Renaissance Faire Looking for Permanent Site in O.C.

A wooded area somewhere in Orange County could become the new home of the popular Renaissance Pleasure Faire, the springtime 16th-Century fantasy festival now in its 33rd year.

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Phyllis Patterson, the fair’s originator and president, said Tuesday that her lease on the current San Bernardino County site runs out next year and she is looking for a permanent home in Southern California, as well as a permanent site for the Northern California version of the event.

After 33 years of operating on leased land, she wants to buy about 80 acres on which the fair’s Elizabethan-era sets can be constructed for good, instead of being torn down and rebuilt each spring.

“I love Orange County, and it certainly would be one of the most desirable counties to be in,� said Patterson, 63, who started the successful festival in Laurel Canyon in 1963. It now draws about 250,000 people each spring.

“We are looking at every possible situation for us that can fill our needs,� she said. “If we think it has potential, we’ll check it out.�

Part of Orange County’s appeal is its central location, Patterson said. It is also adjacent to one of the fair’s most important drawing areas, San Diego County, she said.

But Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles county sites are also being considered, she said.

Two local sites mentioned as possibilities are the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre area and the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, which is expected to be vacated by 1999. Patterson said she is familiar with both sites but has not looked at them recently.

Connie Smith, an aide to Patterson, said the Irvine Lake area and Brea Canyon were also suggested but did not pass muster.

Any prospective site must have freeway access, parking for about 5,000 cars a day, a water source and lots of trees.

“Irvine Lake is a lovely setting, but it doesn’t look like England,� Smith said. “It has a lot of nice things, but there are no trees.�

Brea Canyon “is gorgeous, but there are no trees there either,� Smith said.

Patterson’s son, Kevin Patterson, the chief executive officer of Renaissance Pleasure Faires Inc., which has 30 full-time employees, said that government sites are among the most desirable properties.

“We are very interested in parkland and government land,� he said. “All surplus government land is a real possibility because the fair has to be in a place that is not in the path of development.�

Kevin Patterson said he hopes to “locate all our possible options within six months.�

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Since moving from Laurel Canyon, the fair has been held in North Hollywood and Agoura and at its current site in Glen Helen Regional Park, next to the Blockbuster Pavilion in Devore.

Both Pattersons said that the current location, at an elevation of about 1,500 feet, which keeps it cool, is perfect except for the fact that it is county land and not for sale.

“This site is beautiful; we like it here very much,� Phyllis Patterson said. “The parking is perfect; the two beautiful lakes are perfect. You come out here and it’s like a day in the countryside, which is what we want.�

But because it is a county park, the fair’s elaborate ticket entrance area and its five major stages, including a replica of the Globe Theater, must be torn down when the fair closes its nine-weekend run each June, Phyllis Patterson said.