What can I say? I always wanted to visit a Renaissance Faire (or RenFair or Pleasure Faireeeee if you will). I have always had a love of Shakespeare, the time of King Arthur and basically anything regarding the time period in-between.
That being said, I have never actually gotten to one of these things until recently when I visited one in Irwindale California.
Immediately upon entering the grounds, I knew I was in a different world. A world of Elizabethan times from the look of the dress. There were ladies is amazingly crafted hoop dresses, lords and pirates, several shareholders of the East India Trading Company and these guys:
It was fairy weekend at the Faire and there were numerous sprites, fish...people(?) and other spirits hanging out at the Faire. What was very apparent was how INTO it everyone was. I wore kinda a Faire hat along with jeans and a shirt but I was in the minority, most people were rocking period garb. Not even Elizabethan stuff but I saw numerous Musketeers, a lot of Scottish highlanders and yes, even a few Calise's.
In fact, I was surprised that Game of Thrones (a current cultural conundrum) wasn't more represented at the Faire but the current was kept to a minimum, well almost:
This Faire had it all, and it had a lot of "all". The Faire is huge, so many rows of vendors hawking their wares and stages set up for comedians, sword swallowers, bad pirate bands (but good in a bad way):
(seriously though, these guys have a song about how the skeletons of their enemies are going to have a drink with the skeletons of their friends in the afterlife, how can you not LOVE that?)
The big draw for me though was the joust. Jousting! In the 21st Century!
They have 3 jousts a day, warming up with jousting games (involving rings and some weirdo scoring system). They have both female and make jousters and the female jousters took it to the men on a bunch of passes. Then the main event, the two knights going head to head, all out in full armor.
Here they come....
Blammo!
You could feel the tension in the arena something about big horses running at each other at full speed gets you going.
In addition to all the shops, entertainment and jousting (did I mention the jousting), there was food. I have been on a diet recently but you better believe I wasn't going to do a Renaissance Faire without a bit hunkin' leg of meat:
There was also a lot of drinking and I encountered a pub crawl full of happy-go-lucky Gandolfs, knights and regular folks. Those who know me know I love pirates and next year the Faire is going to have a pirate weekend. Doing a pub crawl on pirate weekend seems like a great way to spend a day.
Aside from such future plans, I was surprised how much fun the Faire was, no matter what you are into. The people who run this Faire really go out of their way to be friendly, and make for a relaxed, easy going experience.
Fan of the Faire: http://renfair.com/socal/
Is there anything better to eat then a big turkey leg? That is like my go-to fair food! Looks like a fun adventure!
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