As An Introductory Note;
In early 1998, I was at a computer show when I ran into a staff member of the Renaissance Entertainment Corporation, aka, REC, RenCo, and "Wreck"
. . . . "Disney lite" has just come to mind, but any further repetition might get one sued for slander by Disney, and I digress . . .
The staff member and I have known each other for quite some time and along with catching up on assorted odds and ends, we started discussing the method and theory of competently running RenFaires. This was a rather unsuprising topic, as on one hand the two of us dated back to a number of RenFaires as well as the final years of the Northern RenFaire in Novato, and on the other hand, she had spent the previous couple of years with an unobstructed front row view of the REC and its dedication to Not running a RenFaire, but instead practicing a perfectly legal variety of blatant fraud. I commented on what I had been observing as one who was on the outside in the late twentieth century, and one of her comments was a very specific and pointed observation on what had been going on Inside, also in the late twentieth century, In Short;
Following the final year of the Northern RenFaire in 1994, and then, starting in '95, finding out that REC's sole interest was a blatantly late 20th century mall with delusions of becoming a county fair,
A) In 1995, The RenFaire performers Walked Out, refusing to have Anything to do with this fiasco. This does grant that there were people who stayed, many of them noting "We're not working a RenFaire, we're getting paid".
B) In 1996, The RenFaire Audience refused to show up, having seen in '95 that the only visible difference between RenCo and the nearby Paramount's Great America is that at GA, there are roller coasters and the Klingons in attendance get paid instead of just showing up in equal number. This Also does grant that one or two people did show up, but I have a Very vague and uncertain memory that this number was almost outnumbered by the staff.
C) In 1997, REC did indeed do a deliberate campaign of plastering the Entire San Francisco Bay Area with advertisement after advertisement, on buses,. across multiple pages of individual newspaper issues, for day after day after day, in train stations, across More buses, and even through what were Very cheesy and telling radio and television ads . . . In short, yes, they noticed that what made the RenFaire an ongoing and repeated success was now gone, and rather than attract us back for something that had always worked and still works elsewhere, they just threw away more money.
Of the rest of this paper, a few months later, in mid 1998, a shill for the REC tried to troll an SCA---http://www.sca.org--- mailing list to try and sucker people into showing up as performers, and was quietly ignored. The morning after the shill posted, an SCA member who didn't know the history wrote in with great puzzlement, and forty minutes later, I knew I would be late for work. Work, by the way, was Very understanding, and Literally cheered me on.
Lately, in 1999, RenCo finally joined its fellow strip malls and Distributor Large Outlets when it moved into a former roadside attraction called The Nut Tree, in Vacaville. Vacaville is in California's Central Valley, in the middle of California's almond growing country, which is the probable reason why "The Nut Tree" is called what it is. After all, it's not called "The Winery" which made RenCo's first 1999 ad for their fantasy mall Very Weird; as an obvious try for very lost tourists and none of us, the ad claimed the fantasy mall was "In California's Wine Country" . . . . .
A clarifying thought that came to mind only recently is that of the Overall situation at this point, the Only difference between the RenCo fantasy mall, especially at its location by the freeway in Vacaville, and any low end Las Vegas casino, is that RenCo cannot get a Nevada style gaming license because they are working in California.
Oh, and back in mid 1998, of the RenCo shill and his attempts to mislead my fellow SCA members, the following is what I posted to clarify what wasn't being said . . . .
At 07:07 AM 7/14/98 EDT, you wrote:
>But haven't we
heard for the past, I don't know how many years, that "this"
is
>the last time for Ren Faire at that sight and EVERY year it
comes back?
>
Siiiiigggghhh . . . . Weeelll it all depends on how you define "This" and "Faire" . . .
Back in '94 or so, the Pattersons, the founding family, sold their rights to the faire to the Rennaissence Entertainment Corporation, aka REC, while announcing, "they're only just putting in money, We're still in control, We're starting a new company called Rennaissence Pleasure Faires Inc, RPFI . . . that was about the last heard of RPFI, too many quickly figured out it was a smokescreen . .
Also in '94, as the Black Point forest land had been sold to someone else, the someone else decided "This is prime land---even if below sea level---and we're going to build houses and a golf course here!" They ordered the Faire to leave, and planned development for late '94 and early '95, and the big announcement, all the way out to advertising and t shirts, was "94 will be "Farewell to Black Point, the final Northern RenFaire".
And then the local developing commisions announced to the wannabe developers, "You're going to do How much to What??!!! No Way!!!!" . . . and there were also comments about endangered species found on the site, and so forth . . .
So, with great giggles, all and sundry converged on Black Point in '95, among comments that the REC sale had Really Now kicked in, and we all showed up and . . . Well . . .
The main shopping area had been rearranged for more booths and a twice-standard-booth-size monstrosity the REC was putting up itself. The REC monstrosity was not only selling stuff in competition with the faire's own vendors---aka "pissing in your own soup"---but between the schlock sold inside and the store's appearence, the universal comment was "Have you seen RenMart? It looks just like Disneyland!"
That was only One example that kicked in that year. Myself, I lasted through to the opening weekend, then finally conceeded that where I had shown up for a RenFaire, I had not shown up for a rather schlocky fantasy mall that was being staged instead, and I was one of Many who left. I first joined the SCA in early '96 and was one of many refugees who did, others went over to the Civil War enthusiasts, and I'm sure that, sadly, some just gave up in disgust . . .
The telling point of 1995 North, the first of the REC Fantasy Malls, was Phyllis Patterson, the RenFaire founder and original emphasiser of "This Must Be Period" wandering around openly with a video camera "So I can capture the faces before they all leave."
Since then the Malls have gotten more and more like a third rate late 20th century county fair, which is obviusly all they are intended to be, while some of the REC staffers and the particularly desperate have cried "Oh No, It's Not a Mall, It Really Is The Faire, That We have All Known And Loved!!"
And the response has been, in unison, everyone, these are *Actual* occurrances that the REC has been doing;
You know you're not at a RenFaire when:
You're asked to buy a raffle ticket for a Kawasaki.
You're asked to buy a "Yard Of Beer".
Your conversation is drowned out by the loudspeakers at the RenFaire's horse tourney site.
You're on the main road in the mall, and you can see and point directly to either of the *Two* ATMs, shining brightly in the sun . . .
The new belly dance troupe passes out fliers for their web site---a damned good troupe, I've worked with them elsewhere, but since they were at a mall, well, of course they had web fliers printed on late 20th century paper!!!
. . . . and more . . .
Among all this there have been multiple yowls of "I had a Fine Time!!! How Dare you claim it's not a faire!!"
I and other faire goers and workers *are* very happy you had a good time at the REC Fantasy Mall. But did you Really attend a 1500s recreation of a back country English village festival? . . . No.
As For The Town of Novato, the area of which hosted the Faire for 28 years and has put up with the mall for 3 years, the citizens of Novato were asked to vote on whether or not development should finally kick into gear. The vote, this last year or so, was an unqualified Yes. In short, most likely, after 28 years of welcoming Faire, when given the choice of the rather sleazy North-East-Marin County Fair or a serene golf course, hell yes the local citizens voted for a golf course . . . .
The proverbial bulldozers go in in October, which is why this year's Mall is ending the weekend that the Faire had been opening, and, yes, barring sone new distinct oddity, this *is* the final year Something will be staged at Black Point Forest . . . .
Thank you for your time.
|
Lord Felix MacAvady |
© 1998 Cassiel