Gilroy – The Northern California Renaissance Faire is returning to Casa de Fruta for a fourth run next September, but if attendance doesn’t improve dramatically, the production company that rescued the fair may have to give up.
“If attendance doesn’t improve a lot next year, that’s probably going to be it,” said Lisa Stehl, chief executive officer of Play Faire Productions.
The Faire’s short history in the South Valley has been a troubled one. A year ago, the Renaissance Entertainment Corp., the company that put on the fair and others like it in San Bernardino, Chicago and New York, pulled the plug on the northern California show, citing falling attendance and a precipitous drop in revenue.
But unwilling to let the fair die, and convinced that they could do a better job, the show’s actors and vendors rallied together to form a new company, one that Stehl says is the only participant-owned fair production in the nation.
The new owners have won rave reviews from Casa de Fruta management, who believe that Play Faire is much better equipped to make the Faire a success.
“The new company was super,” General Manager Vicki Goreham said. “They have a lot of ambition and a lot of enthusiasm. They’re the right people for the job.”
Play Faire’s production team wasn’t successful in driving attendance up, but Faire workers drew on their front-line experiences and completely revamped the show’s operations, slashing the Faire’s operating budget from $2 million to $750,000.
“We worked really hard to cut a lot of superfluous things the audience doesn’t see,” Stehl said.
Stehl said that she’s working closely with Casa de Fruta partner Gene Zanger to improve the bottom line, and noted that Play Faire’s biggest expense is the rent it pays to take over the road side attraction for the late summer event.
Zanger declined to comment on the status of lease negotiations, but echoed Goreham’s strong support for Play Faire and the positive economic benefits the fair has on Casa de Fruta and the region.
“The Renaissance Faire not only brings more guests to community businesses such as restaurants, hotels and service stations, but it also creates a number of jobs ranging from pre-fair construction to a number of service workers. A unique element it adds is the number of local actors it employs.,” Zanger said.
But if the Faire is to survive, it has to attract significantly more people than the 40,000 who attended this year. According to Stehl, 80,000 is the magic number for long-term viability.
“We didn’t have as much audience participation as we would like because we ran into a lot of weather,” she said. “We had two solid weekends where it was rainy and crappy and ugly.”
To counter the weather and draw a larger audience, Play Faire is planning to open the fair a week earlier and is working on “bigger and better” events to go along with the standard jousting tournament and stage productions. Zanger and Stehl agree that improved marketing is critical.
“We did a lot of advertising last year and we think we have a better grip on what works and what doesn’t,” Stehl said. “And we’re going to pray for good weather.”
The fair is tentatively scheduled to open Sept. 10 and run six weekends through Oct. 16, 2005.
