In late November we celebrated our sixth annual Family Plague Faire.
This is a backyard renaissance faire that my husband and I started in 2020 which we host for all our friends. This year the timing worked out that the faire was the weekend of my birthday, so the theme was Lady Allen’s Feast-Day. We set out tables, tents, decor, drinks and snacks, but asked guests to ‘pay tithe’ to their lady through a potluck.
Their efforts were compensated for in the form of a contest. All literate attendees voted for their favorite dish, and the top three winners took home prizes including a hand-sewn cape and hand-milled autumn olive puree.
Because the theme directly related to Jake and I playing nobles, we tried to dress extra fancy for the festivities. I sewed up new hats to elevate our outfits, and wore long bell sleeves which made me pretty useless for most of the day, forcing me to enjoy the party and not continuously work to arrange people, furniture, and food.
It was our biggest year yet with about 35 guests. The weather was frightening in the morning with lingering rain showers, but everything cleared up around the start time of 11 resulting in a comfortable sunny day.
We had the fire lit and an infrared heater on the patio so no one would be cold. Everyone is always reminded several times to dress for the weather, and no one disappointed. Everyone looked amazing in cloaks, hoods, shawls, aprons and the like. Several guests even bring their own house banners to hang alongside the other decor.
For the first time this year we had live entertainment! Kelley performed a tai chi with fan routine set to music. The performance meant a full costume-change for her midday!
After the tai chi exposition, the children participated in a Grand Tourney consisting of a potato-sack race, a three-legged race with an adult, and a spoon-race with dragon eggs. The winner was knighted and only one or two children cried briefly.
Later in the afternoon we had live music around the fire. I changed into easier to manage sleeves in order to improvise on the darbuka along with the band.
I felt a little less stressed out prepping and setting up for the party this year. Using the back patio instead of the field for the tenting makes it easier to carry all the props out, and I felt well-organized on decor from years past. There is always a lot of work to be done leading up to the party, but at least I know what to expect in the sixth year. My best gift to myself in the planning was freezing meals for dinner ahead of time so that the entire week leading up to the faire I didn’t need to cook. I saved all that cooking energy for the day before the party when I assembled the charcuterie and 10 lbs of chicken wings!
