yes, this is an honest to goodness update. please don’t faint!
so, this weekend was the Renaissance Faire in Golden Gate Park. it has been a very hectic and tiring time…(making stock, preparing booth stuff, etc.)…. but very good experience.
i shared a booth with Ruth, who was my wise guide into both the Faire world and the world of art fairs. she was very sweet to go through with it even though she had little time to prepare stock herself because of her sudden move. in borrowed garb, I got to see the world behind the scenes at Renn Faire (and see why people get so into it!) I will definitely need to get both Paul and myself ready (clothes wise) to do this again and again and again… Paul and I have loved Faire for a long time… but from the “outside” lol.
we didn’t sell all that much. we sold enough to cover our booth fees, plus a bit… but it just wasn’t a buying crowd. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that it was under advertised and a lot of people had no idea there was going to be a fair there. but it sounds like a decent amount was made in gate fees for the SF schools theater programs.
I’ll be taking the stock I have now around to local galleries and boutiques to try to get it placed for sales, so there is no real tragedy to low sales. of course, it would have been wonderful to sell a ton… but the experience of the runnings of the booth and all was very worth it. also, we handed out a TON of business cards, so we may get website sales yet.
there were lots of fun moments. many wonderful people wandered by to say hello to Ruth and chat, in the Queen’s English of course. the people involved in Faire are wonderfully welcoming and loving.
setup on saturday was a strange mix of both the modern and period talk/clothing/technology/etc… but on sunday morning, all the booths had already been set up and everyone was into the whole feel of faire. it was much more a little slice of time. taking a break from re-setting up stock, I went for a walk to the privy. it was a wonderfully quiet special moment. the fog was still in and the morning was chilly. the people were hushed and working setting up and waking up, if they’d slept at their booths. there was quiet conversations in the Queen’s English going on and the squeek of someones cart wheels as he pushed it over towards the stage. muffled hammering and the sound of the fabic of tent booths billowing in the breeze filled the quiet. without the paying visitors, almost everyone was in costume and you could almost believe it was a village fair of the time.
that was, lol, until I got back to the booth and a few minutes later the fair staff drove past in their little cart talking on the walkie talkies about how the border reavers had stolen the thrown from the court encampment and they needed to find it ASAP. LOL!
at one point, a woman came by (i can not remember her name… heck, I can’t remember ANY names, lol) and sang for us. she sang Mr. Fox. I loved the song and have had it running through my head for days… so I had to search for it. I found it on iTunes (after a bit of research). most of the story points are very familiar, so I expect I’ve heard it before sometime… but it is wonderfully new all the same 
