This weekend happicow and I drove down to NJ and met up with some friend to attend this year’s Wicked Winter Renaissance ( / pirate / ninja / Lovecraft ) Faire. This faire was vastly different from the last one that I attended, in that there was no snow, and more walls (meaning, more concurrent performances, but less of a sense of unity).
There seemed to be less renaissance than I remember from last time, and more like-minded people hanging out and being naughty together (friends were made, but I didn’t catch their names; also, someone tried to stick a vibrator up my nose), enjoying some great performances (like Voltaire, and the White Elephant Burlesque Society), and buying some nifty swag (like that underbust I’ve been craving forever [at a great price, too!]). What garb there was, if any, seemed decidedly more Victorian than renaissance, but that suited me fine. :)
Like last time, our main goal in attending was to see Voltaire, though this year I decided I really didn’t need to annoy him with any photo-taking (though I did annoy him with conversation, delivering messages of love from Syracuse).
Unfortunately, we only attended the faire on Friday. Though the quality of what was available was wonderful, there really didn’t end up being that much of it, and we saw most of what there was to see (save performers) in a few hours. Since we were unfamiliar with the majority of the performers, it was hard to decide whether it was worth it to drive down for another day, not knowing where in the schedule we should have been aiming to attend. Instead, we hung around in northern NJ, visiting Asian markets and documenting strange discoveries.
Due to the legal kerfuffle surrounding this year’s faire (wherein the hotel refused to honor the contract until they were taken to court about it, and then tried to weasel their way out of it by charging credit cards and canceling reservations) this may be the last faire. That’s sad, as it really is (AFAIK) a unique and wonderful event. To help out with the legal fees, you should buy one of these nifty-keen escape from Holiday Innsmouth Cthulhu shirts.
