ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 20, 1996 TAG: 9604220034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: STAFFORD
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE VIRGINIA RENAISSANCE FAIRE will deliver a taste of the old country, just down the road from George Washington's home.
In an area best known for Colonial beginnings and Civil War battlefields, a new theme park is banking that visitors will pay for a taste of history from across the Atlantic, too.
For seven weekends in May and June, a former farm near the site of George Washington's boyhood home will become a stylized 16th-century English village.
``We believe history ought not to be dry and dull,'' said Rikki Kipple Gilbert, executive director of the fair and one of its costumed actors. ``Shakespeare said, `We trick into learning with a laugh,' and that is our motto.''
The fairgrounds feature a replica of a 16th-century galleon, Tudor-style houses, shops and a tavern, rides, games and more than 1,000 costumed jesters, courtiers, merchants, knights and peasants performing skits.
Stafford County, lately the scene of a pitched battle over whether to build a Wal-Mart atop part of George Washington's boyhood farm, welcomes the project for the tax revenue it will bring.
State officials estimate the fair will generate about $500,000 in sales tax in its first year.
About 100,000 people are expected to visit the Virginia Renaissance Faire in the theme park's inaugural season, organizers said.
The project, with a $307,000 package of public funding, will open May 4 and run through June 16.
Despite weather-related problems during Virginia's worst winter in recent memory, the project is on schedule, manager Tom Basham said.
The project is not affected by the furor surrounding the Wal-Mart project three miles down the road at Ferry Farm, where the first American president lived from age 6 to about age 20. The store would sit next door to the preserved foundation of the Washington family home, on land where the family grew tobacco.
``It's not in conflict with anything historical, that's why you don't see any of that'' opposition, Virginia Tourism Director Patrick McMahon said of the fair project.
The Walt Disney Co. walked away from a planned American history theme park near the Manassas National Battlefield two years ago after prolonged criticism. Disney took particular heat from historians who objected to planting fanciful history atop the real thing.
No one will confuse the fair with the historic exhibits in nearby Fredericksburg, including the homes of Washington's mother and his sister, tourism officials said. The Fredericksburg area was also the site of several large Civil War battles, and a national park preserving some of the battlefield land is a major tourist draw.
``It's lots of fun, which actually this area kind of lacked,'' McMahon said of the Renaissance park. The region ``has lots of history and lots of shopping, but not really a lot of fun things.''
Virginia tourism officials helped advertise the fair nationally and predict the event will help boost retail, hotel and restaurant sales in the area, McMahon said.
Medieval-theme fairs began as a tourist novelty about 30 years ago, Gilbert said. The fairs typically run several weeks a year and then close, as the Virginia site will do.
``It's like the circus coming to town,'' Gilbert said. ``It is an ephemeral period of time, and you have to make a concerted effort to get here.''
Renaissance Entertainment Corp. has spent about $2.5 million building the park, Gilbert said. The Colorado-based developer runs four other fairs nationwide.
The fair is a first in Virginia. A similar fair operates in the fall in Maryland.
Tickets for the Virginia Renaissance Faire are $14.50 for adults, $6.50 for children, and are available by calling (800)52-FAIRE.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Actors at the Virginia Renaissance Faire in Staffordby CNBare preparing for the park's opening weekend, which is May 4.