan merchants and game merchants and offering an Early Bird special when you book your booth space before Sept. 1, 2006. Reserve your space now while they last. They are also looking for volunteers to help out the weekend of faire.
See you at the faire
HUZZAH!

Sponsored in Kind by:
Carti Foundation
AtTheFaire.com
Joseph Pfeifer Kawanis Camp
Circle of the Great Spirit
RenRadio.com
[more...]

Sioux Falls, SD event lineup. -- posted by JohnPaul on Thursday, June 1, 2006 8:59PM
The Entertainment lineup for Siouxland is now on the website at www.siouxlandrenfest.com with a link at the top of the Entertainment page.

There are also 2 weddings this year: Saturday at 2pm, Sunday at 1pm.
The High Tea is on Sunday at 2pm, for an additional $15 you will dine upon 2 different teas, two full menues of traditional foods and enjoy education and entertainment. Tickets are available at the front gate.

Several shows on Sunday will be interpreted into sign language also - so please mark your calendars for June 3rd & 4th in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Siouxland Renaissance - Play in the Past

Des Moines Ren Faire merchant opportunity. -- posted by JohnPaul on Thursday, June 1, 2006 8:56PM
The promotions have started. Sleepy Hollow Sports Park (builder of Festival Park site) was part of a Greater Des Moines Tourism group down at the Valley Junction farmer's market this evening. A table display was set up to promote the renfest and Sleepy Hollow in general. I and Molly of the Pirate Comedy Show hung around for a few hours dressed as pirates. Arrr.

But that's not important right now.

The Des Moines Renaissance Faire at Festival Park is full for opening year. Construction has begun on the shops, and I think I was told they may be able to add 7 or so new buildings next year based on time between events (they don't want to have under construction stuff going on during other events, I guess).

Current building owners are allowed to sub-lease their spots for events they don't want or can't participate in. i.e., if a sword vendor who does the Ren Faire doesn't want to do the Pumpkin Fest, they can rent out their shop and make money.

The Festival Park folks will try to keep a list of people wanting to sublease, so if a permanent can't do one of the shows, they can talk to one of the potential sub-leasers. If you think you have a product you might like to vend at things like the Pumpkin Fest in October or the Country/Cajun Fest next summer (both will take crafts show stuff without any renaissance restrictions), you can get on the list now.

Also, the Main Street buildings are being made available for this specific purpose. However, there are some important restrictions -- it's a one time thing (ie, no one can just "rent" year to year), and merchandise is restricted based on permanent shops having first choice on the lines. (Basically, what this means is if someone wants to come in a rent this season for Product X, the next year they have to build if they want to sell Product X again. Or if Product Y is wanting in, a permanent merchant building a shop takes priority.)

If you are a merchant that would like to be part of one of the first three weekends on September 2006, contact greg@festint.com (641-357-5177) and he can give you details. He has a series of buildings that will be made available to sublease. (I may end up with one too, that I have been on the list to have built as an investment specifically for this purpose.)

And in other news...

ATF may be on haitus until next weekend. I may or may not have extended computer access during the next week. Hopefully I will be able to scan e-mails from my cellphone in case of emergencies, but there may not be any other kinds of updates. [more...]