Wicked Renaissance 2017

It's time again for the Wicked Renaissance post! I've been so looking forward to putting this post together. This year, mom and I went on Steampunk Weekend, so that was the theme of many a costume. You'll no doubt remember this guy if you've followed my Ren Faire posts in the past. He's a highlight. Every year, he wears a creative, well-made costume. Sometimes he's been downright scary.

See what looks like a stretched skull on his chest? And those eyes! He had some kind of elaborate gas mask thing going on.

The back of his helmet reminds me of a cicada shell. That girl with him has some wild contacts in too. She's always in the pics I take of him each year.

There were a few other spooky characters hanging with the Steampunk couple:

Like Anubis:

And this deathly figure. This is one of those photos that I noticed all kinds of details in once I saw it larger. Details like his cool, braided beard, the metallic skull on his chest, and that Steampunk gun contraption that's reaching into the frame.

I'm going to show all of the Steampunk people first.

Check out her purse/fanny pack! It's one of those Grichels.

Nice earrings!

Check out this cool clock purse! And what looks like a Steampunk Belle costume from Beauty and the Beast.

A dapper demon.

He's very coordinated with all the blue. And look at that little mirror on his lapel.

This is one of my favorite photos from the day. Look at that hat! And he's just so happy looking. This is one of those times where I'm sure that the subject of the photo didn't know I was taking it, but they happen to pose in this photogenic way at just the right time.

Full length:

Steampunk explorers on safari:

Notice they're carrying cups and saucers. Back view:

I just noticed he had a little octopus on the back of his helmet.

Mom called this guy "Andy Warhol" 😁

While waiting for the joust, it was like a whole fashion show walked by. That's when I spotted this couple. I think I see a flask in his hat.

This guy is sort of Steampunk with the goggles and hat, but he has kind of a plague doctor thing going on too. That's a little coffin in his lap. Maybe this is a character I'm unfamiliar with?

Even the little furry gremlin/dragon critter has his mini Steampunk hat on! This photo is like a Jim Hensen production.

This lady had a jet pack type contraption on her back. She also had this octopus/Kracken type critter coming out of her corset. Unfortunately, my camera decided to poop out and needed a new battery while she was facing me. So I was only able to get a pic of her back.

She was walking kind of that Steampunk/Pirate line. Speaking of pirates...

This pirate lady was watching a musical act called "Musical Blades" We heard a bit of it while waiting in the tempura line. I couldn't hear much, but what I did hear was some wild, racy pirate talk. Assuming I heard it correctly. Anyway, I was able to capture some expressive pirates in that show.

I don't remember this man with the lighter beard in the show. Looking at this pic, I'm not sure what role he had. He's just staring off like "Meh" which cracks me up.

"Meh. Let's wrap this up."

"I caught a fish this big!"

An inflatable parrot!

The piratey top of the tempura place:

Looks like someone is flopping out of the crow's nest!

And then there's a ride with ships that "sail" up and down in the air.

And what pirate wouldn't want to see her? It's Ariel the Little Mermaid! 🐠

We saw some beautiful fairies this year. You might remember that we went on the fairy-themed day last year. There were actually some new ones this time! Like her:

What kind of fairy do you think she is? Air? Water? I always call the one behind her "The Fire Fairy".

This is the one I call "The Spider Fairy". She's a favorite of mine. 🕷

Later on, we found her hanging out in a tree.

And in another tree:

It's funny how many people walked under this one, without knowing anything was above them.

I guess this guy is more of an elf. It looks like he spotted me, but there's no way. He was across a field and I was using a massively long lens.

This is another new one to me. I was calling her "The Owl Fairy".

"The Fire Fairy" again. 🔥 Looking at the leaves on her costume, she could also be "The Autumn Fairy"

Way up in the top of this building was a little green fairy:

She had dragonfly wings.

A sort of deer creature?

Speaking of magical characters, I was happy to spot a wizard this year. I'm always happy to see people in wizard costumes for whatever reason. It just lightens my mood. That, and people in gnome costumes.

On to the Joust! This is an area where the officials or royalty sit, as I recall. It's been a while since we've sat for The Queen's Joust. We usually come later for Joust to the Death.

