Moscow Renaissance Fair ~~ First weekend of May ~~ East City Park, Moscow, Idaho

Moscow Renaissance Fair Reminiscences
Moscow Food Co-op Community News, April 2006
Jim Prall
Photos by David Hall
Article reprinted by permission of Jim Prall

"Don't trust anyone over thirty" was a rallying cry and survival attitude of many of us who helped to create the Moscow Renaissance Fair back in the early 1970s. In its modest beginnings, born out of the raucous Blue Mountain Rock Festival, I doubt any of us could have foreseen it lasting into the next century! Or the Fair itself someday being over 30 years old itself!

... there had been over 50 years of the "Spring Fete" that centered around themes like Robin Hoods and Maid Marians dancing around as many as seven Maypoles ... The new tradition would still have music, but it would be less electric, more acoustic. Maybe it could be supported by being a venue for local or regional artists and crafts persons to show and sell their works from the previous long winter, as spring fairs had done for many hundreds of years. That was the origin of the first Moscow Renaissance Fair -- the mellow alternative to Blue Mountain.
It seemed like a time of new beginnings for Moscow. 1973. The war in Vietnam was over. The 200th birthday of the whole nation was coming up. The "Aquarian Conspiracy" was becoming a reality: Moscow had a new bookstore (with good strong coffee and fine art on the walls). There was a small food co-op opening, even a recycling center. There were no malls at either end of town, no one-way streets.

It was really exciting for a small cow-college town. And in the spring, on that same small college campus, there was the infamous Blue Mountain Rock Festival, sponsored by the UI Associated Students, a great new tradition after ten years of turtle races. Prior to that, there had been over 50 years of the "Spring Fete" that centered around themes like Robin Hoods and Maid Marians dancing around as many as seven Maypoles on the open grass in front of the Administration Building.

However, to the powers that be, the rock festival had to go. It was held in the old Shattuck Arboretum, and therefore open to most anyone and most anything. And it had been discovered by the youth of the region as a place to access all the fun that the University of Idaho had to offer -- without being a student. Seed money was made available to start a new community tradition that was to be an alternative to a rock festival but it would not be allowed in the Arboretum. The new tradition would still have music, but it would be less electric, more acoustic. Maybe it could be supported by being a venue for local or regional artists and crafts persons to show and sell their works from the previous long winter, as spring fairs had done for many hundreds of years. That was the origin of the first Moscow Renaissance Fair - the mellow alternative to Blue Mountain. Now, it is said, "if you can remember the first Fairs, you weren't there." Or, if you were there, you weren't helping make it happen, or you wouldn't remember. So this is one person's view of what went on, and I want to apologize for not getting it all quite right. And besides, even though I was at the last Blue Mountain, I wasn't at the first RenFair, even though I was on the Fair Board. I was the secretary. I lost the minutes.

The first Fair boards and committees were wonderful chaos. It took years to get our legal paperwork together right. It is painful to remember trying to sort it all out. The wild enthusiasm and exuberance of youth trying to do it all without restraint or organization was incredible, especially year after year. Slogans like "Why not?" peppered the attempts at democratic process.

Starting a new tradition was not as easy as we all thought. The idea of an arts and crafts theme begs to be out under the trees, but what if it rains? For the first 5 years, that was a big divisive issue. Everyone really wanted to have the Fair in East City Park, but in the rain, or fear of the rain, we ended up in the SUB Ballroom and even the Field House out at the Moscow Junior High. One year the Fair moved during the event. Hysterics quite often ruled.

Finally, we settled once and forever on the Park, "rain or shine". Or hail, snow, sleet and then finally, on Sunday, May 18th, 1980, the famous Mt. St. Helen's volcanic ash fall covered everything. The issue of "when" to have the Fair was also ongoing right up until that date. The Fair was conceived as a Mayday event, to celebrate the ancient spring holiday. Some people, insane of course, claimed the weather would be better or on average better, if the Fair were held just a little later. Mount St. Helen's spoke and since then the Fair has always been held the weekend of the first Sunday in May. And the traveling artists and craftspeople have adapted quite well with weatherized booths. The Fair has a reputation of its own as the first outdoor fair of the season in the region.

