Review: Wisconsin Renaissance Faire

[vakkotaur]

Summary: Unlike other faires that started with a multiple-weekend season, this one looks like it will succeed - and it deserves to.

Let's get the negatives out of the way. There really aren't that many and are not all the difficult to resolve

- The big one is a site issue: the grounds have a lot of sand which gets into shoes and makes walking awkward. What isn't sand looks like it could easily become mud. Evidently this had happened once, and is being dealt with as best it can in the given time. (This could not be helped entirely, given that site preparation only started in March.)

- The big-shot of the area (not the visiting queen) isn't all that obvious. He needs a crown or such at the least, and a detail at his sides wouldn't hurt either. (This is rather easy to fix. As I heard some put it, "Give the boy a party hat.")

- There was only one real food vendor, which meant rather long lines around lunchtime. (This will require another building and people to operate it. I suspect the building may be the easier part.)

- There were some vendors (bartender, mainly) who were loud while quieter performances were going on. (This is a matter of being aware of the problem, most likely. It will probably get better with time.)

- There were visible speakers for sound systems in a place or two. (Most, if not all, acts could get by without amplification. Disguising speakers shouldn't be too big of a deal. And to WiRF's credit, even when the amplification was in use it never was obnoxious and becoming noise pollution for other parts of the faire.)

- Some "backstage" areas could be seen from within the site. (Considering what had been done with the site so far, this is a very minor quibble. I suspect it's being worked on each week between shows and that by next season it will be a complete non-issue.)

- There was loud country music playing in the privies. (Off switch fixes this. Changing to more appropriate music and turning the volume down about 20dB would also work.)

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And now, what WiRF got right:

+ Publicity, at least locally. When jmaynard and I checked in to the motel Saturday night, the clerk didn't ask if we were in a play or why we were dressed as we were. Instead, the clerk knew about the faire. Considering this was in the next town over and I've been asked that question only a few blocks from a faire site, this is good.

+ The faire owns the site. It's not a lease that will expire. They can make a permanent site that really will be effectively permanent.

+ They worked the site issues (it looks like the land is being reclaimed, because it is) into the storyline. The big concern Saturday was the impending wedding of a village lady (and landowner) to someone of another nationality... "...and we have only just started to help the land recover from when they had it before!"

+ The site layout worked rather well. What I had thought would be low-traffic areas that were sort of dead-ends were no such things. Every area of the site saw a good amount of traffic. The jousting area was situated such that the terrain made a natural amphitheater. The pony rides were nearby, and the jousters would refer kids (or their parents) to them. Thoughtfully the whip act was about as far away as could be managed so the cracking wasn't making the animals nervous. Overall, the layout meant that most stage areas were isolated from each other and sound from one didn't interfere with another.

+ While there was amplification, it wasn't obnoxious. I didn't realize that until the drive home. That's how much of a non-issue of it was.

+ While there were the usual porta-potties, there was also a trailer with a few stalls of flushies - and air conditioning. This was something that, even with the obnoxiously loud country music, was worth the trip across the grounds when the facilities were needed.

+ The food deal of the faire was the soup in a breadbowl. The initial price wasn't bad, but the $1 refill really made it a deal. There were also chicken legs available, rather than just turkey. I did not have them, but those who did said that they were quite good and large enough to be worth the price.

+ There were several places to obtain beverages throughout the site. You could get water at any of them. If there was something that only one had, it was likely a specific beer or ale. I recall only seeing a sign for Newcastle Brown at one, and not at others, but I was more interested in the water.

+ There were no disappointing acts. There weren't any that seemed to need to apologize for just starting out (and I have encountered such). One act was quite self-deprecating, but could get away with it.

+ I had heard of some problems from earlier weekends, but they had been solved or at least were being on the way to being solved, through work in the intervening weeks. The WiRF not only listen, but act.

+ Now that I think about it, I don't recall anyone being disappointed or unhappy (other than cranky infants, perhaps).

+ The general attitude. This shows. Everyone seemed to be having fun. Performers could and did play and make use of space. As an example: I saw at least three fights put on by RST that were to advance the storyline or do audience building for someone else, that were not part of official RST shows. And RST did not seem put out by this, but happy to (be able to) do it.

+ The big sign of Good Things, is that Jay and I kept hearing a line we heard at Siouxland's first year: "This is a first year faire?! I've been to faires that have been around $NUMBER years that don't get it this right." We heard that from performers and vendors, and perhaps others as well.

There wasn't an opening gate show Saturday, which seemed a bit odd considering how much the gate has been built up. On the other hand, I didn't miss it. Having endured a few gate shows, dispensing with one bothers me exactly not at all.

There's likely a lot more, but so much is probably in the category of simply not doing those things that you don't think about until they annoy you. One example, which might be pure luck, but I really hope it's WiRF management putting its foot down: I didn't hear any of the irritating cicada-sounding ovoid magnet pairs being tossed around.

Josie's comments on WiRF
Wendy's comments of WiRF
Publicity via goat.

Comments

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

Yep - you pretty much agreed with everything I said.

I think the lack of gate-scene on Saturday was because that was almost exactly when the rain started.

We actually got caught rather by surprise on Sunday. We took advantage of being ready fairly early to do a nice long warm-up and run over some of the newer pieces for lyrics. We were 3/4 through one, just kind of standing around, when I noticed several people wearing baseball hats and crocs and carrying programs walk by - YIKES WE'RE OPEN!!! oops.