Serious play: Realms Unknown Fantasy Festival returns for a second year in Woodland

If only there were a place where you could shed your identity for a few days, romp around barefoot in the sunshine and frolic with fairies, unicorns, mermaids, centaurs, pirates, time-travelers and Mary, Queen of Scots.

Such a place will exist this weekend at the Lewis River Golf Course east of Woodland. Last year’s festival attracted just shy of 2,000 people, said golf course owners Matt and Jahmai Dumke of Portland, who purchased the course in late 2021 with the express purpose of hosting a large fantasy festival.

“We’d been checking out properties for almost a year,” Matt Dumke said. “We passed by a golf course and Jahmai said, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if we bought a golf course?’ ”

Although the Lewis River Golf Course had fallen into disrepair, it was still a “gorgeous property,” Matt said.

It had everything they needed for a festival site: mostly level land for accessibility, old growth trees, water, shade and grass. It had “great bones,” Matt said, and a lot of potential. The couple bought the property in 2021 under the name Princess Cheese LLC.

They hired the previous groundskeeper, Tyson Lippicott, to clean up paths and bunkers and nurture lawns back to greenness. The Dumkes also put a new roof on the clubhouse and made other repairs and upgrades.

The golfers “came back in droves,” Matt said. “It’s almost like they love the property like it’s a person.”

With the golf course humming along, the Dumkes began planning a fantasy festival. The couple are cosplayers, that is, people who don elaborate or hyper-realistic costumes to attend themed gatherings and festivals. They were big fans of Oregon’s Faerieworlds, discontinued in 2023. It left a big gap in the Northwest cosplay community, and they hope Realms Unknown will “bring the magic back,” Matt said, and maybe become something bigger.

The intention is to “keep offering new things to the community,” Matt said, like stretching the festival to two weekends or adding a Halloween festival and a Christmas light show. The Dumkes also have room to expand. The festival currently covers 50 acres, but future festivals might fill all 100 acres of the course (plus 50 acres of parking).

The Dumkes said last year’s Realms Unknown came together in about four months, made especially difficult by Matt’s back surgery during that time. (In fact, Matt said he considers the 2023 Realms Unknown “nothing short of miraculous.”) They couldn’t put much money into advertising last year, so news of the festival traveled by word of mouth. Many of last year’s attendees, Matt said, were “the most passionate, the most committed to fair life,” coming from as far away as California.

“We learned so much in the first year,” Matt said. “We’ve gotten so much more organized, and we have grown.”

In 2023, the festival offered three realms, but this year, attendees can wander through four realms: the Realm of Ages Past with Vikings, knights and pirates; the Realm of the Faeries, with fairies, mermaids, unicorns and magical creatures; Realm of the Goblins, with fairy-smashers and other mischievous characters; and Time Travelers’ Realm, where festivalgoers can learn time-traveling etiquette and partake in refined pleasures such as dancing and tea-time. The Gilden Thistle historical reenactment group will also return, depicting Mary, Queen of Scots, and her royal court with period-accurate, meticulously hand-sewn costumes and historical knowledge.

Matt said the festival is doing a better job of promoting perks, like a hearty breakfast bar for overnight campers. The festival also improved the “boring but logistical” aspects, like placement of portable restrooms, he added.

Jahmai said this year’s festival will include quiet areas where anyone can “relax if they’re overstimulated or daydream for a while until they’re ready to get back into the fray.” And there will be 138 vendors scattered throughout the realms this year, said Jahmai, instead of last year’s 36.

“They’ll be selling a lot of lost crafts and a lot of handmade goods,” Jahmai said. “A lot of it will be very geeky things, like handmade clay cups on a foot-pedal pottery wheel. We’re going to have a lot of vendors selling gear, because when people come in and they realize how immersive it can be, they’re going to want to dress up.”

Attendees don’t have to dress up, but it helps to get into the spirit of things. Folks might buy tickets just to gawp at reality-defying costumes or for the entertainment, including live bands and a Japanese Taiko drumming group. Three 21-and-older taverns will serve beer, wine, cider and mead. The festival also includes workshops, a “pirate school,” a Faerie Court procession and children’s parade, fire dancing, sword fighting demonstrations, aerial performances, La Vuelta circus performers, tea dueling and “mondo croquet” with bowling balls and sledgehammers.

For a more immersive experience, attendees can play the Portal Quest. To sum up: Many magical realms exist parallel to our own world, separated by an impassable veil. Goblins breached the veil and created an opportunity to travel between realms. Individuals and teams must rely on wit and skill to overcome various challenges and repair the goblins’ realm-opening machine.

If this all sounds like child’s play, you’re right. Fantasy festivals are about more than costumes, Jahmai said. Imaginative play develops empathy, curiosity, creativity and resourcefulness, no matter what your age.

“It’s a chance to be in another world and a chance to be another person,” said Jahmai. “Play is essential. It’s not just good for the heart and soul. It’s good for problem-solving, too, because you’re forcing yourself to think from another perspective.”

Matt said he used to be shy, but when he started dressing up as a pirate, the shyness fell away. It spilled over into his real-life personality and has allowed him to be much more outgoing, he said.

The Dumkes liken the festival to summer camp because many attendees, merchants and staff camp on the grounds during the festival. It’s a reunion of friends, and the mood is joyous and celebratory, bringing out the best in people, Jahmai said. Matt and Jahmai said they’ve felt comfortable bringing their daughter to cosplay festivals since she was a baby. Now she’s 7 and utterly used to adults in costume. Jahmai said her daughter could probably teach adults a thing or two about losing yourself in play.

Or maybe that should be finding yourself.

“You don’t stop playing because you get old,” said Matt, quoting a well-known aphorism. “You get old because you stop playing.”