50 years of community

Moscow Renaissance Fair board president and longtime volunteer LuAnn Scott says love for the community explains the event’s longevity, as it celebrates its 50th year this weekend.

That’s what got her involved more than 20 years ago.

“Moscow’s my place,” Scott said. “I love it here and really want to contribute to the community, so this is what I do.”

A music festival on the University of Idaho campus, an arts and crafts fair that began not long after — the details of the events that led to the first Moscow Renaissance Fair in 1974 vary a bit depending on who’s doing the telling, but it’s undeniable the community is what’s kept it going.

“It’s a wonderful community tradition,” Scott said. “We’ve been celebrating the emergence of spring on the Palouse for all these years, and even though we’ve not had any corporate sponsorship or anything like that, we have made it work with volunteers, the city of Moscow — especially Parks and Rec — have been instrumental in allowing us to keep going for so long.”

Moscow Mayor Art Bettge issued a proclamation during Monday’s City Council meeting calling the free fair a “treasured community event” and encouraging “all citizens to celebrate the anniversary of the Renaissance Fair and its contributions to Moscow and the greater Palouse region.”

Jim Prall is one of the few organizers still around from when the event began.

One of Prall’s roles over the years was Maypole Master, director of the signature maypole dance, which some might recall hasn’t always taken place during the fair. For years, Prall said, the dance happened on the traditional May 1 date, in downtown Moscow’s Friendship Square, whether that corresponded with the fair’s first Sunday of May or not. Now, it happens both days of the fair, in the midst of the festivities at East City Park.


One year, Prall recalled, the fair’s date was pushed back a few weeks in hopes of better weather. “And instead, the volcano blew,” he said, referring to the infamous eruption of Mount St. Helens that rained ash over much of the Northwest.

“It was a disaster, but it was exciting,” Prall said.

This year’s Ren Fair boasts close to 100 arts and crafts vendors, Scott said, about a third of which are new. The jewelry, clothing, foods, pottery and variety of other original artwork for sale make great graduation and Mother’s Day gifts, she said.

“The vendors are the lifeblood of the fair,” she said. “They pay us a fee to have a booth, and then we use the fees to pay the musicians, rent the porta-potties, get insurance, hay bales — all the things we need to put on the fair, and we’ve been self-supporting in this way for 50 years.”

The costume contest was extended to a second day this year, because of its popularity, Scott said, and is set to follow the maypole dance both Saturday and Sunday, at about 1:30 p.m. Participants can dress up any way they’d like, as there’s no particular theme “except great costumes.”

Food booths operated as fundraisers by area nonprofit organizations (using compostable containers and cutlery, per Ren Fair rules), live music by a long list of “fabulous” local bands, an expanded Kids’ Village with train rides and the traditional parade with the fair’s dragon mascot and bagpipers round out the 50th-year celebration, Scott said.

Stone (she/her) can be reached at mstone@inland360.com.

IF YOU GO
WHAT: Moscow Renaissance Fair.
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 6, and 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, May 7.
WHERE: East City Park, 900 E. Third St., Moscow.
COST: Free.
MORE: A detailed schedule, including musical lineup, is at moscowrenfair.org.