It's amazingly successful, too. Over 2400 patrons attended the two-day event, which's not bad at all -- especially considering it was a first-year, "tent" faire held outdoors in the cold and blustry winds of Oklahoma in November!!!

This year's festival was located in the Heartland Amphitheater, a four-acre fenced venue owned by the Sac/Fox Casino in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Unlike the usual "sprawl" of most other renaissance faires, however, Heartland was a "tight" site. The big red Amphitheater itself was, of course, the main stage, with the jousting field situated immediately adjacent. Four smaller satellite stages were placed around the outside perimeter along with the Queen's Pavilion; demonstration areas for Five Rings Fencing, the Tulsa School of Defense and the Brotherhood of Steel; two food vendors and the ever-present blue Portapotties. The interior of the site was reserved for merchants, with hay bales set out marking a serpentine "High Street" for patrons to follow. Alas, there were no more than five merchants present this year -- undoubtedly due to the newness of Heartland, the time of year and the fact that the largest renaissance festival in the United States -- the Texas Renaissance Festival -- was running concurrently (Photo, Below: an inside view of the Heartland Renaissance Festival, with the cast and krewe at Morning Meeting at the main stage).

The list of entertainments was also quite impressive. Headlining the show was the jousting troupe, "Noble Cause," well-known from such permanently-established faires as the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival, the Greater St. Louis Renaissance Festival and other festivals scattered throughout the Midwest Circuit. In addition, Brother Donald the storyteller was there, holding audiences spellbound with his dramatic interpretations of faerie tales, both old and new. From Scarborough came the comedy pirate group "Cut, Thrust & Run" as well as Lord Kerridwyn's music and children’s show; Fearna from the Kansas City Renaissance Festival put in a lively appearance; the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival offered up the riotously fakespearean "Lord Mayor's Company" and the musical "Queen's Gambit" while the Pickled Brothers Sideshow from the Tennessee Renaissance Festival mixed comedy with fire and sharp, pointy things to entertain everybody. These acts didn't carry the show alone, however. Joining them was Byron T. Bear, Capt'n Black's Sea Dogges, the Royal Gauntlet Birds of Prey, Alimah Dance & Drum as well as the bawdy comedy of Seymoure -- a right excellent mix of acts and players designed to keep every visiting patron well-entertained!

For Ryleh, the entertainment highlights of Heartland had to be the performances of the Sea Dogges and the Lord Mayor's Company. Mind you, this is no slight to any of the rest of the cast and players there: Ryleh not only appreciates the sheer excellence and personal professionalism of the entire Heartland Krewe, but he heartily enjoys their friendship and companionship wherever they play as well. As an exciting new musical act, however, the Sea Dogges definitely have earned a special mention. Their talent will certainly take them farther than just another singing pirate act. They debuted professionally in June at the White Hart Renaissance Festival this year -- and have only gotten better, since! Even better: they have a CD!!! On the other hand, the Lord Mayor's Company -- already a well-established comedy troupe on the Midwest circuit -- presented the premier performance of their first-ever musical, "Robio & Marionette" at Heartland. It was outrageously hilarious in the same way that The Producers' "Springtime for Hitler" -- or "Plan 9 From Outer Space" -- was outrageous and funny. For one thing, LMC is most certainly not a musical act! So there was the out-of-synch lip-synching, for example, a la Milli Vanilli et others. There were props like the painted-canvas "prison tower" representing a solid-stone keep, which Marionette proceeded to dance across the stage while singing her big solo re: Robio. Everything was so deliberately overdone, so intentionally over-the-top -- it was s-o-o bad, it was GOOD!!! Needless to say, "Robio and Marionette" is definitely now one of Ryleh's favorite LMC productions.

So where does Faire a la carte go from here? With Heartland, the concept of a traveling renaissance festival has already proven itself succesful right out of the gate. But with the current state of the economy, will Faire a la Carte be able to build on this success in 2009? It will certainly be interesting to see how this distinctly Midwestern group grows -- and where it goes with this unique business plan! As you might well imagine, Ryleh is looking forward to next year's RenFaire season with much antici...
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PATION!!!