Back in October at the 15th annual Folsom Faire, the group that’s produced it all this time (St. Matthews Guild) announced that it had decided that 15 years was enough and that they would be retiring after last year’s event. They’ll still be performing at Faires as a guild, but no longer producing an event. At that event, Liz Martin (the Lady who’s been the producer for the last several years), announced that she’d be continuing on with a new production team.

All good and well, then in early December, the City of Folsom (who actually owns the Faire), sent out a request for proposal outline to a handful of producers in Northern California. The deadline was today (January 25th). It’s been a hard decision all the way around, I know Liz was annoyed that anyone else going after it (telling one of the other interested producers that it was unprofessional for us to have even shown up for the informational meeting with the city), but if I were in her shoes I can’t say that I’d have been very different. I might have been less surprised, but it wouldn’t change the fact of feeling like you were stuck in the ocean with sharks in the water and a nasty cut on your leg.

Some 50 man-hours of effort later between myself, Marti, and others who all chimed in their $.02 worth, it was finally done early this weekend and we sent it off - all 68 pages of the proposal. It’s probably the most detailed Faire-related document I’ve ever been a part of, but in the end, I’m profoundly proud of it.

I don’t know if we’ll wind up winning the project, but whether we do or not, I’m really at the moment as happy with our presentation as I could be. Over the length of the document’s writing, it helped put into context how much we do across our various groups and departments, and how many things we have to offer. And also how danged good we’ve become in presenting ourselves and in crunching the numbers.

We’re very much not perfect, but I think we know more than most where our imperfections lie, and what our challenges are. At least that way we can work on them as we go.

If we get it, it’ll be posted about here and elsewhere, but for now, we wait, and I keep fingers crossed.

To the other production group pitching for it as well - all the best of wishes and luck, and whomever gets it, I hope it’s a smooth and prosperous year running up to the 16th annual Folsom Faire.