Tee off at StoneTree Golf Club and you're swinging through a lost kingdom.

From 1971 to 1998, the oak woods at Novato’s Black Point turned into a 16th-century village. Over six or seven weekends this time of year, nearly 200,000 people a season came through the gates of the Northern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire. It was among the largest in America.

Pleasure?

When Phyllis and Ron Patterson threw America's first Renaissance faire in Southern California in 1963, it was a big party. “All of us connected with the early events called them pleasure fairs, not Renaissance ones,” one early organizer later wrote. “The image of revelry could not be denied.”

In 1967, the Pattersons brought the party north. They staged a fall harvest faire at China Camp in San Rafael, raising money for Berkeley’s KPFA. Four years later it moved to the oak woods at Black Point. It stayed for nearly three decades.

The workers didn’t just wear costumes. They trained. Before each season, performers attended workshops on Elizabethan manners and dress, and learned “BFA,” short for Basic Faire Accent. Workers in the 80s were handed a worksheet on how to talk. If you were in front of the curtain, you stayed in character.

Visitors didn’t have to use BFA, but plenty played along. Some went further. According to the book “More Moments in Marin History,” anyone who rode a horse to the faire got in free.

Then there was the mud.

“Remember the Merry Mire,” the Bohemian wrote in 1998, “where patrons could purchase buckets of mud to sling at foul-mouthed wenches and uncouth louts perched over a pond of muddy water?”

Kissing was part of several games, in ways that wouldn’t fly today.

At the Drench-a-Wench and Soak-a-Bloke booths, you fired a wet sponge at an actor, and a hit earned you what the Bohemian called “an eye-popping kiss from the target.” In the “fairy rings,” actors would surround a couple, recite a rhyme and refuse to release them until they kissed. In Clench-a-Wench, you raced a rival to be the first to kiss a stranger.

The games got even stranger. In Twilziewop, challengers stood on a log and swung cloth-filled sacks at each other until someone fell off.

Some buildings were more than stage sets. One crew built a real Tudor cottage out of timber, bulrush thatch and mud. Faire alumni remember the builder cutting off his own long hair and mixing it into the mud for the front step, the way it might have been done four centuries earlier.

By the late 90s, the magic was thinning. The Bohemian noted that the hay bales once scattered everywhere for lounging had dwindled. In their place were banners for Miller Beer, and “ATMs are never far away.”

The lease ran out after the 1998 season. The faire packed up and today lives on at Casa de Fruta.

The bulldozers took the rest, the thatched cottage included. StoneTree opened in 2000 where the dusty lanes had been.

One clue survives on the map. As you exit 37 and turn right towards the golf course, for all of about 1,000 feet before becoming Stone Tree Lane, you are on Renaissance Road:

The next time you find yourself on that road, try your best Basic Faire Accent with a “Good morrow, milady!”

If you’d like to be considered for Photo of the Week (nature, architecture, wildlife), please fill this out!

At 19 years old, Prince recorded his first album at the Record Plant Sausalito. He met legends Sly Stone and Santana. We’ll be playing their music, along with Rick James, Stevie Wonder, and more. Historian Katiana Giacona will tell the stories behind the music. This Marin Buzz event sold out last time and we’re announcing it on social media soon, so don’t wait. Saturday 10/10, $20 early-bird pricing.

The Bay Area-raised EDM star comes home to ring in the new year with two nights at Bill Graham Civic, 12/30 and 12/31. Artist presale is Tuesday 9/29 at 10am (sign up here), Another Planet presale is Wednesday 9/30 at 10am (password: starfall), and general on-sale is Thursday 10/1 at 10am. 18+.

The singer-songwriter behind "ceilings" brings her first arena tour to Chase Center on 7/13/27, with Post Animal opening. The artist presale runs in two waves Wednesday 9/30, at 10am and 2pm (sign up at lizzymcalpine.com). Amex cardholders get in Thursday 10/1 at 10am, and general on-sale is Friday 10/2 at 10am.

Because leaving Marin might take more planning. Look for our Marin events in the Wednesday email.

The free festival brings 80 acts to Golden Gate Park, including Robert Plant, Emmylou Harris, Molly Tuttle, and Old Crow Medicine Show. Marin's own: Meels, Wreckless Strangers, Moonalice, and probably more. Friday-Sunday, free.

Four days of architecture, interiors, and wine-country design, October 1-4. The free events include a gallery hop with passport stamps and DJ block party. There’s paid events too, like a behind-the-scenes look at McIntyre Tile's factory with ceramic artist Kala Stein for $15.

Rowing teams race old-school whaleboats on the Mare Island Strait while the waterfront fills with live music, food, and art. And disc golfers can take on a 24-hole course through Mare Island's historic shipyard warehouses and bunkers. Saturday 10/3, 10am-6pm, free to attend.

Please note that this property isn’t associated with the banner sponsor above or Marin Buzz in any way. It is just a unique home you might be interested in seeing, for entertainment purposes only!

19145 - 19225 Highway 1, Marshall, CA 94940

16 acres across four parcels that include a mix of residential, commercial, and agricultural zoning.

It includes four residences, a boatyard, the local post office, and most importantly: the Marshall Store Restaurant is a tenant. That restaurant makes this stretch of Tomales Bay a destination visitors seek out.

The offering spans nearly half a mile of shoreline, with 18 buildings and undeveloped land. Whether a future owner could expand existing buildings or add new ones remains an open question.

Web link

If you’d like your pet to be considered for Pet of the Week, please fill this out!

Thanks for reading. We will be back with the regular events and activities email Wednesday morning!

— Allison + Brian