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It’s entirely possible to gallivant from one California Renaissance Faire to another pretty much all year round, with barely a pause to change your doublet or shelve your jerkin. Some fairs skew Celtic, others medieval, and some bring in pirates or fairies or elves. Here are three variations on the theme:
The original
Some 55 years ago, a Los Angeles schoolteacher and her husband threw a Renaissance-themed party. Today, it’s the Original Southern California Renaissance Faire, held over seven weekends each April and May at Irwindale’s Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area. In addition to all the usual jousting, carousing and performances, SoCal ups the ante with RenQuests, immersive, interactive adventures — a daylong, festival-wide escape room, if you will — that send participants out to decipher clues, solve problems, perform daring tasks and avoid dastardly villains. renfair.com/socal
The lakeside riff
Lake Tahoe’s Valhalla Renaissance Faire takes over Camp Richardson for the first two weekends of June for Elizabethan romps featuring 800 costumed actors, Shakespearean vignettes, four stages of entertainment and, of course, knightly battles. www.valhallafaire.com
The Yule version
San Francisco’s Great Dickens Christmas Faire advances the fair timeline by a century or three. It’s Victorian, not Elizabethan, and Dickensian, not Shakespearean. But you’ll find all the familiar touches here, from the “huzzahs” and jesters to the delightful warren of old London shops and lanes. And your Renaissance wench, peasant or royal costume will fit right in here. dickensfair.com