Live from Des Moines Renaissance Faire - experiment! -- posted by JohnPaul on Friday, August 31, 2007 10:19PM
I'm conducting an experiment this weekend at the Des Moines Renaissance Faire. I have set up a special Photo Blog site:

http://web.mac.com/allenhuffman/AtTheFaire/Home.html

There, you can click "Blog" to read what I'm working on, and click "Photos" to see photos I will be posting "live" from the Des Moines Renaissance Faire. I did a private test a few weeks ago, posting live from the Iowa State Fair, and it seemed to work. Hopefully this will also work.

So, check that link, and follow it to the Photos gallery and you can watch photos as I upload them "live" over opening weekend.

And please let me know if you encounter any problems. [more...]

Des Moines Renaissance Faire "secret" shopping tip. -- posted by JohnPaul on Thursday, August 30, 2007 10:10PM
Okay, here's a tidbit I want to pass along to anyone going to the Des Moines Renaissance Faire over the next three weekends. There's a merchant there, Patchwork Merchant Mercenaries, that will be selling "metal items" during the event. That's what they were allowed in to sell, though they carry a full line of all hand made items of every type you can imagine.

Now, they have tons of stuff with them that they won't have in their shop, but if there's something you are looking for that you can't find at the event, you can arrange to meet them during the week and pick it up. Clothing, mugs, pirate stuff, etc. All kinds of hand made items (in fact, I think everything they sell is hand made, no import buy/sell stuff).

It reminds me of buying off the truck (Frito's, Little Debbie, etc.) when I lived in Texas, where I could pick up stuff from the delivery guys that wasn't stocked on the shelf at the store they were delivering to.

Anyway, these guys will be one of the shops on Main Street. Ask for "Drago."

Reminder: Des Moines Renaissance Faire -- posted by JohnPaul on Monday, August 27, 2007 9:13PM
Just a note -- the Des Moines Renaissance Faire begins its three weekend run this weekend, 10am to 6pm each day. Details on the website at:

http://www.dmrenfaire.com

Opening weekend is "Pirates, Wenches and Rogues."

I'm too busy right now with projects, and couldn't commit to performing there opening weekend, but I do plan to pop by as much as I can over the weekend for photos and video, and may even dress up for Monday.

I'll be out capturing HD footage for future promotional use in TV commercials and such. My time may be real limited though so apologies in advance if I don't have time to chat.

Almost timely... -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, August 26, 2007 3:53PM
I re-noticed that I haven't touched the copyright footers of this site since 2005. One of these days I'll retire and have some time to spend working on my websites...

Ren Faire of the Midlands - new date, two weekends. -- posted by JohnPaul on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 10:12PM
The Renaissance Faire of the Midlands is back for 2008. Yes, I know, they had their "final" year a few years ago, then announced they were going away last year, but the Renaissance St. Louis folks stepped in, purchased the event and operated it last year.

For 2008, the event will be changing dates away from the College World Series weekend it's had for as long as I can remember. The location is yet to be announced, but the SIX days of operation in 2008 will include:

Friday May 16 - Kids Day, 9-3
Saturday May 17 - 10-7
Sunday May 18 - 10-6
Saturday May 24 - 10-7
Sunday May 25 - 10-6
Monday May 26 - 10-6 (Memorial Day)
Their website remains http://www.faire.org

And with most ATF announcements comes useless Medwest renfest trivia...

This will be the only multi-weekend event in Iowa other than the permanent Des Moines Renaissance Faire. The last multi-weekend event held in Iowa was the Wybreg Village Renaissance Festival, which had a two weekend event in Spring of 2000, then an expanded three weekend event in Fall the same year. (Wybreg wins for five weekends in a year; a record no one has touched.) The Iowa Renaissance Festival was also a two weekend Fall event in Iowa through 1999. It then switched from a four day two weekend event in Des Moines to a three day event over Labor Day in the Amana Colonies, where it stayed until moving to Spring dates in 2006 to get out of the way of the Des Moines Renaissance Faire, which started in 2006.

Meanwhile, in 2003, after the original closing of Midlands, a new event was started up next door in Nebraska, some 35 miles away from Council Bluffs in Ashland. The Nebraska Renaissance Faire was held in Fall 2003 and 2004, then moved dates and locations to Memorial Day where it has been since 2005 - now a bit closer to Midlands (25 miles from the Council Bluffs event).

Now, it's no secret that I'm not a fan of the Nebraska Ren Faire nor the Midlands event. I'm not sure what it is about that area, but I've performed at both events (two different acts, in the case of Midlands) and have since refused to do so again due to various issues, some of which Willa documented here on this site years ago with the Washer Well Wenches. Many of those issues went away, hopefully, with former management.

