Renaissance Faire

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Renaissance Faire

Click the photo above for a detailed history of the Renaissance Faire.

Renaissance Faire is a little bit craft fair, its a little bit historical reenactment, its a little bit performance art. There are many booths selling crafts and food. Parades wind their way through the crowds. Jugglers, musicians, magicians, and other entertainers perform throughout the day. You may wander about, examining goods for sale, sampling foods, watching plays and performers, and of course drinking fine English Ale.
If you've never been to a Faire, then it’s hard to convey a sense of it. The sheer number of things to see overcomes most people, when they go for the first time. There are ribbons and flags waving in the wind, the sound of bells, of lutes, of ocarinas in the air, the lilt of foreign accents, the smell of cooking foods and flowers, the warmth of sun on your face and the wind in your hair. The setting aside, what differs more is the people. People work at faire to have fun, to entertain. If you're willing to play with them, they're happy to banter with you. When was the last time someone tried to sell you something by insisting it was carried on the backs of explorers from the wilds of the far off Indies?

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In the year 1963, the first renaissance faire was born in Southern California. Since that time the phenomenon has spread across North America, and is making inroads in many other countries. Medieval festivals, Viking battles and historical reenactments of many other eras have also sprung up, offering a feast of sights, sounds and smells in a world far too used to viewing history in two dimensions on a movie or television screen.
The Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Southern California is the largest and oldest of the re-enactment/craft faires. Unique among all events, however, is an annual gathering to celebrate the roots of the first Renaissance Pleasure Faire - the womb from which all other renaissance faires emerged. Those who were there at the original site in the Agoura Hills north of Los Angeles, and those who wish they could have been, gather to picnic, to renew old friendships and make new ones, and to remember.

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Etoile Costume and Party Center
18849 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, CA, (818) 343-3701
Open year round