ESCONDIDO: Renaissance Fair fills Felicita Park

Performers ditch their day jobs for the weekend

By RENEE HAINES - For the North County Times | Saturday, April 12, 2008 8:11 PM PDT ∞

Volunteer Katie Votapka can barely watch as Christopher Yates, aka "Lord Rusty," juggles fire during his performance Saturday at the Escondido Spring Renaissance Faire, which continues Sunday at Felicita Park. More than 3,000 are expected visit the two-day fair. Festivities include a visit from Queen Elizabeth and her court, a Shakespearean theater troupe, strolling minstrels, wenches, sword fights, jousting, ale and shepherd's pies. More than 1,000 costumed participants will revel, sing, dance, battle, camp and entertain on the grounds of the park. (DON BOOMER/ Staff Photographer)

The Pirates Charles led by Spencer Smilanick, aka "Cap'n Spoo Diggity," center, performed for the crowd Saturday at the Escondido Spring Renaissance Faire at Felicita Park. More than 3,000 people are expected Saturday and Sunday. Festivities include a visit from Queen Elizabeth and her court, a Shakespearean theater troupe, strolling minstrels, wenches, sword fights, jousting, ale and shepherd's pies. More than 1,000 costumed participants will revel, sing, dance, battle, camp and entertain on the grounds of the park. (DON BOOMER/ Staff Photographer)

ESCONDIDO ---- While for some Californians a weekend in April means baseball, it was a case of "take me out to the faire" Saturday for visitors to the ninth annual Escondido Spring Renaissance Faire.

Hundreds of the festival's performers ditched their day jobs for a costumed lark in Felicita Park that recreated the 16th century.

They greeted visitors with "mi'lady" and "good sir," and to one youngster in shorts, "Young knight, what happened to the rest of your pants?"

At the festival's companion "Shakespeare in the Park" attraction, there was a shout of "throw long, throw long," as one player tossed a plastic skull to another playing Hamlet.

"Shakespeare in two seconds," one of the half-dozen players announced at the start of another performance. "To be or not to be," he declared, and the players collapsed to the ground in a heap.

Kimberly Shelton, 33, of Orange County, a mortgage underwriter, had a Harris's hawk perched on her arm, describing the ancient art of hunting with birds.

"This is fantastic," she said of crowds that number 3,000-plus each year for the two-day, two-weekend event. "There is enough history to make it educational. There's enough pageantry to make it fun."

Sunday ends the spring fair that transformed part of the park into the Village of Falconbridge, complete with minstrels, shops, a tavern, pirates and knights on horseback.

Falconbridge will reappear at Felicita Park on the weekends of Oct. 25 and 26 and Nov. 1 and 2 for the fall edition.

Organizer Richard Wixon, 69, of Ojai, a general contractor, has been organizing Renaissance festivals for 18 years.

Nearly 200 such fairs take place throughout the United States each year, and California is the leader with 38 listed at www.Renfaire.com. Florida is a distant second with 17.

Wixon started the Escondido event in 2000 because Felicita Park had the look of a 16th century village site, and also because many of his relatives live in nearby Vista, Fallbrook and San Diego.

"It's been a great fair from the beginning," he said.

On Saturday outside the mock House of McFionn encampment, a make-believe Irish mercenary army was entertaining passers-by with old Gaelic tunes, while plotting an attack on the daily procession of Queen Elizabeth I.

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Brandy Salamon, 22, of San Diego, had traded the navigational charts of her day job for handwritten maps and a sword.

"Maybe I'll start a few brawls if I'm lucky," she grinned.

William Armstrong, 49, of Buena Park, a towing company dispatcher by trade, was ready to defend the queen (his wife in real life) as an elaborately costumed Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester.

Armstrong, a 30-year veteran of these fairs, said the festivals have evolved from the "eat, drink and be merry" era of the baby boomers in their youth into family affairs.

"Today, the kids of baby boomers are coming out with their kids," he said.

Tickets cost $15 for adults, $12 for seniors 62 and older, and $7 for children ages 5 to 11; younger children are admitted free. Parking costs $5.