See -- Willa's good 2001 review:
http://www.atthefaire.com/articles/2001/06-11-01_rfotm_review.htm

And also this one about faire signage, which muses on some goods and bads from Midlands:
http://www.atthefaire.com/articles/2001/07-08-01_faire_signage.htm

But, overall, it was a combination of "surface of the sun" heat and total crap lack of tips that made my shy off both events. That said, I did make $85 in less than three hours busking at NebFaire this year so maybe things are turning around. But I digress...

For the past year or two there was talk from Greg of NebFaire about expanding to multiple weekends which, in spite of attendance there growing (slowly) from year to year, was still not an idea I thought was anything I'd personally get excited about. Still, with the support of Scary Acres halloween theme park (which seems to want to build a permanent expansion on their property, expanding in to their woods and such) I guess anything is possible.

Now I am waiting to hear what plans for 2008 will be for NebFaire. The date move in Midlands will mean two events operating on the same weekend. They may be in different states, but they are only 25 miles away from each other.

This makes Midlands also conflict with the Greater St. Louis Renaissance Faire run by the same owners. This is not a bad thing to me since the events are so far away that there aren't that many merchants and performers I know of that did both of them. It also means we won't see NebFaire turn in to "St. Louis Lite" just be moving performers around.

Now, personally, since there's no love lost between me and the old Midlands, and since I'm not a big fan of NebFaire, I'm not really sure I care too much how this turns out. I've done a few TV commercials for NebFaire, and a few of the show guides as well as host the website, but that doesn't mean I have to like it :-) (Last year, I managed to visit Midlands for a few hours and a little less for NebFaire; this year I did spend the whole weekend at NebFaire, giving it another chance but couldn't make it to Midlands.)

So bring it on! If it was me, I'd immediately work on a dual-even season pass :-) Most "normal" people I know do not spend two or more days at the local tent renaissance festivals. You can pretty much walk around and see everything in one good day. But, much like Disney/Knotts/Seaworld in California, or the non-Disney parks in Orlando work together on group tickets, I'd love to see that as an option.

Certainly, for the handful of us that try to do tons of show in a year, it would save us money ;-) but that shouldn't be a negative. There are very few of us die hards (though the past few years, I've attended far fewer events than I used to).

So, as usual, when I get more info I'll try to post it. In the meantime, I'm back to working on stuff for the Des Moines Renaissance Faire.

World's worst renaissance festival commercial? -- posted by JohnPaul on Saturday, August 18, 2007 7:46PM
I've done dozens of TV commercials (and several radio commercials) for area renaissance festivals over the years. What can one say about TV commercials? They're... commercials. If you really "love" commercials, there may be something wrong with you.

But every once in awhile, a commercial comes along that catches people's attention. Whether it's "Whazzzup?" for beer, or just some outrageously funny thing that makes you want to watch it over and over (once you find it illegally posted on the internet somewhere).

This is not one of those times. I think I've made a truly horrible renaissance festival commercial. See for yourself...

And, to balance things out, here are two others that I think are better (though I wish I wasn't the one doing the voiceover work. I sound like an Australian Kermit the Frog). Here's the updated "pirates" ad from last year:

And a new ad featuring members of Have Court, Will Travel and the Predator's of the Sea pirate act:

...how did you spend your weekend?

Festival Park "Hollowood Film Fair" and DMRF sneak peak. -- posted by JohnPaul on Saturday, August 11, 2007 11:42PM
Today I was called out to Festival Park for an 8am video taping of the royal court's opening gate show. The Hollowood Film Fair was in progress and it was weird seeing the castle turned in to a giant "drive in movie" (complete with benches that had sides mounted on them painted up like cars. The feating hall was curtained and had full on DJ equipment inside and tons of chairs. The picnic tables had been moved elsewhere. The Viking Pavilion had a projection screen up and was playing various movies all day, and the jousting list was ... get this ... a basketball court! Two baskets, a hard floor, and all set up for a game. A member of the Harlem Knights (think Harlem Globetrotter type act) was going to doing a show this weekend.

The Hollowood Film Fair will return for at least two more years, and they are considering Festival Park as a "backlot." During this weekend, a movie (Project Zombie) is being filmed, so props and such were set up for that.

Anyway, I got to see the new opening gate show that Have Court Will Travel is doing:

http://www.havecourtwilltravel.com

...and it has an explosive surprise in it now. Should be fun.

Festival website updated... -- posted by JohnPaul on Monday, August 6, 2007 6:54PM
The Festivals International website has been updated and modernized. This site is home of the:

Iowa Renaissance Festival in Amana, Iowa
Nebraska Renaissance Faire in Omaha, Nebraska
and new Lincolnshire Renaissance Faire in Decatur, Illinois

Visit: http://www.festint.com

Anyone else hosting a website with me can notify me any time you have website updates, news or anything else you want presented here on the front page, and I'll try to post it for you. [more...]

