What to KnowCottagecore WeekendThe Original Renaissance Pleasure FaireApril 11 and 12Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale$53 adult; $28 child 5-12
Mayhaps it may rain this weekend — okay, forget the “mayhaps,” a damper forecast is definitely brewing — but the Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire is a “rain or shine” spectacular, a rollicking and royal event that famously forgoes folding up the tents at the sign of a few showers.
As luck would have it, the Irwindale festival’s upcoming theme days dovetail nicely with a potentially soggy scene.
It’s Cottagecore Weekend, the coziest weekend on the Ren Faire calendar, and cottagecorers will be out in their galoshes to celebrate flowers and toadstools and books and cups of tea and all of the enchanting aesthetics of the popular pursuit, pastime, and gentle way of living.
Cottagecore is the flowery focus April 11 and 12, and no additional ticket, beyond your Ren Faire admission, is required.
A maypole will be one center of the adorable action, and a “secret toadstool meetup” is brewing, too.
Botany, fanciful recipes, and a “Fairy Frolic Drum Jam” will add to the whimsy of the weekend.
Cottagecore’s inspirations go way, way back through the centuries, with storybooks, rural living, fantasy tales, and the splendors of the natural world providing joyful jumping-off points for modern-day practitioners. Online, cottagecore has been and continues to be an aesthetic championed by thousands of people seeking cozier and calmer outlets.
If you want to step out of your proverbial cottage to lark about, the traditional Ren Faire offerings will be in full twinkle throughout the weekend, with a marketplace, food, live music, sword fights, jesters, and the much-loved (and separately ticketed) Pub Crawl festooning the schedule like so many bright ribbons fluttering atop a maypole.