King Richard’s Fair

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Last year, Brad wanted to go to King Richard's Renaissance fair. We didn't make it...this year, he made a point to bring it up again and ensure that we went.

I looked at it as $50...

We got up early today and went out for breakfast and then headed out to the fair, which is held each year in Carver, MA. Having never gone to one, I had no idea what to expect. And was I surprised...

I couldn't quit giggling when we walked up to the entrance and people were saying, "Why is thou no line herest...please moveth over to this line that hath no waiting." I don't know why, it just struck me funny that they were starting so soon.



I was honestly amazed at how quickly we entered into another dimension, another world. Here is this forest, with all of these little stores / booths...it was honestly a different world! We headed in and wanted to catch the jousting tournament, so we went over to Tournament Field. We got to cheer on our knight in green - I forgot his name - and he ended up winning the jousting match. Yea!





We then decided to wander around and I was truly amazed at how into this people were. I mean, not only were there employees dressed up, there were also visitors that dressed up. Hell, there was a costume rental booth set up when we walked into the forest! The further we got into the forest, the weirder the people got. I was very confused because at first, I got the whole Renaissance theme - you had your royalty and upper echelon folks, and then you had your gypsies and more common folk. But as we wandered further into the forest, I suddenly saw pirates, fairies, gothic people...I even saw a kid dressed up as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle....and little girl with an old fashion asian kimono get up...What did we get ourselves in to?!






Then I understood it...and I reflected back to an episode of Gilmore Girls where Luke's sister and brother in law wandered around with this Renaissance fair and sold the jewelry that they made....the closer I looked, the more I saw them...they were all hippies!! All the people that were working the booths and were actually into this, were hippies that travel around freely and do this for a living. I thought about it for awhile and that wouldn't be a bad life. No corporate bullshit, no political puddles to wade through...you make your craft, you set it out and you let people look at it and buy it.

We then got hungry and headed over to buy a big turkey leg....this thing wasn't natural. I didn't take a picture of it due to fear of mockery...people were toting these things around like it was nothing....This wasn't a roasted turkey leg, it was a steriod mutant turkey leg....but we ate it anyway!

We then headed over to Hell's Mouth stage and watched the Aerial Angels which are HIgh Flying Artistry. That is a fancy way of saying chicks who climb up long pieces of cloth, wind themselves up and spin out of them...all set to music. It was pretty cool though and watching them do this was like watching the trapeze artists at a circus. You just watch and grimmace, waiting for one to fall.



We looked at all the booths that consisted of everything from handmade mugs, pewter goblets, jewelry, dragon statues, swords and weaponry to incense. It was quite interesting.

We wrapped up the day with some Irish music and a terribly cheesy magic show, stopped by to get a root beer float and some of the King's nuts....Roasted nuts that is. At the end, I turned out to be that five year old kid that ate too much sweets at the fair and slept for two hours when we got home.

The fair was a neat experience, even though it weirded me out. I don't like knowing if people are in costume because they work there or because they're just wearing them....like this guy...have NO CLUE if he was working or just wandering around with this get up...



We came home to our wonderful dog Lando who took a nap on the couch aside from mine and had a great nappy time...yes - I might have planted the stuffed animal there for entertainment and picture value.