Gather round lords, bards, nobles, ladies, patrons, and peasants, for a Renaissance Faire (“Ren Faire”) will be coming to the Murillo Fairgrounds on October 11th and 12th. The Faire will be hosted by the Oliver Agricultural Society (OAS) and will mark the first time a Renaissance Faire is formally held in the region.
“A Renaissance Faire is a celebration,” explains Jason Feller, a member of the planning committee. “Usually it’s outdoors, and involves a lot of people getting together to celebrate fantasy and historical reenactments. There are usually a lot of vendors, artisans, crafters, blacksmiths, things like that. There are also historical demonstrations. It’s all of these things coming together to create this kind of wonderful, involved, immersive experience to take people out of reality for a moment or take people back to the past.”
“A Ren Faire gets to be pretty open with time and setting,” he adds, “it can reference medieval times, fantasy locations, or the setting of your favourite fantasy or historical novel, and you can really take it any direction you want.”
Steph Simko, also on the planning committee, explains how the idea for the Faire came about:
“The Thunder Bay Renaissance Faire was an idea getting pitched around through a few creative circles for the last two years now. All of our committee members have enjoyed Faires and are quite involved as artists or participants in festivals and creative events in the city and region. The right connections were made in the small-town way that happens, and people started coming together.”
Steph says that the moment of serendipity happened when the group viewed the fairgrounds and made a connection with the OAS through an eager Board member, Amanda Keller, who was starting to lay the groundwork for a Faire within the board.
Steph also discusses how an event like this is important to the Thunder Bay community:
“I think Thunder Bay is hungry for an event like this. With this being our first year, we are very happy to see the support and excitement through the ticket pre-sales and the enthusiasm on our social media. I think that Renaissance Faires themselves are having a bit of a renaissance themselves: there is an escapism inherent to them that makes it feel like you’ve walked into a fairytale for a few hours and left the ‘real world’ behind. We want this event to be a chance to spend time with your friends, family, and community in a whimsical way; we want to give people a chance to get away from their everyday drudgery and responsibilities, put on a cloak and some elf ears, and watch some jousting!”
Attendees can expect to enjoy a jousting tournament featuring the Knights of Valor (the largest extreme full-contact jousting company in the world), a medieval marketplace with more than 40 artisans and vendors, demonstrations and a swordplay workshop with Superior HEMA, and wandering minstrels and theatrical acts on the stage. There will be food vendors and an area for children with storytime, face painting, and games.
So channel whatever your favourite historical era or fantasy creature is, don your appropriate costume, and head out to the Murillo Fairground for Thunder Bay’s first ever Renaissance Faire. Day pass tickets are available for either or both days online or at the gate. Follow the Thunder Bay Renaissance Faire on Facebook or on Instagram (tbrenfaire) for more information.
