Renaissance Faire

Our last trip to the Renaissance Fair, May 2013

Years ago, attending the Renaissance Faire was a yearly thing for our family. We went to see magic shows, to hear fantastic stories, to dress up in our own Renaissance costumes, and most importantly, to see real live JOUSTING! There were homeschool days and the whole family could go for around $10. We would spend the whole day at the fair, even bringing as close as we could come to a renaissance picnic. Then, the brave souls who did the jousting went away. (To where, we don't know - perhaps they became less brave...? I hope it wasn't that they injuring themselves doing something as insane as JOUSTING. The replacement was amatuers whom they taught to joust over a couple of days who would then "compete" but never with as much flair or skill.) And the fair lost it's appeal. Suddenly, it was something we had been to see, something we had already done, only it never measured up to our memories. And so we stopped going.

Which worked fine because the end of May, when it always fell, had been an insane time for our family for several years.

THIS year, I realized Arthur didn't remember going. Eloise, only vaguely. This May was not overly insane. AND this year I saw that they brought back jousting. Real jousting with a touring group, NOT amateurs.

Gone was the homeschool days and homeschool discount. Still, I called about arranging a group discount and discovered there was a family discount AND we could get 1/2 off if we were in costume. It came to around $22 and that seemed worth it to see real jousting again.

Kai had to miss this time - he was in class on Saturdays. But we told him he could take the train to Ogden and we'd pick him up when he was done and when we were done. It was a plan!!

It was something I was really looking forward to too. And then my knee began to give out. But by the morning of Saturday, May 25, it was doing OK and I thought I could handle it with a cane. Of course, I didn't want to hobble about with a cane in a dress, so I was the civilian with a family of time travelers, and we went to the Renaissance Fair.

Eloise with the princess who was captured in the show,
and her horse.

AND it was not real jousting. I should just say that right out of the chute. It was an entertaining "show" of jousting. Far too many women for my taste. The fights were scripted and choreographed. The script made Q laugh. He said it sounded like something highschool boys would write. The acting was not much better. The fight choreography was clear choreography. It DID inspire Evelyn and Eloise that they could do the same, and they did! (They made up their own extended fight scene which was pretty inventive and LONG which they practiced on the front lawn - much to the amusement or horror of the neighbors and passing cars - until they realized they were both allergic to so much contact with the grass.) Anyway, nothing is ever as good as a memory, and in this case, it was really so. BUT perhaps for Arthur who had no memory, or for Eloise who may not have had a discerning memory, it was fun enough.

They've all made decent money helping when the house is rented on Airbnb, so at long last, we were able to buy some SOUVENIRS! Arthur got a sword, Eloise got a parasol, and I got a snood (which is a fancy hairnet that is great for any woman's costume, practically, from the Renaissance period all the way to the pioneer period).

The princesses at our picnic.

We still had our period picnic, though a touch less fancy than past years, simply for my limited ability to prepare on a bum leg. Instead of a cold rotisserie chicken, we bought a gigantic "turkey leg," which is really a pig leg, according to Q, which I had not remembered tasted so poor. So I guess my tongue remembers better days too. Q found us an excellent picnic spot under someone's unused easy up. We were out of the sun, and later, even out of a few raindrops that fell, if memory serves. Q was very helpful overall too. I just hobbled from one location to another and sat.

Me sitting, with a knight on my knee.

So I sat to see a some-what skilled, somewhat funny magic show. It was a dad with some kids in their teens. They were supposed to be gypsies from Scotland, and the part that was most amusing to me was the name of one son, Seamus (said "shame us.") And I suppose it was hilarious to me because the kid quite believing played up his dimwitted character, which seemed to shame his father. I wish they'd done more comedy with that interaction. So most of us were entertained, but I think Eloise and Arthur got a bit restless at it. Then I sat to listen to a very interesting presentation about swords through history. For me, this was perhaps the most skilled, informative, and therefore interesting part of the fair, BUT Eloise and Arthur were not especially engaged so we didn't last long there.

They roamed further afield and came back with tales of giant women in tails. And I finally did see them myself, though I had the courage to look away. Very big women in their 20's had put on mermaid tails and bikini tops and were hanging around in tanks of water. It grossed everyone in my family out, but Eloise was equally fascinated and hung out by the tank for a while. They had colored hair and strange make-up and were awkward performers, if you can imagine the type. They certainly left an impression and the memory gave Quent and EV the heebie jeebies for days.

The other disappointment of the fair was it's location: right off of I-15 with, not only the noise of the freeway, but right under a huge screen advertising some mini-golf and amusement park. So the ambiance and charm was lacking too. It made me wonder what happened, who ran it all, what was management like (the ticket takers themselves did not know about the family discount, though they honored what the lady on the phone told me - THANKFULLY because this was NOT WORTH full price). So while it was less impressive, it remained, as it had been in years past, a cultural experience.

The charm and authenticity were diminished, but one could still be curious about those who DID come, who paid full price, who wanted to be in the show, or in mermaid garb, who not only were there when we were there, but who were there for the full run of 3 weekends, and who then might follow the "train" off to another location to do it all again. I suppose I'm always fascinated by being the stranger in a foreign land, and at this, and all Renaissance Fairs we've been to, we certainly are. (Just adding that it REALLY makes me want to go to a good one, and I hear there IS one in Phoenix....)