Faires Past - One: Wybreg fall

[vakkotaur]

I didn't have a LiveJournal account until last fall, so there are no entries about the various renaissance faires I've been to. It's not quite faire season here yet, but it's getting close. This generates a bit of faire fever, so I've decided to post a bit about past faires attended. I probably won't be saying much about the Minnesota Renaissance Festival (MNRF) as KinkyTurtle has cartoon diaries of a couple visits. I will say it was the first festival I ever went to and the one I've been to most - mainly due to the long run of it and the relative proximity. MNRF has permanent structures rather than (just) tents. That's all I saw for a few years.

After Taurmania I, I kept going to MNRF. And again after Taurmania II. I'm not sure when I started reading alt.fairs.renaissance or found At The Faire (currently very slow - it's being worked on) but I did. And that led to an interest in seeing other faires and festivals.

I had missed the Spring faires and decided against going to the Iowa Harvest Faire as MNRF was going on and, I think, that weekend I wound up delivering (along with many others) a rather urgent message to BronxElf. There was only one faire left within semi-reasonable driving distance: Wybreg. I managed to arrange to visit it on the final weekend of a three weekend run.

Wybreg took place in October in southeast Iowa. Much further south or east and you'd run out of Iowa. There are a couple towns nearby the site. One is Bonaparte, which most folks have never heard of. The other town, if it can be called that, is even smaller: Bentonsport. Doing new things, I made reservations at, I think, the Mason House Inn - a bed & breakfast.

I knew I would be travelling back in time, but I hadn't realized that it would be in stages. The renaissance weekend I expected. But I didn't know until I got there that Bentonsport is more of a historical village than anything, and the Mason House Inn was an 1847 (I think) hotel built to accommodate steamboat travellers. The Inn is not just a place to stay, but also something of a museum. Being such, there isn't much more modern in it than needed to provide reasonable comfort. Yes, there is running hot & cold water and showers (there is a fold-up bathtub - like a Murphy bed - but only as a museum piece), electric lighting, and (as I recall) central air conditioning. You will not find a phone or phone outlet in the guest rooms and the only TV I saw was covered well enough I didn't notice it at first. There is also genuine hospitality. Friday night the hosts invited the guests who had arrived to partake of a pie or two and just chat. The breakfasts there were easily the best food I had that weekend. If you want a TV and phone in your room, go somewhere else. If you want to get away from such but not go camping, the Mason House is ideal.

Saturday morning I drove out to the site, a whopping two miles from where I was staying. Sweet. But it sure didn't look like much, at least at first. Just a decorated entrance to a field. Then the "parking lot" from which I could see a few tents in a valley. The main gate was a tent before the valley. At least as I got closer I saw more tents. Even so, it seemed so small that I wondered if I'd wasted a trip for such a thing.

But, there I was and so went on in. I could always leave early if need be. There was no long walk down the valley as there were a couple horse drawn wagons that took care of ferrying people down and up the hill - at least until closing, which was around nightfall, then people had to walk.

I made a fairly quick pass throughout the site and found it had a bit more than one might expect, but was still, to me, small. But it soon did not matter. I stopped to watch a dancer.. and soon wound up dancing with her for a minute or two. A juggler/magician act used the only real "stage" and involved the audience well. His finale was a rope walk - with the rope held up by the audience. I saw a few other acts I hadn't seen before, and a different joust than I was used to seeing. And one act that.. well, it wasn't a formal act yet. The Washer Well Wenches had a "well" with water. They got in (wading) and tried to get others to join them. They were surprised when I took off my boots and did. They weren't the only ones. I think I surprised myself quite a bit, too. Fair persona sort of thing going on?

Throughout the day I kept feeling more and more at home. I wasn't just someone who was a potential customer or tipper. I was.. included. I was surprised to be invited to an after hours supper Saturday night. After getting directions, I quite naturally accepted. I wish I could remember a bit more of that evening, indeed that weekend, but it was a while ago now. I know I'm omitting quite a bit.

I do recall a couple things, though. One is that I bought my dagger from Starfire Swords who had a representative there. The other is that some guy brought his (Icelandic?) pony to the faire for a little while. This pony was a very recent arrival and hadn't been around much activity before. While Wybreg was small to me and perhaps all people there, it was probably rather much for the pony. The pony took it all well, though, and if not calm, at least wasn't too spooky.

Sunday wasn't quite as nice, but only because of the drizzle and rain. Again, I stayed all day and had a good time. I didn't go out that night but just went back to the Inn. The next morning was another good breakfast and then I was on my way home. The trip hadn't been wasted.