The Ohio Renaissance Festival Protest

There has been a great amount of rumor going around that the Ohio Renaissance Festival is going to be done away with and replaced by a housing development.  First, I would like to say that with the housing market what it is I can not imagine anyone making much money that way.  That said, I also can’t imagine ORF Inc. making much money with the antics they seem to be pulling.  So I am kind of undecided and would just like to share what facts and speculations I have been able to discover.

First, lets identify the players in this game by looking at registration information for their web sites:

The Ohio Renaissance Festival Inc.
Website: http://www.renfestival.com
IP Address: 208.2.209.166 (GO Concepts, Inc.)

Administrative Contact:
Carroll, Peter  ohio@renfestival.com
PO Box 68
Harveysburg, OH 45032-0068
US
+44.5138977000    Fax: +44.5138977003

Caesar Creek Lake Estates
http://www.cclakeestates.com/
IP Address: 208.2.209.161 (GO Concepts, Inc.)

Registrant:
Ohio Renaissance Festival
PO Box 68
Harveysburg, OH 45032
US

Administrative Contact:
Carroll, Peter  ohio@renfestival.com
PO Box 68
Harveysburg, OH 45032
US
+1.5138977000

So the “Administrative Contact” for both domain names is Peter Carroll, the phone numbers for both domains are the same as is used to advertise the Ohio Renaissance Festival, the two web sites are hosted on the same hosting farm (Go Concepts, Inc) and the “Registrant” for the domain used by the Ceasar Creek Lake Estates company is in fact the Ohio Renaissance Festival.

Additionally, the ORF Inc. phone number is all over the Caesar Creek Lake Estates web site.

Contact: Bob Fryer
Phone: 513-897-7000 (ext. 233)

BTW: The email listed above is used by Cheryl Bales and NOT Peter Carroll as the registration states.

From an email sent by Cheryl Bales: “This land is in no way associated with the festival land and is in fact not even owned by the ren faire, but owned by Caesar’s Creek Lake Estates.”

Ok, so the Ohio Renaissance Festival does not own the land of Caesar’s Creek Lake Estates.  What exactly does that mean and why would she state it that way?  After all, Ohio Renaissance Festival does not own the land of the Ohio Renaissance Festival.  I know that sounds crazy, but according to Peter Carroll as referenced in an official Ohio Renaissance Festival document, the land that the Ohio Renaissance Festival sits on is in fact owned by Peter Carroll personally.

“Peter Carroll, President of the Ohio Renaissance Festival, Inc. is owner/manager
and personally owns the 177 acre site.”

http://www.renfestival.com/pdfs/vendor-application-2008a.pdf

Well, maybe Cheryl didn’t phrase things exactly right and there was no deception what so ever.  I do not advise you to click the next link unless you have a huge computer.  It goes to a very large PDF file, which will take time and crunching to display properly. But if you have a good connection to the Internet and a decent video card, go ahead and check out the following link.

http://www.cclakeestates.com/images/plat.pdf

I have taken that image, turned it into a reasonable sized .jpg, turned it on its side (90 degrees cc) and added some interesting key points to it.  I think you will be better able to orient yourself to the 177 acres of the Ohio Renaissance Festival this way.  I –71 is north (on top) of the map as I have presented it here.

The key to understanding this map is where Brimstone Street is in relation to he Creek.  The ORF Inc. office is on Brimstone and the Creek (that would be the waterway that has been dumped in) runs right through the fair.

Note where the map in its original form (follow the link) has area reserved for Future Development and no reference to the festival grounds.  It seems very confusing and I can certainly understand the rumors.  But it certainly does not seem like it is as clear as all of the rumors indicate.  I think this is just another example of HORRIBLE communication on the part of the staff and management of the Ohio Renaissance Festival.

Now do not get me wrong.  Now that I know what this man has been up to in other matters, I wouldn’t doubt for a moment that he would plow ORF under, thus destroying each of the independently owned buildings without compensation if he thought he could make a quick buck.  I just don’t think there is much money to be made in real-estate now a days.  Maybe that was the plan and it has changed.  I don’t know.

What I do know is there is a very real connection between the Ohio Renaissance Festival and .  I also know it is odd that ORF Inc. staff and management do not seem to want people to know about that connection.