Carlene has alerted us to the following event: The Fourth Annual Medieval Fantasy Festival in Downtown Vacaville, CA will be held on April 19-20, 2008. Each year the Festival has included, along with entertainment and music, kids games, fun, vendors, and food, a more thoughtful, serious side. This year the Festival will be screening the movie “Ringers: Lord of the Fans. Along with this incredible event, special guests, Carlene Cordova and John Welch, will be on site to lead a discussion of their work and “The Lord of the Rings” fan phenomena.
• The Medieval Fantasy Festival in Downtown Vacaville, CA will show “Ringers, Lord of the Fans” at the Town Square Library 11:00 AM Sat, April 19 and Sun, April 20 at 12: PM
• “Ringers” Director Carlene Cordova, and co-editor John Welch to be Special Guests of the Festival, speaking at 2:30 PM, Sat. April 19, and showing portions of “Ringers” at the Town Square Library
“RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS” (produced in association with TheOneRing.net) is a feature-length documentary that explores how “The Lord of the Rings” has influenced Western popular culture for the past 50 years. “RINGERS” covers 50 years of LOTR popularity, the Bakshi animated film, and Jackson’s epic trilogy. What began as the private amusement of a tweedy Oxford professor has now become a new mythology for the 21st ce! ntury. “RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS” shows how an adventur! e story published in 1954 has had dynamic ripple-effects through Western pop culture. For more information about “RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS”, please visit this website: ringersstore.com
The Medieval Fantasy Festival committee believes well written fantasy allows us to focus on our world from a new window, to live with hope, to look at ourselves, our heroes and leaders with new understanding and courage. Last year the Festival took its current name to include other authors and artists as well. We have kept the emphasis on friendship, community, and working together, on making the world a better place, on keeping alive the music and crafts from our ancestors, and on being responsible stewards of our good, green Earth.
The Festival lives at historic downtown Vacaville, CA. There is no admission charge. Vendors like those in a Renaissance Faire, Craftspeople demonstrating Old Time Skill! s, are all eager to talk about pride in their accomplishments. Guilds, including the Danse Macabre and the Crystal Clan have joined the Festival this year adding to the visual feast. Because our roots are those of a fantasy author who cared deeply about the earth and the creatures it supports, we, too, are exploring how we can live a green, eco-friendly life style and lessen our carbon footprint on the earth. Visitors will enter a ‘time portal’ from the Medieval – Fantasy area into 2008 with electric cars, recycling, films from the Sierra Club, and Earth Day activities.
The Ratapult debuts this year. In this unique ‘sporting event’, puppet rats will show off in the Pied Piper Parade, compete for the best costume, and then be launched from a huge catapult. In a different division, contestants will enter their own designed and built trebuchets, and launch rubber squoosh rats. Folkmanis Puppets is t! he maker of our Ratapult puppets. To find out more about! the fes tival, go to the festival website at medievalfantasyfestival.com or call the Downtown Vacaville office at (707) 451-2100.
