Yesterday was the last day of Renaissance Festival. The lines to check into Will Call for our tickets was longer than I'd ever seen it. Fortunately, it moves quickly. I decided (against DH's desire) that we would pick up our season tickets for next year on our way out instead of filling out the forms, etc making everyone else behind me have to wait even longer.
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Of course, the line I was waiting in wasn't this long. But it seemed like it - LOL. Still, it moved fairly quickly, and the woman behind me and I struck up a conversation. She was a teacher and a delight to spend some time chatting with. |
In days gone by, we would stay through the day and into the night, celebrating with the artists and performers and other Festies when the doors closed for the final time of the season. There would usually be a lot of singing and dancing, a bonfire or more, fire eaters, jugglers and acrobats, and others in a party lasting 1-2 hours. The last time I remember staying for the final was more than ten years ago. The children my friend Liz had with her were quite young, and so were we - LOL.
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I went back as far as I could easily go on my computer. This is the Court of my Ren Fest in 2015. We still have the same King, but we have a different Queen. I think we're on our third Queen since Katherine (the Queen in this photo) left the position. |
We had the joy of running into Ben and Liz yesterday, sans kids (who are now 16 and 13 - time flies!), and it was fabulous to see them and give Liz a big hug (actually two, because I've really missed her). We first got to know Ben and Liz when they were two of the Mayor's entourage, playing bocci ball on the hillside near the snakes every Fest afternoon between 1:00 and 2:00 pm (approx). The two of them fell in love while at Fest, and were married at Fest. They brought Duncan, their son, to Fest with them early days, but as the kids grew older, Liz stayed home with them and Ben started working with one of the local leather-smiths in a small business that soon turned into a much larger one.
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This is King Henry. He's marvelous in the role, and really plays well to the crowd as well as to the various kids he meets as he wanders through Fest. Of course there are required attendance times at various places as well. Yesterday was the annual awards ceremony. We usually stay to watch that, but I wanted to listen to Court Revelers instead. |
Ben comes into the shop for leather every once in a while, but I hadn't seen Liz for at least ten years. It was an absolute joy to see her again. We didn't get a lot of time to spend together, but just those hugs made the entire day for me.
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Here are the King and the current Queen on top of the entry gates in the pre-opening performance. The King is reading a proclamation that will declare the Festival "Open" to all, the gates will be opened, and the visitors to the Realm will enter. All this, after the cannon has gone off, of course - a highlight of the morning (and quite loud). |
I insisted that we go to King's Pub and hear the Court Revelers, so after Jim had a gyro and I had a lovely bowl of Chicken Pho, we headed over to the pub. It always gets crowded for the group - they are extremely popular with good reason - they're simply marvelous acapella singers. I had an enjoyable 45 minutes listening to them. Then we wandered a bit more and decided to leave and enjoy the rest of the spectacular (if cool) day in our own backyard, which we did. Now it's back to reality. Summer is officially over and Autumn has arrived. Have a great day - Slava Ukraini.
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