is their first or their 12th, all
display a naive excitement.
Stefani Seale, a 14-year-old
high school student from Na-
vasota, says her whole family
works at the festival and she
thought it would be neat to
join them. So far, she says,
she’s having a great time.
“You get to see a lot of dif
ferent people — weird peo
ple,’’she says.
Seale hawks pretzels and
gets paid 25 cents for each
one she sells. That’s not bad
considering she sells about
200 pretzels a day.
Linda Lafitte, a classmate of
Seale’s, says she likes working
at the festival because it’s fun
making people laugh.
“You get to say different
things to people and they get a
kick out of it,’’she says.
Lafitte says trading her blue
jeans in for a 16th century
frock wasn't that difficult. Ob
viously, getting used to the
language wasn’t too hard, ei
ther. She easily spans centu
ries of dialect, switching from a
drawl to cockney English ev
ery other sentence.
“You get used to it your first
weekend and then you start to
love it,” she says.
Lafitte says employees ei
ther make their own costumes
or have them made. The festi
val gave employees a cassette
tape to help them perfect the
accent and a book of 16th
century fashion guidelines, she
says.
Although many people
working at the festival are lo
cals, quite a few are seasoned
veterans of the festival circuit.
Celia Stuart has made her
living working the festival
scene for the past year. She
says she took a break from
school to travel and have fun,
but she hopes to continue her
education in theater arts at the
University of Texas.
Stuart says almost every
state has some type of Renais
sance festival and she can
usually cover the entire coun
try working straight from Feb
ruary to December. And she
claims she’s not alone.
“There is a community of
people who do this for a liv
ing," Stuart says, adding that
she sees a lot of the same peo
ple all the time.
Although this is her first
year as a professional, she
says she has years of festival
experience and especially en
joys the one in Plantersville.
“I like this festival because
it’s huge,” she says. “It’s the
biggest one I’ve ever seen.
“It’s also the most commer
cial festival I’ve been to,” she
adds. “It’s a crafts fair that’s
gotten out of hand.”
Stuart says unlike some of
the festivals she has worked at,
some of the items sold at this
one are not handmade.
Still, those crafts that are
handmade are a delight to
browse through. Visitors can
watch a craftsman demon
strate the ancient art of glassb
lowing, and then purchase
samples of his wares. More
daring festival-goers can buy
anything from leather lingerie
to chain mail swimsuits.
David Coulam, vice presi
dent of the festival, says the
artists and craftspersons who
hawk their wares at the festival
number about 250. Each artist
builds his own Renaissance-
style building to house his
goods and pays a flat- booth
fee to the festival.
Coulam says about 80 per
cent of the artists return each
year.
Over 3,000 people were
hired to entertain and delight
the expected 200,000 visitors
for six weekends in the forest
near Plantersville during this
year’s festival, he says. The
entertainment budget for the
festival is $275,000.
The entertainers — juggl
ers, actors, musicians, singers,
puppeteers, rope walkers and
belly dancers — must pass an
audition before they are hired
and are constantly being eval
uated during the festival, Cou
lam says.
A formal audition for pro
spective entertainers is held in
April, but he says people can
usually audition all year long.
The food booths, great in
number and variety, are con
tracted businesses that pay a
percentage of their earnings to
the festival. The 49 food
booths offer famished festival-
goers everything from dragon
fajitas to egg rolls for a pretty
pound.
Food prices range from $1
for a buttered ear of com to
$3.50 for a beefsteak on a
stick. Soft drinks, iced tea and
lemonade are $1, beer is
$1.50 and wine coolers are
$2. The most popular food
item, the turkey leg, is $2.75.
In addition to the conces
sion workers, about 16 full
time employees work year-
round preparing for the festi
val.
The commoners at the Re
naissance Festival far out
number the royalty, but no
kingdom would be complete
without a king. An actor plays
the part of King George, but
the real king is festival presi
dent George Coulam (David’s
brother).
George, who is also mayor
of Todd Mission, the tiny town
that is home to the festival,
started the festival with David
in 1975.
George Coulam worked at
a similar festival while he was a
student at San Fernando State
College. After receiving a mas
ter’s degree in environmental
design, he and David started a
festival in Utah but moved it to
Minnesota in 1970.
Five years later, they sold
that festival and bought 237
acres of strip-mined land near
Houston. The present site
consists of over 300 acres, and
includes the 50-acre festival
site, the parking lot, camp
grounds, maintenance facili
ties, office complex and or
chards.
David confirms that this fes
tival is one of the largest in the
country. But what really sepa
rates it from the others is the
“privies”. This is the only one
that has flush toilets, he says.
David says he and his
brother decided to start the
festival to try to make a living.
“We decided one day just
to put a festival together, and
here we are,” he says.
It is a rather unique way to
make a living — one that
probably wouldn’t occur to
the average entrepreneur—
but David says that’s what
makes it fun.
“It’s an escape like any
other form of entertainment,”
he says. “You go to the mov
ies to escape day-to-day life.
It’s the same here.”
Minstrels, a fair maiden and an oversized prince take part
in the noon Grand March, a parade of 300 Renaissance
characters who add to the magical spirit of the festival.