This guy sells flag pennants before the show.

I'm going to call this section of the post "Random Characters" because I'm not sure how to categorize them. Remember the Baby Man from last year?

Check out the creative way his stilts are set up:

A cool jester character sitting high above a shop.

Suddenly, it got all Great Gatsby at the Ren Faire!

How cool is this hat?

I saw him at the joust. I'm thinking he was a viking.

This was another bawdy show, from what I could overhear. (Even if that woman is reminding me of the flying nun)

A samurai? Help me out here. This is feeling like one of those costumes that fits with a reference I don't know.

I just noticed this guy's cool frog cane now! It's funny how many little details go unseen when you're there.

Both the guy above and the person below were part of a group that looked like their costumes could do double-duty in decorating a kitchen. Like, put the fruit in a bowl and the ivy around a window, etc.

She was a drummer in the drum circle.

Witchy! I always hope to see the pack of witches each year. She and her friend were a little different this time. I've seen a few variations of witchy outfits from them.

This is the "Cool Hair" category. Here's one of my favorite photos from that day. You'll want to enlarge this one to check out the details. The girl in the middle has this basket weave teacup and saucer hat on. This was just a fun, quirky looking group of people.

I saw a few of them again later on. How pretty is that hair color?

And this is an awesome neon pink too!

I saw my two pinkish hair photo subjects right in a row. His is more a dark magenta/maroon I guess.

A neat hair accessory seen on someone in front of me at the joust.

A pretty, almost bridal look.

As usual, there was a lot of cool scenery everywhere we looked. I grouped pics of the shops and environment in general here.

A performance artist doing acrobatics high in the trees. I heard a little girl say "Are those sheets?" They'd be loooooong sheets because she was pretty high up.

Aside from that one kid, you could have heard a pin drop. She had us all mesmerized.

This is the lair of a character who is covered in similar colored rags. I didn't see her this year.

Spiked moat

What I see as a little witch's house. I'm sitting down there with the herb garden. I think this would be a fit with a previous blog post (Plants fit for a potion) So a pic of this place might end up in there.

There was a whole fairy village set up. It had a natural look because they used real stones and real miniature plants as "trees" and "shrubs".

Decorative gypsy carts:

Mom with some of the lovely floral arrangements that were around.

Tempura time!

Mmmm.....

Isn't this glass pretty? These displays always look so cool out in the sun.

I love the light at this time of day. It was probably around 6:00 when I took this. Everything looked warm. That Sahara store smelled good as we passed by. They must have been selling oils and incense. This photo was my computer's wallpaper for a while.

Parasols for sale. I accidentally ended up with that Harley Quinn girl in my photo after trying to get a picture of her earlier in the day.

This was another neat structure to photograph in late afternoon.

The light was catching all these little pieces of mirror.

We're lucky to have our Ren Faire in an area with so many large trees. The trees give you this feeling like you're in Sherwood Forest with Robin Hood.

The drum circle dance floor

We didn't see too much of the Royal Court this year. There's an area of the grounds where the Queen and her court sit and gossip. It gives an idea of what it was like when the Queen decided to visit the country and brought her entourage with her. It's a lot of sitting and gossiping/plotting. While we didn't visit that area, we did see a few members of the court, or at least people dressed fancily enough to be.

This year's Queen

Speaking of Queens, there was this area of scenes/chairs in a circle. I'm not sure if they were there to be photo ops or what. There were two that really stood out to me. One was of Queen Elizabeth I.

It's pretty spooky, almost like a wax effigy. Maybe you've seen pictures of some glass coffins in churches with figures a lot like this inside.

It's very pretty, though. She's almost real looking. I half expect her eyes to glance up.

And then there's this character! I had to get some photos of this one! She's like the Wicked Witch in Disney's Snow White.

And look at her surroundings! What is this? A stretched piece of skin? It kind of reminds me of that talking sheet of skin in Doctor Who. Although, this one looks a whole lot less lively.

Hope you enjoyed your virtual visit to this year's Bristol Renaissance Faire! This photo is a fitting goodbye. It's the actual goodbye we received on the way out!

P.S. ~ Here's some fitting music to go with the photos:

Link: 1 Hour of Medieval Music - Medieval Times