Every year growing up my mom, grandma, and I went to the Renaissance Faire. I loved it. It was a chance to pretend I was from another time, and possibly a princess. I haven’t been since I was in high school… that is until Jason and I biked to the Faire on Saturday.
I thought it was a little expensive to get in (16 dollars a person) but someone in line gave us an extra coupon (gotta love Iowa niceness!) and once we got in almost everything was free, so well worth the money. We stayed at the Faire for over four hours! And we would have stayed longer, but it was very hot and we had to bike home.
One of the first shows we took in was this swordfighting demonstration. I thought it was awesome how many women were part of this group! Almost every “fight” had a female, which made it fun for the women and men to cheer for. They were all hilarious and shared a lot of insight into how you can even swordfight at the Renaissance Faire. It sounds like a pretty strenuous process, which I suppose is probably a good thing.
We sat down to watch this performer, Molotov, on a whim while walking to the Dungeon tour (which was actually really terrifying, by the way). He was… unique. The picture above shows the grand finale where he balanced on a flaming board while juggling three flaming sticks. Uh yeah, I was pretty scared for him, but not nearly as scared as when he pulled a balloon through his nose and out of his throat. I don’t know how else to explain that trick, and I didn’t take any pictures because I was shielding my eyes.
The last thing we took in was jousting, which was pretty intense. The thing that amazed me all day was that I was sweating like a pig in my shorts and t-shirt just sitting, and here are these people dressed in armor and riding a horse. It obviously takes a lot of passion and commitment to be a part of this festival and I really admire the people who do it.
We took in a lot of other things throughout the day, like a metal work demonstration, belly dancing, and quite a few short skits. There was something going on every hour so Jason and I just walked around until we saw something going on. We also ate some food, although nothing spectacular.
We bought this giant glass bottle of root beer for $8 and actually ended up getting a refill for $2. This was a pretty good deal I thought, but I mostly wanted the bottle. It’s a really cool bottle!
The Renaissance Faire is going on for the next two weekends at Sleepy Hollow. Each weekend has a theme, which makes me wish I could go every weekend! Next weekend’s theme is Scots, Britons, & Irish (how cool does that sound) and the final weekend is Pirates, Scallywags, & Buccaneers. You can find out more info on the festival at their website.
The root beer is an even better deal I you take the bottle back every fall. I think I’ve taken mine at least four times.
I LOVE the Renaissance Faire. My family went to one in Sterling, NY every year when I was a kid. My sister and I would look forward to it all summer. I haven’t been to one in years.
This looks like so much fun! I remember being a kid and being so jealous of my cousins in Pennyslvania who could go to a Renaissance Faire. Surprisingly, Ren Faires are not a big thing in Virginia.