Renaissance Pleasure Faire

This day gets it’s own entry because, well, the day was rather involved and rather entertaining. My friends Roland and Adriane sent me an email about their performing at RenFaire and a promotional picture in hopes that I would be able to come out. I had never been to one, though I had always wanted to so I asked my sisters if they wanted to go and they basically had the same response: They had always wanted to go and never gotten to go. So, Tash called her boyfriend and invited him along as well.

I drove a little over an hour up to where Guillermo was and then the half hour over to RenFaire, with a stop at McDonald’s along the way. We bought our tickets and then walked through a ship and were told that we may enter, with the proper milording and miladying of course. The park was a bizarre combination of costumed visitors, costumed workers (both seasonal and traveling), booths, and shows. Sometimes, it was impossible to tell who worked there and who was just visiting.

We saw the queen and her processional. It was rather intense actually. Banging drums, twirling flags, and people singing and shouting “Make way for her Majesty the Queen!” People, both visitors and workers, literally bowed to her. She had a wig that was about my colour of red. It was kind of amusing actually.

We continued on and saw Danse Macabre people as we walked, looking at the different shops and costumes. I’ve never really considered myself a Renaissance historian at all, but I seemed to know a bit more than the other three. We went over to watch the Washing Well Wenches and they did a bit about Courtly Love and the whole concept of not being able to touch the one you love in public. Tash and Guillermo got picked on a bit because his arm was around Tash. At the end they asked that men come up and get a flower for their ladies. Guillermo apparently thought he was simply going to be given the flower. Silly boy. He ended up running all over they place shouting things like “Ruby I love you! Ruby come back!” and trying to grab the flower from her with his teeth. Even the other wench was amused by how far her would go and told Tash, “He must really love you.” To which Tash said yes and the woman replied with, “Because I know where my cousin has been!”

After that we wandered around a bit more and went to see Adriane and Roland’s show. They didn’t recognize me immediately with the short straight hair but by the end of the performance they had it figured out. They, and their commedia del arts group, did a great job. Adriane was “Graziella” and a member of a large Italian family. We saw them after the show and talked about going to the hotel to see their show there too but we couldn’t go because it was getting late and I had to be up at 5 the next morning to get to the airport on time.

The girls and Guillermo ate MASSIVE turkey legs and I had pizza (homemade style). We sat in the food court area and Guillermo made the observation that after a while the costumes and the mix of modern and Renaissance doesn’t seem weird, which was weird in and of itself. I took pictures of these crazy mean looking birds. I have yet to figure out what they are. If anyone has an idea, let me know. Then we decided on Gelato and had to hunt down the booth, which turned out to be on the opposite side of the Faire. Thus began the Great Gelato Quest of RenFaire. We walked all over the place and asked people where the gelato booth was. The response was invariably to try to sell us something from their stall. We politely said no and headed to the information booth. We walked, rather speedily, to the other side of the Faire in hopes of getting there without it closing on us. On the way we were stopped by pirates, merchants, and a demon (which I went out of my way to avoid since he was reaching out and grabbing people’s legs and I’m not such a fan of strange men grabbing me, even if it is his job). Eventually the Great Gelato Quest came to the end when we found the booth and the girl inside it who jumps up and down and rings a bell every time there was a tip because “all tippers, they do go to Heaven”. We learned that Gelato is made with cream, has 20% air, and is higher in fat (hence the smaller portions of it being served), whereas ice cream is made with milk, has 40-60% air, and is generally lower in fat. Either way, we rather enjoyed it.

After our gelato, I got them all to go up on stage so that I could take pictures. While I was taking pictures of the three of them a man who was probably my parents age came up and asked me which one belonged to me, as in: Which child is yours? I told him that the two girls mine and his response was, “And you let the stand with him?” When I said that yes, in fact I did his response was to say, “Well, they look like they are having fun, milaidy. You should come away with me and have some fun.” I cracked up laughing as he kissed my hand. I wasn’t sure if I should be offended or flattered so I finally decided on a bit of both.

By that time we needed to get home and hurried across the Faire to reach our car, get in, and head home. All and all, a good day.