The Renaissance Pleasure Faire, a “living history environment,” has been an annual event in California since 1963, beginning in Los Angeles, where it is held in April and May, and then traveling to Marin County where since 1967 it has been open in August and September.

The Marin Renaissance Pleasure Faire, which lasts six weekends, as does its Los Angeles counterpart, has sprawled over a mile and a half of the Oak Forest near Novato, which is near San Rafael. “Renaissance,” in this case, means medieval and Elizabethan England with a convenient recognition of falafel, Turkish coffee, and Italian delicacies, which may or may not have been known to the British during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Peg Long, the fair's entertainment coordinator, auditions potential Pleasure Faire performers two or three months before each event. Once chosen, they participate in a month-long series of preparatory workshops on diction, scenarios, historical background, and the general ambience of the Pleasure Faire.