Wow, I went to my first ever Renaissance Festival this past Friday, November 25, 2011. It was a blast! I loved seeing all the actors, jugglers, people in costume and all the other sights and sounds of the festival event. If there's one in your area, I highly recommend it. From what I understand, these are basically travelling actors who live in tents, campers, etc, who don't make a lot of money doing this, but they do it because they love it. If you can tip them for the acting shows, it helps them out a lot.
I took as many pictures as my Blackberry would allow, then the battery died. My son had his camera and he and I both took pictures with it after my phone died.
On the way to the Festival......
In the ticket line...
The lords and ladies approach the front gates...
Waiting for the king and queen to open the Festival...
Learning the proper way to bow and curtsy when the king and queen arrive to open the Festival...
The tickets...
The kind and queen have arrived ... "Huzzah!"
The ticket-checker ...
Inside the gate ...
The Queen's Stage: The Fire Juggler! I like this guy!
I was picked in the crowd to come up on the stage by the Fire Juggler. My first thought was to bolt!!
I am up on The Queen's Stage with the Fire Juggler! I like this guy - he was a lot of fun!
There were 2 other volunteers from the crowd on the stage too. He gave the 3 of us volunteers flaming torches. While the Fire Juggler was balancing on the big yellow ball, one volunteer tossed the 1st flaming to the Juggler's outstretched hand. The 2nd volunteer tossed her flaming torch to the Juggler's other outstretched hand.
Then he looks at me and signals me to toss the last flaming torch - but he had no free hands!
Soooo, I got to toss a flaming torch to him while he was still balancing on the ball, and he had no free hands. He catches my torch and goes right into juggling the torches, just as I made my toss.
It made me a little nervous, but was pretty cool! :) :)
The Dungeon Museum, Exhibit of Torture and Horror. And as the guy in the pic says, "you can never have too much depravity in one day!"
This guy wanted me to juggle with him so badly! :)
This ride was a little interesting. There are riders in the car and two men basically winding up the "maypole" assembly as high as they can reach. The result is that the car starts spinning and getting lower to the ground and winds up again the other direction...
Saw this guy on the way out....
I took as many pictures as my Blackberry would allow, then the battery died. My son had his camera and he and I both took pictures with it after my phone died.
On the way to the Festival......
In the ticket line...
The lords and ladies approach the front gates...
Waiting for the king and queen to open the Festival...
Learning the proper way to bow and curtsy when the king and queen arrive to open the Festival...
The tickets...
The kind and queen have arrived ... "Huzzah!"
The ticket-checker ...
Inside the gate ...
The Queen's Stage: The Fire Juggler! I like this guy!
I was picked in the crowd to come up on the stage by the Fire Juggler. My first thought was to bolt!!
I am up on The Queen's Stage with the Fire Juggler! I like this guy - he was a lot of fun!
There were 2 other volunteers from the crowd on the stage too. He gave the 3 of us volunteers flaming torches. While the Fire Juggler was balancing on the big yellow ball, one volunteer tossed the 1st flaming to the Juggler's outstretched hand. The 2nd volunteer tossed her flaming torch to the Juggler's other outstretched hand.
Then he looks at me and signals me to toss the last flaming torch - but he had no free hands!
Soooo, I got to toss a flaming torch to him while he was still balancing on the ball, and he had no free hands. He catches my torch and goes right into juggling the torches, just as I made my toss.
It made me a little nervous, but was pretty cool! :) :)
Typical scenes at the Festival...
This lady on the left was spinning different wools. She admitted that he didn't know how to knit, although knitting fit the period of that time. But she does crochet!
The Dungeon Museum, Exhibit of Torture and Horror. And as the guy in the pic says, "you can never have too much depravity in one day!"
My poor hubby! What did you do ... insult the queen?!
The lake. The festival goes all the way around it. There's also a rope-pulled ferry going across the lake.
This guy wanted me to juggle with him so badly! :)
Robin Hood and Maid Marion...
This ride was a little interesting. There are riders in the car and two men basically winding up the "maypole" assembly as high as they can reach. The result is that the car starts spinning and getting lower to the ground and winds up again the other direction...
It was fun! I do want to catch another Renaissance Fair sometime.
I have more pictures than I am posting, because quite frankly, there are too many pics to post. :)
RenFests are so much fun. I used to go to the one in Maryland when I lived in DC. And when my daughter (now 31) was 5 or 6, we went to one in Wisconsin when visiting relatives there. We bought her one of those cone hats with the veil streaming out of the point, and when the woman who sold it to us said to her, "Now you're a lady!" my daughter responded, "I ain't no lady!" We had a ball and looks like you did, too!
ReplyDeleteI love going through all these pictures. The LaRenFest is a second home to me and it was good seeing all my friends in these pictures. I'm so excited to get to work there for a third year in a row this coming fall. I hope you can make it out to see the magic!
ReplyDeleteHuzzah and many thanks for featuring our faire in your blog! So helpful and interesting to be able to see how we look to patrons, especially new ones. I am so glad you all had such a good time at faire last year. We do hope you will come out and see us again this year. I still haven't learned to knit yet (hopefully I'll be able to say differently by start of 2012 season!), but am spinning up a wide variety of fibers to show in the spinning demonstration area.
ReplyDeleteBest Regards from Mary Shepherd, the spinning lady