Happenings for Rennies:

• Throughout the month, English Country and International Folk Dancing Lessons are offered by the Fairfield Folk Art and Dance Co-op in Fairfield, IA. See their site for specific information.
• July - Bristol Renaissance Festival in Kenosha, WI, continues on until August 26. ATF plans to attend at least one weekend.
• July - Colorado Renaissance Faire in Larkspur continues on until July 29.
• July 30 - Irish Jam Night at Java Joe's in DSM.
• August 14 - Ed Conlow's Traditional Irish Music Night at Java Joe's in DSM.
• July 21 & 22 - "Ren Fest" in Wausau, WI.

Feature: Puzzles of Faire Memories

• ATF's First Evidence of the Existance of Willa — After JP and I started dating, I went back to look through the photos he had taken of the various faires we'd been to at the same time without knowing each other. Oddly, I found a photo with me in it from the 1997 Iowa Renaissance Faire! (Of course, I wasn't Willa back then.)
• John-Paul Finally in His Own Photo Gallery! — Here's a picture of JP at IRF in '98 with Lucy and Marco. For many years, JP took the photos of himself out of the gallery. Now, he likes it when his photo is on the front page of the site ;)
• JP & Willa, Together at Last — Our very first date was a weekend at KCRF in 1999. I'll have to write an article on that someday. For now, here is the first faire photo of us together.
• Shattock Boys — My how they grow up in just two years...This is Jaspar and Robespierre from IRF '99.
• Ahh the Memories — And finally we have what may very well be my favourite faire photo of all time...Wybreg Village Fall 2000.

Every two weeks we are going to turn five of our very own photos into a Java-based puzzle for you to solve! If you have a suggestion as to a photo that would make a good puzzle, let us know! To see past puzzles, go here.

News: New South Dakota Faire

A new renaissance festival is coming to Sioux Falls, South Dakota! The Siouxland Renaissance Festival will be held Father's day weekend in June 2002. The site location is still being finalized. A public meeting (everyone welcome) will be held Tuesday, July 24th at 7pm at the downtown brand of the Sioux Falls Public Library. [more...]

Article: A Dream Job

My apologies for taking a detour from our normal rennie ramblings in this newsletter. I just want to share a few things with you this week. As some of you know (from the announcement on the front page), I was laid off this week and now find myself without employment for the first time in years. As it worked out, I was only thirteen days short of my six year anniversary... But that's not important now. [more...]

Review: Mists of Avalon on TNT

I have to admit that I'm not all that "in the know" about King Arthur and his court. I mean, I have watched Monty Python's Holy Grail and Disney's Sword in the Stone and a slew of other movies that had to do with the subject, but this mini series, The Mists of Avalon, was a whole new look at everything at the round table. TNT had been teasing us for a while with this original movie. I can remember as far back as wintertime when they had "behind the scenes" things making us want to see more. [more...]

Article: Where Does She Get All Those Wonderful Toys?

I've been meaning to do an article like this for months. When I go to festival, I am inevitably stopped by several people to ask where I get all of my nifty garb and accouterments. So, here you have it. We're going to examine two photos of yours truly and we'll break them down to get the nitty gritty details. [more...]

Article: JP - Gadget Man Extraordinaire

Well, since I did it for me, I figured I should do it for John-Paul, too. He likes it when we have matching stuff, so I figured he'd get a kick out of matching articles (we're such twinkies). So...here we go! JP's accessories are normally the type that run well over $1,000...but none of those are seen here...he takes great pains to keep his video and digital cameras from patron view. [more...]

Get Registered with Us

Want to meet other rennies? Want other rennies to be able to meet you? Go to our Faire Folke: Rennies section and get registered today! That way, rennies in your area can find you and send you an e-mail.

Also, if you are a renaissance faire Performer or Merchant, we'd like to list your contact information, as well! Quite a few faires use our database to find quality people for their events!

Plug: AtTheFaire's Pub

Did you know that we have message boards on our site? Well, we do! Each festival in the Midwest has a topic (the Jubilee and Wybreg festivals have had quite a bit of activity lately) and there are more topics to chat under. Just register to get your own handle and start posting! Let us know what you think about ATF or just introduce yourself to the rennies at large! Go to the pub...