By Rev.J.R.Norris III
*We set off early in the day to get to our next fair. Ione (The Medieval harvest festival held on November the 3 & 4^th ), a little town outside of Sacramento. The fair has been going for a couple years now and is a perfect end to the seasons of fairs, as the cold crisp air of autumn lends itself well to the theme of the Harvest and Pumpkins the fair has adapted to. The town is an old one, and as you approach the site where the fair is based, you pass a castle in the hills, apparently the old boys juvenile hall, and as you turn round the corner and pass an old cemetery you turn into Charles Howard Park, that the fair is at; almost sharing the cemetery with the fair grounds. The site is full of old oak trees, that are loosing the leaves to the change of seasons, and the air has the smell of fall. The fair itself is based on a slight hill top with plenty of parking and a couple of outbuilding just below that house the kitchen, restrooms and meeting halls.**The fair is promoted by the Rusty Sword Production group, and is a small family orientated fair. It has a set up and feeling of a home coming. Friday evening was the hurried rush to set up before we lost the light, and was aided by a staff that was very helpful on showing where we where located and available to answer any questions we had. Saturday morning we arose and put the last minute tweaks to the encampment and scurried into garb and setout the merchandise. The staff of the event where up way before we arose and prepared breakfast and COFFIE at affordable prices to all those wishing it. I found this simple act was a very helpful act, as we merchants and Guild members are usually scrambling around way to much dealing with last minute things before the fair opened to eat a proper breakfast let alone prepare it. Time slipped quickly closer to the official gate opening, and a quick meeting of notes for all the actors and guilds was had to make sure every one was on the same page before the gates opened. 10 am Saturday the gates opened, the day started slow, and unfortunately never really gained the pace it needed to make it a great cost effective day. The security was more then capable of handling the minor difficulties that the fair had with gate crashers. The Pumpkin games planned that day seamed to be a crowed pleaser, as they had a chance to watch the amusing games of pumpkin chucking, Pumpkin carving and the infamous pumpkin pie eating, (which had one of the fasted pie eating’s by the Ogre, that was seen in a long time), and the crowning of the new pumpkin king and queen. The Fair had many an interesting folk attending it and added to its ambiance, such as a troop of frolicking Fairies, a Ogre Guild, archers, and many a wandering character of wit and whimsy, who played the stage and street alike. The day came to a close, unfortunately never really picking up with patrons, this left the merchants a bit on the down side.The spirits however where picked up by the spaghetti feed cooked by the producers of the fair, and an amazingly fun dance and baric circle held next to the still open beer garden. We stayed in camp, watching our kids slaughter pumpkins and found it very nice that we where visited by the producers and checked in with to find out if their was anything that they could do to make the stay more comfortable. The night was pretty well kept quiet by the constant perimeter walks and checks by the security. Sunday morning started with the same routine of getting ready for the gates to open, and yet again the staff prepared a great breakfast for those who wished to have at it. Sunday the day brought a bit more people but the fair just didn’t seam to have the flow of crowd that where expected or have had in the past (probably due to a lot of mundane issues like gas prices and the economy)? Again the crowds that did come out where entertained by the many talented guilds and entertainers, and a rousing re-pumpkin chucking game and the famous pumpkin trebuchet that seamed to gather a good crowd Sunday. The day quickly came to a close and we where promptly kicked out of the fair by the ceremonial eviction by the Rusty Sword Production crew. We defiantly look forward to returning again to this fair next year, but the dates will be switched to the first week of October instead of this years November. ** *