Pictures of the Bristol faire: http://www.renaissancefaire.net/Bristol.htm

I won't bore you with the details of my trip to and from Wisconsin.  It all went very well; my shuttle picked me up on time, my flight left on time, the connection went smoothly, we arrived on time, the car rental went perfect and the hotel was ready for me.

I got up early on Sunday because I was very excited about being in Wisconsin to attend the Bristol faire. I first read about this faire last year and I've wanted to go there since then. I never thought actually make it there though; the cost and distance involved was always a bit daunting.

I arrived at the faire at about 9 a.m.  It was ridiculously easy to find.  There were permanent signs on the freeway clearly marking the way.  These signs directed me easily to a massive grass covered parking lot.  I was quite impressed with this parking lot; it was the last weekend of the faire and the grass was still well-kept and green.  I heard many comments from numerous people as I wandered around during the day about the quality of the parking area.  I found it amusing that one of the primary topics of conversation at a Renaissance faire was the quality of the parking area.

Since I was one of the first people there I got a parking spot right up front and only had to walk about 50 feet to get to the front gate.  And when I say front gate I mean front gate.  This is a permanent building with permanent gates; it's very impressive.

I went over to the ticket booth windows and goofed around with the ticket sellers for a few minutes.  One of the things that makes the Bristol faire, as well as Northern and Southern in California, outstanding is, believe it or not, the number and quality of the ticket booths.  Bristol had six windows at least; most other faires only have two, which means the ticket sellers become a choke point and delay people getting into the faire. That wasn't true at Bristol; the ticket booths operated efficiently and quickly.

Thirty minutes before the faire opened, the entertainment started.  Someone walked out of the front gate and went up onto the stage which was positioned about 20 feet in front of the gates.  He went up on the stage and immediately asked for volunteers to join him, stressing that the faire is intended to be full of audience participation.  He wanted to get his point across right away and so pointed out three couples to more or less be humiliated.

A young lady was standing next to me and she motioned to the guy on stage and pointed to her and then me.  I found myself "volunteered" to go up on the stage with her. I didn't mind, as I was very willing to play -- after all, I had traveled clear across the country to be here. We began by playing a silly sort of Jeopardy game, which was quickly followed by a kissing contest.  I gathered right away that she didn't expect this.  She looked alarmed but went through with it since she had volunteered me after all.  Her sister got a big kick out of it all and took a couple pictures using my camera.

This event was followed by an opening show featuring pirates and Robin Hood.  I enjoyed the show although wasn't as full-featured as the one at southern.  To me a good opening show sets the stage and this show did exactly that.  The primary characters were introduced, some of the various acts that would occur throughout the day were made known, and the general theme of the faire was set in motion.

At precisely 10 a.m. the front gates opened and the crowd wandered in.  I cut to the right because in that direction there were dancers, including a belly dancer (actually the only belly dancer at the entire faire).  There were also musicians and numerous other people doing various interesting things.

For the next few hours I wandered around the place.  I must say this faire is simply huge.  Actually, the word huge doesn't even begin to describe how big this faire is.  It just seemed to go on and on and on.  Be forewarned, though, as it's built on a gentle slope, which means it's much easier going down that it is coming back.  But it's nowhere near the rough, steep slope of the San Diego faire.

Bristol is also permanent.  The buildings are real buildings (unlike those as Corona, which are simply shells); there are fountains and sculpture.  Virtually every other faire that I've been to is temporary and I must say that the permanent nature of Bristol makes it a unique experience. And not only is it permanent, but it's clean and well maintained.

Soon after entering the faire I ran right into one of the fantasticals.  This lady was doing a very slow walk in a slinky outfit with a painted face.  It was quite fascinating to watch and I got a lot of pictures.  It was quite amusing when the lady glanced at the fantastical and said to one of her companions "I hear they're asexual".  The fantastical made a face, and then slowly walked (glided) to the lady and poked her then giggled and wandered off.  It was very amusing.  Later, that same fantastical danced with  the belly dancer and entertained small children.

Throughout the day the thing I think I appreciated best was the food courts.  There were quite a few food vendors, at least as many at southern, and there were plenty of places to sit and eat.  I must say Bristol had the best food courts of any faire that I've ever been to, mostly because they actually have places to sit down and eat which are covered by shade.

I worked my way down to the jousting and was immediately impressed.  There was a large permanent space with the building for the queen on one side and bleachers on the other.  I arrived at the start of an excellent series of jousting competitions. I noticed, however, that Bristol didn't have a battle reenactment like southern.  But the jousting was excellent, and it lasted for quite some time.

I watched some of the shows, including a belly dancing show (featuring the only belly dancer at the faire) which was very good.  I also watched Broon, good as always, and the bold and stupid men.

I was surprised to run into Commedia, the Italian Guild from southern.  I like these people and I was happy to run into them.  I got a lot of pictures of them singing, plus some pictures of them making a goblet out of glass.  It was quite fascinating to watch.

The second time I looped around the faire, I realized that I hadn't seen the court yet.  At southern there is no way you can avoid the court as it wanders everywhere.  At southern the entire faire is wrapped around the queen and the court and the various plays and goings-on of the nobles and their various supporters.

Yet in my first four hours at Bristol I hadn't seen the court yet.  So I searched around and finally found them. They were doing some kind of show on sewing which didn't interest me at all.  So I wandered off and made a mental note to come back later.

There was one large parade which went through the entire faire.  There were also a number of smaller parades, although nowhere near as many at Northern and Southern California.

My friends in Commedia had invited me to see them entertain the queen at 6 p.m., and I made sure I was there at the appropriate time.  Now I saw the court in its full glory, with the queen and the nobles and supporters. As promised, Commedia performed for the queen; a full half hour long performance.  Personally, I think it was one of their best performances ever.  I took pictures of the whole thing.  To me, their performance was actually one of the high points of the day.  I got to see the court in action, a fine group of performers, and I got lots of cool pictures.  Not only that, I got the ladies of commedia to pose with me in a group photo.  That was fun.

I left the fair at 7:15 p.m., got some food, went back to my hotel and fell asleep.  I got up at 3:15 in the morning, I was at the airport by 5 a.m., ready to get on a plane for the long flight home.