Fair publicity was hard to get in those first years. We discovered that a really nicely done large format poster was a very effective way to attract attention. Posting those posters used to be an event in itself. I'll never forget hanging one up in a Worley restaurant and as I drove away, watching a bunch of people get up from their tables to stare at it. ("What are those hippies in Moscow up to now?") Another way to get free publicity was to put on a May Day Maypole Dance, especially if the first was on say, Tuesday. We had a front-page photo in the Lewiston Tribune of the pole being danced around in Friendship Square that let everyone know about that coming weekend's big event.

We painted up a long shed at the old intersection of Main Street and the Troy highway to look like a historic trolley car that used to run to Spokane to advertise the Fair year around. The only other big event that weekend is the Bloomsday Race in Spokane, and somehow we've never gotten them to change their annual lilac festival, but it is always great fun to see the first Bloomsday T-shirt on a runner who has just completed the race.

The Dragon Truck made by Mark Solomon was a piece of rolling publicity for the Fair. Actually, it was sort of a Fair-on-a-truck: we'd pile the Maypole, hay bales, tarps and banners onto the Dragon and parade through town breathing fire, and assemble the Fair in the park with the Dragon being the stage.

Then there was the year that some members of the Fair board were approached by people who asked if we had ever thought of having the Fair in the summer time. They wanted to bring in tourists. We said no. So they started Rendezvous in the Park, sponsored by the Moscow Arts Commission. The Fair has always been an independent entity, which was very intentional. We did try to create another fair or festival in the fall, and it took place out at Robinson Park, but it was too much for the board and volunteers to take on.

There were no food booths at the first Fairs. There was strawberry-lemonade, with real strawberries and real lemons, sold by a non-profit alternative school. But when people asked to sell food, and made money hand over fist making authentic black bean burritos, we realized we had a new problem. It was way easier to make a bundle selling real food than art. That's when we developed the idea of allowing non-profit groups the opportunity to benefit from making real food. Even though ASUI had provided some money to start the Fair, it soon dried up except for the wonderful services of KUID-FM (then later KUOI-FM) broadcasting live from the Fair.

We struggled to find events for all kinds of people. We got an Earth Ball from New Games and the sight of this huge five-foot ball was a magnet for kids of all ages. We painted large fiberglass tarps that we got from the Spokane Expo for decoration. There were thousands of hours contributed by hundreds of people making the Maypole streamers and the beautiful flags and banners that adorn the stage area. In some ways, creating separate events for children was an afterthought of the last 15 years, before that, kids just were involved in whatever was happening. Or they just played on the playground and danced to the music.

When Mark Solomon contracted to tear down the old Potlatch Mill, he had the materials to build a real stage on the back of the park bathrooms at the center of East City Park. That was the first addition to the park that the Fair paid for as a gift to the city. After years of makeshift stages, we then had a real permanent stage--a place where people won't get wet while they play music for all of us. The Fair has since added other permanent features in the park. We paid for the water fountain Jim Gale constructed near Hayes Street in the park picnic area, as well as the four colorful bicycle racks scattered around the park.

We didn't have Kings and Queens elected for the first Fairs, but we had numerous self-appointed princes and princesses, not to mention out-of-costume hoodlums and highwaymen and any number of full-time jokers. Some of them still are on committees and the board, and there is always room for a few more. Can you volunteer? The Fair is only once a year . . . but it takes a year to get ready for it.

The long-term social impact on our area of the Fair was brought home to me the year I spotted a couple I hadn't seen in years. They said, "Oh, don't get this wrong; we just meet here to trade the kids off!" In some ways that is no different than the ancient Beltane (Mayday's eve) holiday wherein people came in from the countryside after a long winter to trade goods, crafts, lovers, and head out again for a new summer. Without corporate sponsorship.

The Moscow Renaissance Fair is a community celebration of spring held each year on the first weekend of May. The fair is directed by a private, non-profit community group and is the only self-sustaining festival of its kind in the region.
Moscow Renaissance Fair | P.O. Box 8848 | Moscow, ID 83843 USA
http://www.moscowrenfair.org


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