Up to the Gate we all marched, pausing only long enough for a group portrait, then on to faire! Once inside, our first stop was the Royal Pavilion, to meet and greet with the LRF Royals. Alas, Queen Anne (AKA Dionne Charlet) was tending to other duties elsewhere, but King John (AKA Chuck Davis) immediately recognized Regina from the Royal Feast at Brady's and greeted her warmly. She was then formally introduced to King John as "Aviana, Faerie Ambassador from Texas" (Photo, Above). Besides His Majesty, Aviana was also introduced to other members of the LRF Royal Court, all of whom complimented her on her beautiful costume, particularly her marvelous wings and her wond'rous long hair as well. Needless to say, Aviana simply glowed as she basked under all this attention! Hardly had we left the Royal Pavilion than we met Craig of Farrington (Photo, Below), serenading fairegoers in the lane. He saluted Aviana's beauty with true Shakespearean eloquence and grace -- all of which delighted her immensely, of course -- before launching into one of his rowdy, bawdy ballads which left us all weak with laughter.

We were still chuckling over Craig's hilarious ballad when suddenly HE appeared: the "Man of the Hour" -- Kiko, Himself! It seems that, while we were all visiting at the Royal Pavilion earlier, the faire "grapevine" had been busily at work hunting Kiko down backstage and informing him of Aviana's presence on site. Even better for him: because of the meeting and greeting we were doing, we weren't moving very far or very fast that morning -- which made it easy for Kiko to find us. Naturally, Aviana was simply overjoyed to see him again (Photo, Left), greeting him enthusiastically, warmly and at length before we were able to introduce Kiko to Lord Durrka and Lady Ashland! As it turned out, Kiko had taken a room overnight at the same Friendly Inn where Regina and I were staying, which would make visiting after faire much more convenient for our affectionate couple. Unfortunately, he was also planning on returning home Sunday night, which meant that Aviana and Kiko didn't have a whole lot of time to spend together! Realizing that, I immediately turned Aviana over to Kiko without any further delay so they could make the most of this day. Our lovebirds then made a graceful exit backstage at that point, where Kiko wanted to introduce Aviana to his friends among the cast, krew and merchants at LRF. Meanwhile, we -- Lord Durrka, Lady Ashland and myself -- continued our slow promenade down the lane toward the lake, visiting ALL the shops inbetween.

Since my objective this morning was to check out the Tournament Field looking for photo ops along the way, I parted company with Lord Durrka and Lady Ashland at that time. Unlike the Fourth Weekend, however -- where I didn't meet anyone I knew for most of that Saturday -- this weekend I kept running into ALL my new friends and acquaintances at LRF (Photo, Right: Lady Ilise AKA Virginia N. Weinberg, for example, showing off her beautiful Court garb) whichever way I turned. Fact is, between all the meeting and greeting I did this Saturday, I just never made it out to the Lists until mid-afternoon! First, for instance, I met Ron Haring and "Little" John, his booth Manager, at Castle Creations by the lake (Photo, Below: Castle Creations is the octagonal building in this view, the second booth from the left). I had missed Ron the first time I visited LRF this year as he was running his jewelry booth at another faire. It was luck, in fact, that he was at LRF this weekend at all: he was actually returning home from yet another show and decided to check in with Little John on his way by! So after the usual introductions, we all talked together awhile, catching up on our personal news and happenings. I always enjoy chatting with Ron since -- being a professional faire merchant -- he invariably has lots of fascinating road stories and plenty of circuit gossip to share whenever/wherever we meet. It also doesn't hurt that both Ron and Little John have a taste for hard cider! So before we parted, I decided to gift them both with a jug each of "Thor's Hammer(tm)", my own homebrew. Which meant taking the l-o-n-g hike back out to my truck to fetch the brew, making security arrangements for them to pick it up after faire hours and then returning to Castle Creations to share the details with them. At that rate, needless to say, I was not getting out to the Tournament Field fast!!!

Standard Disclaimer: This webpage is strictly an *Unofficial* look at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival held near Hammond, LA in the Parish of Tangipahoa. The author of these pages is in no way, shape, manner or form connected with the Louisiana Renaissance Festival (OFFICE ADDRESS: PO Box 220, Robert, LA 70455-0220) and/or any of the sponsors associated with this event. All opinions expressed are strictly this author's own. LRF logo courtesy of the Louisiana Renaissance Festival. Unless noted otherwise, all photographs are copyright ©2000-2003 by George Laking.