Bristol Renaissance Faire
| Bristol Renaissance Faire | |
|---|---|
 Jousting at the Bristol Renaissance Faire, 2006 |
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| Location | Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States |
| Opened | 1973 |
| Season | July - September |
| Stages | 16 |
| Average attendance | 198,000 |
| Official website | |
Bristol Renaissance Faire ("Bristol") is a Renaissance fair held in the village of Bristol, Wisconsin, near Kenosha, Wisconsin, that recreates the visit of Queen Elizabeth I to the port city of Bristol in the year 1574. The Faire plays in a permanent park with most buildings permanent year-round structures, and runs for nine weekends July through September. Ron Scot Fry was a successful entertainment director of the fair for many seasons, leaving in 2008.
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[edit] History
The Bristol Renaissance Faire was founded in 1972 by the late Richard Shapiro and his wife Bonnie as "King Richard's Faire." The event was a four-weekend fair and drew approximately 10,000 people.[1] Initially, it was generically historic, but through the 1970s and 1980s non-historical fantasy-based elements steadily increased, with trolls, satyrs, and many Tolkien-inspired features, such as a Hobbit hole, Sindarin-speaking elves, and wizard battles.
In 1989, the Shapiros sold the fair to Renaissance Entertainment Corporation and the fair re-opened as the Bristol Renaissance Faire with a more historical approach. The fantasy elements were banished under the new ownership. The reigning monarch became Queen Elizabeth I rather than the fictional "King Richard", and the year was set at 1574. Costumes became more focused and authentic, and a serious attempt at historicity was made. At that time, the fair played seven weekends and drew over 200,000 visitors,[1] thus placing it among the largest in the world.[2] In recent years, a few fantasy elements have returned such as Shakespearean wood sprites patrolling the grounds.[3]
The Bristol Faire's proximity to Chicago enabled the artistic directors to bring improv comedy teachers from The Second City and The Players Workshop, including instructor and director Eric Forsberg, who taught improvised interactive street theater techniques until 1997.[4]
[edit] Critical commentary
Journalist Neil Steinberg said of the Bristol Renaissance Faire: "If theme parks, with their pasteboard main streets, reek of a bland, safe, homogenized, whitebread America, the Renaissance Faire is at the other end of the social spectrum, a whiff of the occult, a flash of danger and a hint of the erotic. Here, they let you throw axes. Here are more beer and bosoms than you'll find in all of Disney World."[5]
[edit] See also
- Renaissance fair
- List of Renaissance fairs
- Historical reenactment
- Jousting
- Society for Creative Anachronism
- List of open air and living history museums in the United States
[edit] References
- ^ a b Renaissance Magazine, Vol. 2, #1, Issue #5, Spring 1997
- ^ De Groot, Jerome (2008). Consuming History. Taylor & Francis. p. 120. ISBN 0415399459. http://books.google.com/books?id=hexpdOj8t80C&pg=PA120&dq=%22Pennsylvania+Renaissance+Faire%22+-inpublisher:icon&as_brr=0&ei=l3V4SsvHAaWSywTYxLmSAw#v=onepage&q=%22Pennsylvania%20Renaissance%20Faire%22%20-inpublisher%3Aicon&f=false.
- ^ "Bristol Renaissance Faire for more than kings, queens" Chicago Heights Star, August 23, 2007
- ^ Murphy, Meg (July 12, 1998). "It may require just a jaunt across the Illinois-Wisconsin border". Chicago Tribune. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/31843358.html?dids=31843358:31843358&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jul+12%2C+1998&author=Meg+Murphy.+Special+to+the+Tribune.&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=It+may+require+just+a+jaunt+across+the+Illinois-Wisconsin+border&pqatl=google.
- ^ Neil Steinberg, "Out of Time, Nearly: Feast of Fools," Chicago Sun-Times, August 15, 2007, p. 23
[edit] Further reading
- Sierra (2004-08-20). "Bristol Renaissance Faire". Day Trips From Chicago: Wisconsin. http://www.igougo.com/travelcontent/journalEntryFreeForm.aspx?type=10&entryID=17002.
- "Bristol Renaissance Faire, Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA". h2g2. BBC. 2003-05-01. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1026271.
[edit] External links
