2001 marked the tenth anniversary of the Iowa Renaissance Festival and Harvest Faire and AtTheFaire was there.

JP'S IRF REVIEW: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (revisited)
by John-Paul, ATF Staff Writer

A few years before AtTheFaire.com existed I had many of my theme park photos available on my simplenet web site. Included amongst the photos from Disneyland and other places were a few directories of renaissance festival images including some from the Iowa Renaissance Festival and Harvest Faire. Around the 1998 - 1999 time period I wrote up my first festival review entitled The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly detailing all the things I believed to be wrong with the Iowa festival.

Sadly, this original article seems to have been lost in cyberspace. If anyone has a copy of it, I would enjoy reading it again. With that said, I now present my updated look at the Iowa festival based on the Labor Day 2001 weekend.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (revisited)

In 1992, Gregory Schmidt formed Festivals International. Their first event was the Iowa Renaissance Festival and Harvest Faire held at the fairgrounds in Mason City, Iowa. In 1993 the event was relocated to the state fairgrounds in Des Moines and it would remain there until 2000. I first attended this event in 1997 and have gone every year since.

One of the things that stood out about the event, in my mind, was the somewhat uninspiring location at the state fairgrounds. There were powerlines and RV hookups to be found along the festival site and several modern buildings and structures scattered about. I have since come to appreciate having "real" restrooms available (as well as shower facilities for those camping out) but at the time I found these items really kept the event from being all the it could be.

Not only was the location problematic but the overall quality of the event seemed to need some work as well. The still-new Salisbury Faire, for instance, had gone from nothing to a massive event drawing over 20,000 patrons during a single weekend. The number of merchants and entertainers was several times greater at Salisbury, too. It seemed like the original Iowa renaissance festival was headed into decline and that is what I chose to write about.

If memory serves, my article focused on the lack of "common" renaissance festival items such as turkey legs and roses. (This was actually what inspired me to get into the rose business -- it just seemed wrong to have a festival without someone selling roses!) There were certainly some good points (the Mud Show, for instance, remains one of my favorite dirty festival performances) but overall the only thing that kept me going back was just how much fun I had each year.

It was at IRF that I first spent the night on the festival grounds after an evening of hanging out with merchants and performers. It was great fun and the hospitality of these "rennie" folke was very surprising. I used the canopy of Bob the leather worker for cover during the rain storm; I drank wine from Sommerset winery (discretely left where I could pick it up that evening after the faire had closed); I played my guitar and sang around the grill fire as hot dogs roasted. It was fun. Much fun.

The festival, though, was seeing smaller and smaller crowds. Entertainment was becoming more sparse. People were starting to stay away. Something had to be done.

The solution was to greatly publicize the event in hopes of bringing massive crowds in 1999...and then to sell the festival. That's right. If a buyer had stepped up, the Iowa Renaissance Festival could have easily been under new ownership today. Sadly, the 1999 event didn't make the big splash everyone was hoping it would, and the perceived value of the event was too low to interest any buyers. History always has some ironic moments and this is one of them. You see, because of the failure of IRF to survive in Des Moines against Salisbury, something drastic had to be done. Since giving up and selling out did not work, the next option was to find a new location and start over.

This is exactly what Festivals International did, and they did so with amazing success! In 2000 the event relocated to the Amana Colonies in Iowa. Amana was a well established tourist destination with local wineries and meat shops, craft stores and lodging, and more reasons to visit besides just a yearly festival. In other words, it was a place people already wanted to go. A built in audience just waiting for another reason to take a trip down there and dine at the fine restaurants after a day of renaissance fun.

For what may have been the first time in the history of Festivals International, full color posters were created to promote the event. Inserts in newspapers were ran and flyers were distributed everywhere. In spite of the lack of an official web site, Iowa Renaissance Festival still drew thousands of visitors that Labor Day Weekend. There were lines of people just waiting to get in. Entertainment was posted outside the gates just to give patrons something to do while waiting to get inside. Local Amana businesses such as the Woolery and Wine Cellar ran booths inside and worked with the event rather than seeing it as a threat and fighting it.

It was a good thing, but would it last? That was the question many were asking. Would the promotion be as strong in 2001? Was this just "new thing to do syndrome" or would people return next year?

I am proud to say that the 2001 event was even more successful than 2000. There were lines again, but this time ticket sales were much more efficient. There were multi day passes available and T-shirts to buy. The grounds were immaculate with wooden benches (which you could buy) on display. The festival program was a double sided full color hand out listing all the entertainment and also scheduling the "last huzzah" at closing -- something that had been missing from the last few years at the state fairgrounds. (The closing ceremonies in 1999 were almost entirely "organized" by myself and a few others as we photocopied song lyrics and brought people together at the end of each day...and that's just wrong.)

Entertainment wise, the new jousting troupe (Noble Cause Productions from Oklahoma) was much better than the California group of the past few years. Noble Cause was apparently started by former members of the excellent Hanlon-Lees so many of their routines are very similar. Old favorites were back as well including Shattock, Dean Franzen, and the Interdrama group of wandering characters. Some items were missing such as the Mud Show and Orckes and Trolles (who had always been around in Des Moines) but overall everything was more and better. If I had to choose just one thing the event lacked I would say music. There was only one official musician performing -- a lecturing lute player who honestly seemed to be more interesting in telling the history of the instrument than trying to hawk his CDs or get tips. (That's just wrong, too -- a performance that doesn't end with passing the hat?)

Robert Uy from Orckes and Trolles did make an appearance, and harpist Gael Funk was around for Saturday (what happened to Reuben?), and another flute player could be heard on stage in between shows or at opening gate. But that was all. There was so little music at this event that I, John-Paul the Rose Rogue, got labeled as a musician because I was seen walking around with my Martin Backpacker guitar and singing silly "standing in line" songs at the front gate (or near the root beer stand).

Overall, I'd have to give this even a very strong B grade and an award for "most improvement". There are still minor issues to be addressed, like scheduling conflicts on Saturday (with a royal wedding beginning at the back of the Minstrel Stage while the Washer Well Wenches were perform at the front), but overall it was a very good show. Some merchants reported very strong sales, and at least one act reported the "best tips all year" at this event. Neither of these things could be said at the final state fairgrounds event when there were, literally, only a few hundred people going through the gate one weekend!

I used to use IRF attendance levels as a benchmark for the remote Wybreg Village. "Hey, look, this tiny festival in the middle of nowhere still had more people go to it than the 8th year of the Iowa event!" I would say. No more. IRF is back, and better than ever.

If anyone has been burned by this event in the past, whether as a performer or merchant or just a patron expecting more, it's time to give it another shot. Greg, Bonnie, and all the others who help make this Festivals International event happen deserve a massive round of applause for salvaging an event that was so bad I had to write about it on my web site years ago.

For a better review of the actual weekend, I will point everyone to Mistress Willa. She has a much better way of talking about the actual event. For now, let me simply end with saying that the Bad and Ugly aren't nearly as bad and ugly as they were a few years ago. In fact, most of us thing they are kinda good and cute today.

See you in 2002!

-- John-Paul

Related Sites:

• Festivals International - official web site

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