King Richard’s Faire is a Renaissance Faire held in Carver, Massachusetts, which recreates a 16th-century marketplace, including handmade crafts, foods, musicians, singers, dancers, minstrels, mimes, jugglers, whip artists, magicians, comedians, puppeteers, gymnasts, exotic animals,[1] acrobats, mud beggars, stilt walkers, knights jousting on horseback, a royal court, and the fictional King Richard. King Richard’s Faire is the longest-running Renaissance Faire in New England.[1]
History
The Faire was founded in 1982 by the late Richard Shapiro and his wife Bonnie, who ran the original "King Richard's Faire" in Bristol, Wisconsin (which was renamed Bristol Faire when the Shapiros sold it to Renaissance Entertainment Corporation in 1988). Today, Bonnie and her daughter Aimée Shapiro Sedley produce the show. King Richard’s Faire is the largest and longest-running Renaissance Faire in New England.[1]
Details
King Richard's Faire is operated on 80 acres (32 ha)[1] of pine forest and has 8 stages plus a tournament field for live jousting. The buildings are permanent year-round structures. King Richard’s Faire runs for eight consecutive weekends from the first weekend in September through the third weekend in October (including Labor Day and Columbus Day),[2] closing for bad weather.