So Very Dark

I’m going to need to make a new category just for Faires if this keeps up…

Sunday morning (well…noonish, but who’s counting) Briggs’ cousing Anna called to ask if we would be willing to accompany them to Penn’s Colony.  We agreed, not knowing much of what was in store for us.  I expected, from what I was told, that it would be something along the lines of the Petaluma Adobe, a historic site dressed up in vestages of it’s former glory, where visitors could walk around, examine rooms and courtyards full of old finery, and perhaps purchase a trinket at the gift shop on the way out.

I had no idea it would be a Faire!

faire entrance

Penn’s Colony is an annual autumn few-weekend reenactment festival, colonial in nature, rife with stages, hand-crafts and more-or-less traditional foods.  Not being intimately familiar with the era myself, I can’t vouch for the level of historical accuracy in costuming and entertainment, yet the event still managed to stand head and shoulders above the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival.

the sunny battlefield

The experience was an improvement over last weekend’s from the moment I stepped out of the car–not into a sauna like I did the week before, but into a near-perfect September afternoon.  I can not, of course, blame or credit the faire coordinators with the weather, but likewise, I must admit that I the amount I sweated and how much I enjoyed myself have a subsantial reciprocal corrilary.  The majority of what made my day so nice, however, actually are controllable factor–and as a counterpoint to the nice weather, I was visiting the Faire with four children all under the ages of nine.

Much like that earlier Faire, the site was gorgeous.  All areas but that surrounding the battlefield were tucked in and around a stand of native forest, and the lush foliage offered a perfect balance of shade and early-autumn sun.  But even watching French and British aim muskets at each other in unprotected mid-day rays was more enjoyable than standing in the shade to watch the joust had been.  Perhaps it was the LACK OF THE STAR WARS SCORE.  Who would have guessed that a historical reenactment might profit from a properly costumed announcer (as opposed to a skinny guy in a purple velvet wizard’s tunic) explaining the actions and signifigance of the members of the battle, instead of offering easy fan-service and cheap insults?  Alright…I do rather like the cheap insults–but I much prefer them to be period to topical.

Of course, choosing educational history over easy laughs could be why the Faire almost closed and sold the land to developers last year–STUPID PATRONS!

weaver's and felter's booth

Anyway, upon entering the site, my estimation of the Faire continued to rise.  The first thing that came to my attention was…alright, the lovely, lovely shade.  But the SECOND thing I noticed were the many booths of lovely crafts.  AGAIN I call to attention my lack of historcial knowledge regarding the colonial period and the fact that I don’t know HOW accurate many of the crafts were…but it was certainly a better offering than that at PRF, where one notable mention was a woman selling fanasy ‘art’ (many pieces of which, done as portraits, clearly had a head cut from a photograph and pasted into a fantasy image, others had backgrounds

traditional German craft

which I regognized as clear Photoshop textures.)  Even if some of the hand crafts were not 100% accurate to the time period, many Faires that I approve fully of have trinkets and pretties that I am quite sure were not available in 16th Century England–and overall, a majority of the booths were selling items that I would guess are accurate at least in nature.  For I doubt that much of anything was emblazoned with the Steelers’ emblem when our Forefathers were breaking free of the Motherland.

Following the enjoyment of the lovely craft booths was costuming–I could actually tell patrons and participants apart!  I can’t, yet again, vouch for accuracy–some people wore what I think of as colonial costuming:

…while other bits of garb seemed as though they had just been borrowed over from Faire peasants, with the occasional piece of calico thrown in for flavor–but the overall effect worked, and I think that pre-industrial European poor-people’s clothes may be pretty standard to a certain extent.

Or maybe, Penn’s Colony is just chock-full of end-of-season rennies who are recycling their outfits.

women in tartan

"look at my kilt!"

I was amused to no end by the fact that I saw MORE accurate 16th century Scottish garb last weekend than I did at PRF.

Everything else aside, however, the overall impression I had of Penn’s Colony was, well…it was a Faire.  PRF was a fantasy festival for hicks pretending to be a Faire.  Within my first few minutes on the site of Penn’s, however, I wanted to work there.  Despite the lack lack of heavy banter and crowd interaction that I grew up with, and a somewhat more recent setting, walking through the site evoked not only nostalgia, but familarity as well.  This was only compounded as we were heading to the front gate, booths were putting up their wares for the week, and vehicles began to file in for loads of tupperware containers.

I hate to sound like a wacked-out new-age hippy,  but it had, well…a vibe.  I’m not sure how to explain it.  It’s like…lets see…I don’t doubt that the people at PRF have parties after faire closes for the day, but…maybe that’s what they work Farie FOR?  If they have fun with their daytime work, the good parts might center around non-historical things, like flirting, or buying a pair of black angel wings, or sharing a joint behind a booth.  Penn’s Colony felt like a place where the participants definately parties after the patrons left, but they weren’t just punching their card and finding easy ways to entertain the company.  They enjoyed what they did, and felt that anyone visiting their Faire would too.

Oh I ramble.  Here.  Have some pictures.

basket maker's stall

more at the battlefield

anna and the kids

some guy

the pretty girl at the kettle corn stand

Another kettle corn stand

Tents