As a child, Whitney Schroeder spent hours walking through the craft booths set up in East City Park for Moscow”s annual celebration of spring: the Renaissance Fair.
She listened to the live music, played in the park”s sandbox and ate fried cinnamon dough treats called Nessie Ears.
“I was always kind of in awe of it, you know?” Schroeder said. “Like, this is what artists do. There”s that little magic that comes with it.”
Schroeder, a Moscow native, grew up attending the fair. Now, she works as the Renaissance Fair marketing and communications coordinator.
She is among one of the 15 Renaissance Fair committee members who spent months planning and organizing the 43rd annual Renaissance Fair that will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in East City Park. The free event is open to the public and includes a line-up of live musicians, local vendors selling art and other hand-made goods and Maypole activities.
Schroeder said organizing the event, which aims to bring together local and regional artists and community members, is a process that involves extensive coordination.
“It is a journey, a process,” Schroeder said. “Not anyone can sign up for a booth, they have to send photos of their stuff because we”re pretty strict about having only hand-made stuff. We don”t just invite bands to come play, we help them find accommodations.”
The fair is funded by a non-profit organization called The Renaissance Fair.
All proceeds from sales go to the vendors. Schroeder said the money from food sales goes to non-profit organizations.
When the fair first began in 1974, it was held at the Old Arboretum on the University of Idaho campus.
LuAnn Scott, president of The Renaissance Fair, said the event was born out of the Blue Mountain Rock Festival and aimed to bring community members together to celebrate the warm weather with live music and food.
“Originally, it was a music festival that was pretty raucous,” Scott said. “It got a little too raucous and the university asked us to do it somewhere else and eventually we settled on East City Park – it got mellower as the years went by.”
Music has always been an integral part of the fair, but art displays and activities for children have become increasingly popular as well.
“When it started out, it was all about the music and actually the craft part of the fair grew and we added the kids stuff later,” Scott said.
While many associate the medieval times with the name “Renaissance Fair,” Schroeder said the event is a celebration of spring more than anything else.
“People, I think, get confused. They hear the Renaissance Fair and think knights and dragons and all that, which we do allow that type of stuff there, but the actual essence of the fair is the celebration of spring and music and art,” Schroeder said. “We like to say it”s more Botticelli, a Renaissance painter, and less Robin Hood.”
Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Corrbond