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The Texas Renaissance Festival came just a little early for me this year. It seems that -- on the Sunday before Opening Weekend -- my friends and hosts Michael McDane Harris; his Lady, Pam; and mutual friends Billy Tharp and Linda Schneider; and myself all drove out to the TRFestival grounds to help Pat Rikard (aka "Madam Fatima") and her SO, James, set up her pyschic booth in the Greek Agora -- a marketplace, the former Morrocan Bazaar -- there. What a great opportunity to get an insider's view of the faire before the crowds got there! (Photo, Above Left: the Main Gate at TRF, with the Dragonslayer Gift Shop at right -- all without players, men-at-arms and paytrons milling about. Photo, Below: inside the Main Gate on Sunday Morning of Opening Weekend. What a difference paytrons make!).
At the same time, it was also somewhat unsettling. Most of the shops were still locked and shuttered, with not a few overgrown in Summer's weeds and vines (Photo, Right). All of them were, of course, quite barren and empty. Despite that, I could still recognize quite a few shops even without their all their signs, banners and merchandise -- and easily picture them during faire, filled with a bustling throng of happy shoppers. It gave me a very strange sense of place: like standing between two worlds -- between the Once and the Future Texas Renaissance Festivals -- simultaneously at the same time, together! (Photo, Below: the Village Clay Garden, ready for business on Opening Weekend).
Of course we weren't exactly alone at TRF, either. Being Dress Rehearsal Weekend, all the cast members were out and about, putting the final polish on their lines and performance. From the Greek Agora, for example, we could easily -- and clearly! -- hear the pirates over at the Sea Devil Tavern rehearsing their act. It amused me no end to hear them declaim awhile in BFA (Basic Faire Accent), only to lapse into Modern English to critique their performance, then proceed back to BFA and their show! All around us was the sound of hammers pounding, saws biting down on wood, directions being shouted (both in BFA and ME) and music ghosting in from unseen sources -- but nary a soul in sight! (Photo, Left: except for a few, like this sign painter, shown here refurbishing the sign at the Captain's Galley near the Wharfside Music Gazebo).
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