sbrobert
I am a musician in the Santa Barbara Early Music Ensemble. Our Music Director Katie Saxon snagged a spot for us at the recent Central Coast Renaissance Faire. The event was held at Laguna Lake Park in San Luis Obispo. Here are all of my photos from the event.
We usually have a dozen or more performers, but the long drive reduced our numbers. Here my wife Merlie got a photo of our group. Katie is standing next to me, second to left in the photo. At the right end is Dorie Hutchinson, a regular at Renaissance Faires.
After we did two rounds of performing, we were free to explore the rest of the Faire.
We were by no means the only musicians. Some were on stage and some were on the move.
When we first arrived, the Morro Bay Mutineers were doing a little parade, singing the Drunken Sailor song.
One highlight of these events: Various forms of fighting. This is for real, even if no one usually gets killed or seriously injured. The bashing sounds can be heard all over the fairgrounds. Here are two short videos of two lines of knights battling each other. You can see how quickly each round ends!
As a circus arts person, my favorite parts are the circus arts performances. I was not able to get a close view of this guy juggling knives while balancing on a rola-bola, but you can see a bit of it at the start and toward the end of my short video.
But perhaps my favorite part of these Faires is just watching the fellow attendees and enjoying their costumes. Although the theme is supposed to be “Renaissance” it really turns into almost any costume play anyone wants to do. Full disclosure: I borrowed my Solstice costume as part of my outfit!
For example, these guys seemed to mix a bit of steam punk and dystopian futurism with their outfits.
And the subject matter of some of these art pieces may have been classic, but the manufacturing technique was very modern: 3-D Printing! Merlie bought a highly articulated octopus.
This lady runs the 3-D printers, but she does not take credit for the actual designs.
There was a mini-theme of mushroom heads. It seemed to be a coincidence. Had I known, I could have worn my Solstice mushroom head from last year!
When I see these pixie ears, I think of Vulcan Mr Spock from Star Trek. But it is a common elf bit of makeup at these events.
Fairies are another popular theme. Some are very sweet and some are rather edgy!
Pirates are another big thing. And there is nothing like eating a big hunk of animal to add to the effect! These are actually turkey legs.
These women did not plan their color coordination, but they were happy to pose together. In general, people are very kind about posing for photos.
I am not sure, but she may have been the Queen. We were performing during the Queen’s procession, so I could not capture that event.
Even though it was a bit far from Santa Barbara, we encountered some people with a Santa Barbara connection. Krischana is a belly dance teacher and performer at various events in Santa Barbara. Including Colors of Love by Yulia Maluta.
And we were delighted to meet up with Samaya and her friends. Merlie and I often hike with Samaya and she was invited by her friends at the last minute. Samaya is at left in this photo, in the blue outfit she threw together for the occasion.
There was a group of falconers showing off their birds of prey. This gentleman showed off his kestrel.
I don’t think this was a Renaissance outfit, but it fit very well with the whole anachronistic vibe as this young lady posed with Merlie!
No need to wait for the next Central Coast Renaissance Faire in July 2025. Here is a list of plenty of other Renaissance Faires!
https://www.therenlist.com/all-fairs
@sacjon Glad you had a good time with your kids and thank you for your report.
@ruralwannabe Thank you for the kind words. Please check out the link at the end of my article above and you can probably find other events like this that you can attend.
Many of these people live for these events, going directly from one to the next. They only enter the “mundane world” long enough to make money to get to the next event. For the rest of us it is a fairly inexpensive excursion into another world!
Oh definitely! The dedication to detail was really something to see. It made me feel good to see so many people just completely immersing themselves in fantasy and having fun. We need more events like this. No judgment, just be whoever you want to be and lose yourself in your imagination for a couple days.
People need to play and have fun more! Some more than others… LOL!
This was a lot of fun! I went with my kids on Saturday as I’ve never been to one of these and it was great! Lots of really cool costumes and lots of people feeling free and enjoying the weirdness and fantasy. Walking around drinking beer (and a couple stray whiskey shots) from a “old timey” mug, eating scotch eggs and watching the knights go full contact on each other was loads of fun.
To those who think they’re “too cool” to go…. stay home. Believe it or not, there were thousands of people laughing and having fun with no judgment. Awesome event and will definitely go back!
Thanks for this – I had no idea these were still so happening!
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