As you know, we’re regular attendees at the Southern California Ren Faire. We’ve been going to the Faire for years, starting in Agoura, and then after a long hiatus, in Devore and now at the Santa Fe Dam. So we’re on the mailing list for the Faire, and we’ve seen how the Faire has changed over the years. We’ve seen them become less and less historic, and more and more fantasy. This is often captured through their “special events”: we have moved from only pirate weekends to now having steampunk and time travellers, and weekends for general fantasy. They’ve even got, heavens forfend, a “wenches weekend” — their version, I guess, of a “Ladies Night”.
However, an email I received from the Faire earlier this week has to be the topper. According to this email, on April 20:
Mike the Knight™ will be making a special trip from his kingdom of Glendragon to visit his fans at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire. The young knight- in-training will be at the faire to meet and greet, have Mike the Knight storytelling and giveaways, and more!
For those who don’t know Mike the Knight, we met him a few years ago, when he was out with his buddies Thomas and Bob (the Builder) at the Orange Empire Railway Museum. Mike is an animated character from the stables of HIT entertainment (now part of Mattel). He is currently on Nick Jr. The series, according to Wikipedia, is “is about 10-year-old Mike whose father is gone to discover adventures. Looking up to his father, Mike wants to be a knight. However, he is still a knight-in-training. With his two dragon friends, Sparkie and Squirt; his rival, witch-in-training Evie; and his horse Galahad, Mike tries to be the bravest knight of all. Throughout his adventures, he learns the importance of sharing, caring, giving and understanding, with a lot of help from Evie.”
To me, the presence of Mike at Ren Faire is just another example of how the operators of Ren Faire are primarily interested in bringing in the people (and increasing the gate take), and the history side of the equation has been pushed to the side. It is there, but only for entertainment value. This is also likely why there is now an effort in Southern California to create a faire that returns more to the roots of the original Agoura faire. The organizers intend for this new faire to be non-profit; it will be interesting to see how that changes the emphasis.
Of course, I still intend to visit both faires. I just found the email about Mike the Knight just a bit over the edge, even for what SoCal Faire has become.