By far the coolest part was the jousting tournament, done by an actual world-class jousting troupe that included the world champion himself. There were lots of wood splinters flying in the air (one of which hit a little girl on the head), quite a bit of trash talk, and plenty entertainment in the form of knights getting knocked off their horses, sometimes with both knights falling at the same time, which was awesome. I think the best part, though, was the times when the super-cocky world champion got knocked onto his super-important behind. Here is an example of just that:
The armor was so heavy that when they got knocked down, they just had to lay there on their back like a turtle until somebody came and lifted them back up!
We got to watch a demonstration by a blacksmith, who used a single thin metal dowel to make this leaf, which he then gave to me. How gallant!
There were tons of shows, including a pirate show (we missed most of that one, we got there just in time to see the final part, which was a guy dressed as a pirate, walking barefoot on shards of broken glass), two different magic shows, people singing and playing instruments, a belly-dancing show, a troupe of dancing gypsies, sword-fighting, and acrobats. You could try knife-throwing or axe-throwing (Ben did that one), one guy let all 3 boys try their hand at shooting a rubber-band gun at some targets (Matt was the only one who hit one!), and we liked the trebuchet demonstration (it's like a catapult, but uses weighted balances). They were using it to chuck bowling balls and watermelons into the neighboring field, and Ben even got to launch it once:
There were tons of shows, including a pirate show (we missed most of that one, we got there just in time to see the final part, which was a guy dressed as a pirate, walking barefoot on shards of broken glass), two different magic shows, people singing and playing instruments, a belly-dancing show, a troupe of dancing gypsies, sword-fighting, and acrobats. You could try knife-throwing or axe-throwing (Ben did that one), one guy let all 3 boys try their hand at shooting a rubber-band gun at some targets (Matt was the only one who hit one!), and we liked the trebuchet demonstration (it's like a catapult, but uses weighted balances). They were using it to chuck bowling balls and watermelons into the neighboring field, and Ben even got to launch it once:
The kids really liked the ancient-looking puppet show, which they insisted we see twice:
There were tons of people dressed up, even kids. I loved the gorgeous dresses of some of the women (although I was not a huge fan of the immodest gypsies and belly-dancers), and some people had some really good and creative costumes. Some, not so much. It was kind of a stretch, but I could understand why there were several men there wearing Jedi outfits (I guess you gotta work with what you've got). But I think the guy wearing the t-shirt that sported a Star Trek communicator on the front got lost and went to the wrong convention. And there were some people who were just mysteries altogether!
Overall, it was really fun, despite the lobster-red sunburns we received because, whatever nut-jobs were in charge of the expedition didn't think of sunscreen. Pshaw! We went in wondering what the Renaissance Faire was all about, and this is what I have concluded: it's mainly about wearing elaborate but inaccurate costumes made of pieces from varying time-periods and regions, half-naked gypsies, fairies and wizards and knights and royalty and peasants and weirdos all getting together to have a great time.
And Captain Jack Sparrow, apparently.
And Captain Jack Sparrow, apparently. 