VARF-Abandoned Renaissance Faire

[fairyrune]

Check it out!

Comments

[synnoveaevael.livejournal.com]

heheh.. i posted about that a million years ago. it gives me the CHILLS. cause our signs are so similar and stuff. freakie.

[fairyrune]

I know, right? I'm wondering what our faire would look like if it was abandoned.

[synnoveaevael.livejournal.com]

i don't wanna know! :(

[fairyrune]

I don't want it to HAPPEN, I just have an overactive imagination.

[synnoveaevael.livejournal.com]

yar.

dood, our faire was a FLOWER GARDEN. could you imagine the random shit that would pop up? i mean you see what happens to the rose cooler after a year of no feet trampling it. ten years??? dood.

[woodchuck665.livejournal.com]

I can garentee that in a year, it'd look like every other development of McMansions.

[odogonefishin.livejournal.com]

Google "virginia renaissance faire", second page, third from the bottom. An article from allbusiness.com - it looks like it used to be one of the REC faires

[synnoveaevael.livejournal.com]

yar, i know ;-)

[lollipopmilitia.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to get down there for over a year now. Funny enough, I know the guy whose site those pictures are on and used to explore with him. He was just at NYRF two weekends ago.

[fairyrune]

Small world, isn't it? I'd LOVE to explore some place like that.

[vampcurse.livejournal.com]

I had heard that they had tried to build it up in it's first year just like NYRF after 20 years. They spent all that money and they made nothing back. They didn't realize that NYRF started as just a dinky little faire with no permanent structures. It's really sad, because it would great now if the had started smaller.

[fairyrune]

Awww...that's so sad!

The place looks freakin' HUGE. Bigger than NYRF, even!

[odogonefishin.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna have to check this out more when I get home (half the pix didn't load on my phone)... A lot of the structures look more permanent then anything at NYRF... I wonder if it was "abandoned" per se though - there are lots of things that come up in a google search for "virginia renaissance faire" - most of them recent... Wonder if Angus has seen this ;)

[odogonefishin.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'm slow

[fairyrune]

Yeah...the property is for sale.

Angus wants to go break into the place, of course.

[blueimber.livejournal.com]

This article from 2002 sums it up: http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2002/052002/05232002/614484

apparently REC/REP (our faire owners) operated it in the 90s then sold it, the new VARF appears to be a tent and platform faire located somewhere near the 'abandoned' site on an open grassy lot. The 'abandoned' site looks like it was sold to someone who has just let it go to rot-- It would be fun if in passing to see if it were still there tho and maybe stop to explore.

[blueimber.livejournal.com]

I wish i had a Mil.5 or so to buy it; i would love to do there what they did 31 years ago at NYRF and take an abandoned place and turn it into a magic garden, only i'd put as many things in place as i could to keep it from becoming a big pompous overgrown garden of ego and money thieving corporateness. It is freaky that they have such similar signs...

I'd like to say it couldn't happen in Tux, but i fear for some of the changes i have seen; tho there are many good, there are more that are bad in subtle ways that will, if unchecked, undermine the foundations of the faire - the vendors, the rennies and the dirt-loving hippies who actually buy things - and someday loose us out site. I pray that day never comes... truly.

[blaze625.livejournal.com]

Mage and I went there in '99. The faire was gorgeous. It was sad when it went away.

[odogonefishin.livejournal.com]

Hey, tell mage to send/post the pix of me in da suit

[blaze625.livejournal.com]

Does he have your email addy?

[odogonefishin.livejournal.com]

Good point...

odo2k1 at yahoo

[blaze625.livejournal.com]

here you go:

http://madmage.smugmug.com/photos/354557798_yaHEn-XL.jpg

[grigoricennui.livejournal.com]

Why is their faire better than ours and they've been outta business for eight years?

THEY have a pirate ship!
THEY have a stone tower!

J.

[tdisdead.livejournal.com]

Looks like something out of the Stand or Dark Tower. I approve.

At least...

[trongersoll.livejournal.com]

At least i got to see it in all its glory. Like many i wish i could revive it, but Virginia has wierd alcoholl laws which made running it difficult.

[kaine977.livejournal.com]

I promise that when I win a hundred million in the NY mega-millions. I'll build the biggest Ren fair you've ever seen!

[fairefifi.livejournal.com]

I was away and just saw this...


Freaky in a spooky kinda way. Question for you....what WAS he taking a picture of in the grass??? I didn't see anything and when I clicked the link it said web site cannot be found.... :(

[fairyrune]

I was wondering the same damn thing! I have no idea. :(