Renaissance faires in California

California is the birthplace of the American renaissance faire: the country's first Renaissance Pleasure Faire was staged in 1963, created by schoolteacher Phyllis Patterson with her husband Ron as a fundraiser for the listener-supported radio station KPFK. The nonprofit Living History Centre was established in 1968 to anchor the Renaissance Pleasure Faire and develop the public event's educational potential. That original southern faire was purchased in 1993 by the for-profit Renaissance Entertainment Corp, moved to Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore in 1989 and then in 2005 to the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale, and its organizers say more than 5 million people have visited since its inception, averaging approximately 20,000 each weekend. In the north, after the operating company announced closure in 2003, faire participants led a fundraising campaign and formed Play Faire Productions, the first participant-owned and operated renaissance faire, which since 2004 has produced the Northern California Renaissance Faire at Casa de Fruta near Hollister — a recreation of the fictional Elizabethan village of Willingtown with a cast of 1,000 performers, over 200 artisans and six stages. The two flagship faires split the calendar between them: the southern faire runs from the first weekend of April through the weekend before Memorial Day, while the northern faire runs on weekends from September into October. The movement California started has spread to roughly 200 renaissance fairs across the United States today.

Sources: Smithsonian Magazine — The Surprisingly Radical Roots of the Renaissance Fair · The Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire — The Faire · Wikipedia — Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California · Wikipedia — Northern California Renaissance Faire · Northern California Renaissance Faire (official site)