Ron Patterson the Founder of the First Medieval Renaissance Faire Dies at Age 80

The Renaissance Pleasure Faire of 1963 was the Original Modern Medieval Faire. Sadly, Ron Patterson, the co-founder of the Renaissance Faire dies at 80.
It is a sad day for those that love to attend Renaissance Faires and Medieval Festivals that are now held across the country and even around the world. Before 1963 there was no such thing as a Renaissance festival. It wasn’t until Ron Patterson and his wife Phyllis came up with the idea for the first festival filled with medieval activities and medieval costumes (MedievalCostumesandGifts) that medieval fans had a place to go share and celebrate their common interests.

In 1963 in North Hollywood, California, Ron and Phyllis created the original faire which was a “living history” for school children and their families. Since then this Elizabeth Era inspired faire has grown into an annual festival that includes over 200,000 participants and guests. Although, the original faire was a lot smaller and the costumes were not very authentic, this changed for the better throughout the years.

Since the first Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California (RPFS), 5 million people from around the world have visited Southern California’s Renaissance Pleasure Faire, averaging approximately 20,000 each weekend. Now all of the actor’s costumes go through a rigorous approval process to ensure authenticity of the costume. The 4 types of medieval costumes are broken into the following categories: peasant class costumes, middle class costumes, noble costumes, and military costumes.

Although the Patterson’s divorced in 1980 and Ron Patterson recently passed away on January 15, 2011, their passion for all things medieval will live on through their medieval festivals. The RPFS is still going strong. This year’s the faire occurs from April 9 – May 22, 2011 Saturday’s and Sunday’s.

In addition, the Patterson family owns and operates the Great Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco which was started in 1970 and is still an event that is looked forward to every year. This year the Dickens Fair goes on for four weekends November 25 - December 18, 2011. Join all of the fun at the fairs this year. For the best deals on medieval costumes check out MedievalCostumesandGifts.

Medieval Costumes and Gifts and is a medieval decor-oriented business based in San Diego, California. Our establishment came from an approach of a new type of career path. Working for big business corporations in sales and finance was not the career path of our destiny. We wanted a greater sense of personal accomplishment and ownership in a career. It was July of 2010 when our ideas struck along with some very helpful determination. We knew that great products at great prices were essential to help build a business. We began selling some of our medieval items at events and gained great experience with our customers. From there we grew our product base, learned from our experiences, and eventually created our own website.

Medieval Costumes and Gifts
Steffanie Lund
http://medievalcostumesandgifts.com/
PO Box 161200
San Diego, CA 92176-1200
619-516-0069
cs@medievalcostumesandgifts.com

This release was published on openPR.