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I spent last weekend at the Hamlet of Mid-Missouri Renaissance Festival in Sedalia, Missouri, for which reason this faire is almost universally called just "Sedalia" by all rennies I converse with. Sedalia is a town of 20,000 80 miles east of Kansas City, and it is the site of the state fair grounds. The Festival takes place entirely in tents on a large lawn on the northeast corner of the grounds that they surround with a roll-out picket fence on wires attached to metal stakes, next to the junction of two major highways which are business streets in that part of town. A McDonald's across the street is in the background as you enter the gate and survey the scene, and loud truck noises sometimes obscure music.

There are single large shade trees scattered around the lawn, and these were loci for stages Most of the vendors were back against the fence in a large circle, with lots of empty grass in the middle of the faire. There was a small jousting area that got rather muddy, and another area for highland games. I didn't attend either of these events, not being very much interested. There were only two groups of portapotties, at opposite ends of the site, and they were a long march from most places I spent in the faire.

Much of the drive up from Muskogee on the Friday before was rainy, and the weather channel was posing probabilities of severe thunderstorms in percentages above the halfway mark for Saturday. And early in the morning I heard loud lightninging and torrents of rain on the pavement outside the motel room. It was still sprinkling at breakfast, but I arrived at the fairgrounds at about a quarter to the opening hour of ten, and almost as if on cue the clouds parted and the sun shone down on the pregate show. It stayed partly cloudy all day and did not rain any further, tho many times i thought it would. Strong breezes blew thruout the day, and made the high temperature in the mid-80s and very high humidity almost comfortable at times. There were lots of clothes spread out to dry on lawns behind clothing vendors and banners being rehung.

There were more thunderbooms Saturday night, but by breakfast Sunday the sun was out and stayed so all day thru thin clouds. Again the wind blew and the temperature at closing wasn't much above 80. It was much more pleasant than the dry sun of last year, but there were still lots of sunburns to be observed. The grass looked dry, but soon oozed wet when walked on a lot. The haybales stayed mercifully dry

The attendance seemed somewhere between light and low moderate. I would dare say more than half of the patrons present were in garb, and it seemed that many of them had traveled long-distance to attend this faire. There were not as many locals in mundanes as I usually see at other faires

The presiding royalty at this faire was Mary, Queen of Scots, and the setting was Scotland in 1562. Kilts and plaids prevailed. The pregate show started a scenario where the man responsible for beating and robbing a French courier was sought, and after closing the person responsible was brought to justice and the pirates thought responsible were exonerated, but I didn't catch any in-between scenes.

Instead I spent most of my time listening to music, and most all of it was made by old friends. The Brobdingnagian Bards had been practicing their patter singing, and rendered "The Rattlin' Bog" and "Do Virgins Taste Better" with rapid precision. Tartanic had Stuart performing with a new second piper and minus the drummer who would break into a disco dance when the pipes suddenly started with "In A Gadda Da Vida", while Adrian was still out front as loud as ever.

Queen's Gambit was there, without Beth's pennywhistle but with Amber's. Once I head them playing all their loudest songs, to compete with Tartanic not too far away in the background.

Three Pints Gone had established Jimmy as their new guitarist. Lady Nancy was there as an unusual one and only hammered dulcimer player at a renaissance faire. A local amateur group from Warrensburg played recorders from soprano to bass.

Commedia Sans Arte was in good formlessness, minus John Auld but with Adrian Gilby. Seymour was there with his bawdy comedy routines, and the best part of his show was before he started when he hustled up an audience, yelling at people to "Get over here and SIT DOWN!"

I beheld for the first time the Loch Ness Minstrels, four singers one of whom is also guitarist, who integrate all their songs into comedy acts. An audio-only CD doesn't this band justice; you have to see them to really experience them. I also heard another group new to me, the Scalliwags, four men working up a Bilge Pumps style pirate act. I felt they still needed more people and experience.

The scheduling of the musicians left them plenty of half-hour and hour spaces to go hear and sometimes jam with other bands. The only performing I did on the harp was on Sunday morning in a mass jam outside the gate before opening, but I was asked by Bill of the Loch Ness minstrels if I could play on a CD they were planning to record.

On Saturday the faire didn't close until 8 in the evening, and the pub sing started at 7. Much before everyone expected it to end a man in official looking costume announced it time for us all to repair to the gate, and the Moose Song was never achieved. It was threatening to be a mooseless faire by Sunday afternoon, for on Sunday the faire closed at 6 and there was no scheduled pub sing. But the crowd at 3 Pints Gone's last set at 3:30 clamored for it and the faire was saved.

It is a small faire attended mostly by connoisseurs, where not much stress is laid upon the performers and they can sometimes find freedom to combine things in ways they couldn't before, and where the weather can often be a challenge.

-Butterfly Bill

"Greetings, milady...or is it milord?...or..um...."
"So did you lose the bet?"..."No, I won it, he bet me I wouldn't"
Ren Geek with pewter computer imputer
Solarus Juvenilius Pastritis of Sarcastica. He who Grouches
while Biting the Wax Tadpole.
"possunt vincere nothi solum si facetias tuas a te tollunt"

more faire reviews like this one are at
http://members.isp.com/farfallaabill@isp.com/RbStories.htm#renfair

some of my computer music can be heard at
http://music.download.com/butterflybill

my Live Journal page is
http://www.livejournal.com/users/butterflybill/

I'm on the road right now and not very e-mailable