Letter: Renaissance Faire rescheduled

To the editor:

We really believe that Williams and northern Arizona is a special place and are a great place to bring our renaissance faire. However, after much consideration, after much due diligence, planning, advertising and hard work from our volunteers and staff, we have had to make the very difficult decision to reschedule the Renaissance Faire from this year to another.

Along with our major investment in putting on the show, local sponsorship and support are vital to bringing this event here. A series of unusual circumstances, some site limitations and strategic planning all have contributed towards the making of this decision.

To their credit, it should be noted many members of the lodging community have stepped up to offer our entertainers rooms for their stay in Williams and others have helped us with in kind services and in loaning us additional tents and equipment.

We cannot compromise on the quality of the event and as you know many in our group have been involved in putting on renaissance events for many years. We are persistent, diligent and put on a super quality event.

We still believe that northern Arizona is the ideal place for a major renaissance venue and still hope to bring "The Grand Canyon Renaissance Experience!" to Williams as our town welcomes us and supports our efforts.

Our staff, volunteers and advisory board continue to meet. We will re-group, pay our dues and our bills and then look to the future. To reschedule an event is never an easy thing to do. There has been an incredible amount of energy put into this year's faire.

We want to take the time to thank our volunteers, our staff, vendors, entertainers, Sean Casey and Bearizona, the Holiday Inn, Motel 6 (east and west), The Lodge, Downtown Motel, the grand Canyon Hotel, Pine Country Restaurant, Williams Feed and Pet, the city of Williams, Williams-Grand Canyon Chamber of Commerce, Phyllis Rae Musselman, Michael F. Vasquez and the Williams-Grand Canyon News.

I also want to take a moment personally to thank Carl, Barbara and Lani Bilharz, Heather Levin and Terry Warnock for all their hard work (all of our staff and many volunteers absolutely believe this project is right for northern Arizona). We also want to thank the community, all our supporters and so many others who believe in what we do and in our project. We are still here, and still committed to bringing the faire to northern Arizona and so much more.

Those who want to bring our faire and ultimately "The Grand Canyon Renaissance Experience!" to northern Arizona, we are still working towards those goals and we are ready to talk to you.

Mark Worden

Managing Director

Grand Canyon Renaissance Faire