MONTAGUE — Mutton and Mead, the only Renaissance fair in Franklin County, has been canceled this spring as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 10th annual fair had been scheduled for the weekend of June 20 and 21, at the Millers Falls Rod and Gun Club. Organizers fully expect the event to resume next spring as normal.
Mutton and Mead is set up as a cross between a Renaissance fair and a large-scale interactive performance. Attendees wander a broad landscape scattered with vendor booths, performers and period-appropriate decorations, while actors in character (usually Robin Hood characters) mingle with them.
The fair is not only a yearly highlight for local Renaissance enthusiasts, but it also draws interest from throughout the Northeast, said Mutton and Mead Artistic Director David Agro. Over the course of the weekend, the fair typically has about 8,000 attendees, he said, many of whom patronize businesses and hotels throughout the Pioneer Valley.
Many of the actors are volunteers, Agro said, but some are professionals who depend on events like Mutton and Mead for their income. It is also a lost business opportunity for the fair’s 80 to 90 vendors, who over the course of the weekend sell art, clothing, jewelry and anything else that can be tangentially related to a medieval theme.
Agro said organizers are still assessing the full ripple effects of the cancellation, but that feedback from performers, vendors and other participants has been “overwhelmingly positive.”
Organizers delayed a decision on whether to cancel for as long as possible, Agro said, hoping that either the pandemic might recede, or that the state government would give guidelines on holding large social events. To that end, preparations continued as normal through March and April.
By late April, however, when organizers were casting actors, the state still had not given any guidelines for large gatherings — and still has not. So, Agro said, organizers decided to cancel.
“Six-foot separation at our event would be extremely difficult,” he said. “We would be the type of situation that could create an outbreak.”
This would have been the 10th year for Mutton and Mead. For its first nine years, Mutton and Mead’s scripted story was based on Robin Hood, and last year’s fair was billed as the finale of the Robin Hood story.
This year, for the first time, Agro said, the fair would not have been based on Robin Hood, but would have portrayed real historical characters who had passed through the fictitious Mutton and Mead tavern, where the fair is set.
“We’re trying to highlight all the different periods of history that have rubbed against the tavern,” he said. “It’s all about possibility. All the possible things we can explore with this fictitious tavern that comes alive during our festival every summer.”
Most of the plans for what would have been this year’s fair will be re-used for the one next year. Organizers hope to use the extra year of planning to further expand on the concept, Agro said.
“Our hope is that we can make it even bigger and better than it would have been this year,” he said.
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.