Sorcha Hazelton, coordinator of the third annual Master’s Faire, made a most splendid caricature dressed in full medieval garb. And verily, she was holding up the drawing of herself during Saturday’s event to prove such.
“This is the funnest market I’ve done,” said Lybbie Brown, the local artist who drew Hazelton’s caricature amidst doodling elves, vampires, and knights. “I’m definitely coming back next year. It’s nice to get the Juneau community together.”
Sorcha Hazelton, who has coordinated the Master’s Faire for the past three years, holds up a cartoon version of herself drawn by local artist Lybbie Brown, the owner of Mossy Maiden, during Saturday’s event. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Hazelton, a member of the local Masonic community that hosts the event, said the Master’s Faire has been growing since it began in June of 2021. Although the rain dampened the number of attendees, she said they saw an increase in vendors this year.
“The first year we actually just had a volunteer make hot dogs,” she said. “We didn’t have any food vendors who were willing to take a risk on a first year of our event. And so last year Four Plates came in and now we’re up to six food vendors. V’s Cellar Door is here with turkey legs and they actually sold out. Our beer garden is new this year too, and then we have a variety of other new jewelry, art and crochet vendors.”
The Renegade band plays together at the Master’s Faire on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Elle Z Rox)
Hazelton is an advisory board member for the youth group Rainbow Girls and a member of Eastern Star, an adult group. All ticket sales for the faire raise funds for the Juneau Masonic Center.
“It funds our group and it allows us to continue to have a place to do all of the work that we do,” she said. “And we’re all nonprofits. We’re a family of a bunch of different nonprofits who do a bunch of different things. Most of them are youth oriented. We have the Shrine club who raises money for their Shrine hospitals. Eastern Star is currently raising money and doing collections for AWARE. And then the Rainbow Girls are doing anything that comes to their mind. But they do all of their events and skill buildings for community service projects.”
John Barnett, president of Juneau Masonic Center Association and Juneau-Douglas Shrine Club, said it’s also a fun excuse to dress up.
“We also felt that Juneau needed a venue for some of us to dress up,” he said. “We thought it was a good idea for an event that Juneau has been lacking. It’s fun to see the variety of costumes — everything from fair maidens to Vikings to knights. More people dress up each year.”
The winners of the “Best Couple’s” costume contest at the the Master’s Faire went home with honey, yeast and a recipe for honey mead on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of John Barnett)
In the future, Hazelton said she hopes the faire could grow to be an all-weekend campout event with more musicians, more food and a dunk tank.
A band of friends called Renegade played music around the faire grounds with hopes to attract a king, mandolin player and vocalist Elle Z Rox (a.k.a. “Mandalynne”) said. She’s a local songwriter who along with the mandolin, plays the guitar.
Georgia Horton (“Lady G”), Kevin Nye (“Sir Kevin of Nye”), Kym Stover (“Musique of Normandy”) and John Lager (“Sir John of Lager”) joined Rox in adding to the medieval atmosphere on Saturday. It was the first time the Master’s Faire had live music and their surprise performance was welcome, Hazelton said. The group, which just started a month ago, hopes to play at more venues around town in the future.
“We just love to play and we’ll play anywhere we can,” Rox said.
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz.garrett@juneauempire.com or (907) 723-9356.
Elle Z Rox and Kym Stover play music together at the third annual Master’s Faire on Saturday. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Local artist Carly Lemieux practices henna for free on Eulaysia Rayne on Saturday. Lemieux said she’s drawn her whole life and began henna specifically for the Master’s Faire to “bring extra excitement to Juneau.” (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
David Noon, Juneau Board of Education member and University of Alaska Southeast Professor of History, leads medieval trivia on Saturday. The winner went home with a sack of potatoes. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
