(Photograph courtesy of Rich Yee, and used with permission.)
Revelers engage in spirited English country dances. Artisans offer handcrafted wares in a winding lane of shops. Audiences hiss the villain at a music hall, or sing along with raucous patrons in a dockside alehouse.
And it’s all part of a special anniversary celebration, that starts this weekend.
(Graphic courtesy of Great Dickens Christmas Fair, and used with permission.)
This Saturday, November 23rd, the Great Dickens Christmas Fair and Victorian Holiday Party transforms Daly City’s Cow Palace into Charles Dickens’ London. The circa-1865 festivities will continue, every weekend from now through December 22nd, with three acres of winding lanes, shops, tearooms, pubs, a Music Hall, and the London dockside.
(Photograph courtesy of Rich Yee, and used with permission.)
Visitors will find themselves in the midst of the population of Dickens’ day: chimney sweeps, sailors, magicians, carolers, London bobbies–and even Queen Victoria and her court!
(Photograph courtesy of Rich Yee, and used with permission.)
Perhaps the best part of the Dickens Fair, though, isn’t that it has everything from children’s crafts to can-can performances…or the daily parades and appearances by Dickens’ characters, Father Christmas and Queen Victoria…or all the dancing, great food and hilarity.
What I personally like most is its dedication to creating an authentic “VIctorian London” experience. From early November, more than 750 performers attend workshops on speech, dress, and life in Dickens’ day. The results are what has made this one of the most authentically-Victorian Christmas celebrations in the world–and a Christmastime Bay Area tradition for three-and-a-half decades.
(Photograph courtesy of Rich Yee, and used with permission.)
Performers aren’t the only ones with resources available, to help them prepare for the Fair. On the Dickens Fair website, guests are encouraged to learn more about the world they’ll see, with historical information and recommended reading.
(Photograph courtesy of Rich Yee, and used with permission.)
Best of all, visitors don’t have to feel like visitors to the Dickensian era. The Dickens Fair encourages guests to come in Victorian costume, and offers both guidelines and patterns, on their site.
No wonder the Dickens Fair has the feel of exactly what it promotes: “a Victorian Christmas Card come to life.”
The Thirty-Fifth Annual Great Dickens Christmas Fair opens Saturday, November 23rd, and runs for five weekends, through December 22nd, at the historic Cow Palace, 2600 Geneva Avenue, Daly City. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and they are open the Friday after Thanksgiving. Discount tickets may be ordered online and printed at home through November 21st. “Twilight Special” tickets, good after 4 p.m. daily, are available at the box office.