Louisiana Renaissance Festival update. -- posted by JohnPaul on Monday, August 6, 2007 6:14PM
(From the LRF mailing list...)

Hi everyone!
We are now down to just under 100 days until our 2007 Season Grand Opening, and there are a lot of different things going on at the Renaissance Festival. Let’s get started with the news!

First up, we are in the process of sending out our Student Day information this week. If you are unsure whether or not you are on our mailing list and would like to have a Student Day package sent to you, please send me an email with you name and mailing address and I will check our list and add you if needed.

We will soon be sending out flyers and extra discount coupons to everyone who is signed up for our mailing list. The “Extra Discount” coupon we send out in the mail is for a $3 per person discount, and is only available when we send out our Flyer & Coupon package. We only mail the coupons out once per year, so make sure you register at http://www.larf.org/disc. Please note that this is a new list for this year, so everyone who wants the coupons needs to get registered before October 1st!

I just received the following from Madame Ghislaine, our village wine connoisseur. She is just back from Spain and reports that she found some wonderful Spanish wines, especially Ribera and Rioja reds and the Spanish version of champagne, called Cava, which she will be featuring during this year's wine tasting. (She also found some matadors, but that's another story!) Also discovered was a lovely white wine from the Basque country that she hopes to be able to bring in for the events.
Madame also found some great Italian wines from her trip to Italy last April, where she and Black Kat O'Malley met up with Vince Conaway in Florence.
In addition, she expanded the wine tasting to both Saturdays and Sundays for this year, and tickets are available now. Guests ordering tickets before October 1 will receive $2 off the regular price AND preferred seating.
https://secure.la-renfest.com/shopcart/Products.aspx?cat=3 is the link to the wine tasting reservation page on our website. As Madame would say - "Hors de vin, pas de sante!" (Without wine, no health!) So - take good care of yourself and plan to attend at least one of these great events this year.

We will be holding a Theater workshop on August 18th for Girl Scouts. This event is open for both troops as well as individual scouts. If you are interested in attending this workshop, please let me know. We are getting close to our capacity for this event, but we still have a few spaces left.

We are going to be participating at the Hot August Nights celebration in downtown Hammond on Friday August 17th. This will be your first chance to meet some of our new cast members, so make sure you tell them hello when you see them. It is always a fun evening for everyone that comes out, and I hope to see you there!

A quick note for all of our merchants: Contracts were all mailed out about 6 weeks ago. If you have not received your contract, please give me a call so I can get it resent to you. If you plan to camp onsite this year, please visit http://www.larf.org/join/parcamping.asp for some new information about our participant campground for this year.

That’s about it for now. Have a wonderful day, and I look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Rick Hight

Concentio Agnorum at the Iowa State Fair -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, August 5, 2007 12:05PM
(From Billie...)

Greetings Friends, Fans, and Assorted Other Folk,

Concentio Agnorum will be performing at the Iowa State Fair!
Thurs., Aug 9th, 10 AM & 4PM in the Court Yard of the Cultural Center.
VSA Arts of Iowa invited us to be part of this year's Governor's Very Special Arts Festival. And we said, sure! Wow, we're the first show on the stage the first day of the fair. And the first time we've done a venue this large! We're excited and hope if you are going to be at the fair, you will stop by and say hello. Check our website: http://www.agnorum.com/ for a complete listing of our performances.

Iowa State Fair... Sounds like fun!

Billie [more...]

Des Moines photo op for "lady pirates" this week. -- posted by JohnPaul on Saturday, August 4, 2007 12:01PM
A local publication has asked me if I could round up any "lady pirates" for a photo shoot this week. They usually seem to focus on the college-type party crowd, so I expect they are looking for sexy pirate types.

If anyone wants a few more minutes of fame and their picture in a magazine, drop me a note a.s.a.p.

Des Moines "Hollowood Film Fair" at Festival Park (DMRF site) -- posted by JohnPaul on Friday, August 3, 2007 11:24PM
Okay, here's something coming up. A film festival held at Festival Park, home of the Des Moines Renaissance Faire. It will be August 9-12, 2007. They have erected a huge "HOLLOWOOD" sign up on the Sleepy Hollow Sports Park hill near Dean Avenue, even.

Article at WHO TV

Tickets

Bye bye RenRadio, hellow Wayfarer's Way Radio. -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 6:52PM
With the demise of RenRadio, which went "off air" today, I received notice from someone running another renaissance festival music station -- Wayfarer's Way Radio. 3 Pints Gone, harp music, pirate songs and pretty much the same type of thing. I don't really listen to any streaming audio, but if you do (and if you miss RenRadio), here's the link...

http://www.live365.com/stations/naiad_moon
[more...]