What about the rest of the year?

[anotheranon]

A question best directed towards dreamtigress, seamstrix, and others more familiar with the inner workings of Renn Faires than I am:

My local faire is a pretty large one with actual "medieval" buildings, including a mock-up miniature of a cathedral, in other words, permanent fixtures that can't be taken down easily. Yet to the best of my knowledge, the facilities are only used for the 6 weekends a year of faire "season".

What is done with the site the rest of the time? Is everything mothballed until the next year? Is it used by other groups? Rented for parties? Disappears, rather like Brigadoon, only to reapppear in the same bat-time, same bat-channel the following year? :P

Seriously - my friends and I were all wondering about that this weekend, because it seems like a lot of effort to create and maintain for such a tiny part of the calendar. Answers/speculation welcome.

Comments

[vree.livejournal.com]

They are mothballed. Every year Tiger goes ahead of time to help people clean and repair winter damage. The Vendors own their booths and are responsible for their maintenance

[dreamtigress.livejournal.com]

It depends on the Ren Faire site in question. MDRF has no other events in its off season. Each booth owner closes up shop and comes back before the season starts up again. For PA Ren Faire, they have other events that go on during the off season, like Celtic Fling. Each site is different.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Please pardon my ignorance and confusion, but it is staggering to me that a site that big/nice would be built and never used for anything else! I mean, good for the vendors (they dont' have to worry about anyone trashing their venue when they're not there), but still..