When we started LadyFaire in the autumn of 2020, the world had shut down. Faires and Festivals were canceled all over the country, and we all missed the community we’d grown to love. Our team wanted to fill that void. As faire musician Lojo Russo sings in her song “Where We Left Off”:

Hello, my friend, it’s been a while

Since I’ve seen your face, man, I’ve missed your smile…

Here we are with a little more time, just me and you and a bottle of wine

No regrets, we’ll leave it all behind and we can start from where we left off.

For many of us, faire season was family reunion time, we saw caught up on job news, family changes, and health scares. We had rooted deep in the RenFest world, and sometimes our truest selves were revealed when we donned costumes to play for a weekend. Surrounded by those who loved the faire like we did, our lives were renewed!

The LadyFaire team wanted to bridge that gap, to keep us connected, with a particular focus on the women who are the queens, faeries, wenches, pirates, musicians, artists, and maidens of our respective villages. The world is turning more usually now; some shows didn’t survive the shutdown but many did, and they’re experiencing tremendously joyful 2022 seasons. With the return of normalcy, we’re all finding ourselves reconnected in person, and our calendars have filled up, leaving less time for interviewing and writing.

Fear not, LadyFaire is not gone! As founder and editor, I am taking the opportunity to return to grad school to get myself equipped to do this work more effectively. And I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the work of the team who gave so generously of their ideas, creativity, and expertise to launch and sustain LadyFaire for 12 months of releasing fresh content. Thank you all.

For now, we’ll refresh our evergreen content and add new stuff when we can. We hope you all have enjoyed wonderful times at your festivals, picking up where you left off, with deepened friendships, renewed celebrations, honor for those we lost, and gratitude for the life we still have to live.

Magically Yours,

Kim Bryant

Editor, LadyFaire Magazine