Wicked Renaissance 2018

Who's ready for this year's Ren Faire photos? I ended up taking over 400 photos this year, if you can believe it. We attended Ren Faire last weekend, on a very hot day. It may have been warm, but the light was perfect for taking photos!

We had a fun time this year and somehow ended up catching all the highlights. It was one of those outings where we had good timing with when we walked up to certain events. So I'll be showing lots of different activities here.

Everyone was very nice this year. Not that they aren't always nice. I just felt like the crowd was extra friendly and polite this time. Looking back, that was a good thing because it was super crowded that day!

As you've noticed by now, I'm starting off with the fairy photos. This one, I call "the deer fairy" because of those little white dots on her face and her kind of antler-like hair-do:

Cool headband, hey?

The fiery, autumn fairy:

Notice those red leaves on her skin? They look airbrushed on.

Some cool fairy shoes:

One of the first things we did was to watch a royal fashion show. There were a lot of well decorated and warm looking outfits to be wearing on an 80-some degree day. I kept zooming in on the gems that decorated sleeves and hair-dos.

Look at all the beautiful beadwork on this sleeve!

This is probably my favorite photo from that event. She has a lot of character.

The area where they do the fashion show is where all the royal events take place, usually with the Queen and her court sitting around gossiping and joking. It's a really pretty wooded area next to a little pond. Here's a bit of the view around there.

Mom on the bridge

After the fashion show, we went to the hawk/falcon show. There was a new presenter this year and she did a great job. She gave a little history of the birds and how they were used for hunting back in the Renaissance days. Then she let them loose and they flew around the seating area, landing in trees and on rooftops until she was able to coax them down with a fake rabbit on a string.

Isn't that a beautiful falcon? It reminds me of a snowy owl.

Look at the concentration on these girls' faces.

This hawk means business!

Look at those legs! I never realized before this presentation that these hawks have really long and fluffy legs. They look like they're wearing some kind of puffy pants.

After watching this very cool bird demonstration, we wandered around looking at some of the shops. We didn't end up buying anything that day, aside from some sarsaparilla. But we saw plenty of cool storefronts, signs, and displays.

How cool is this skeleton, complete with skeleton parrot? He was looking out over the balcony of this pirate-themed shop. This shop was selling something that was maybe the coolest thing I saw for sale all day:

Have you guys ever seen skeleton armor? In other skeleton coolness, this display was out in front of a jewelry shop:

It seems like an entire story could be written around this picture. Something to do with mermaids and princesses.

I was surprised not to see any guys taking selfies with her:

How beautiful is this! And I just noticed the script on the dress form. I think it says "Paris".

This was probably my favorite building there. I don't remember seeing it before, at least not in these colors.

This store appeared to have a little piggie/fairy theme. On one part of the building fairy pigs stood on the balcony.

There was fittingly enough a fairy garden there, with all kind of critters. If you look closely, you'll even see a wizard. This photo is my desktop wallpaper now.

This was near the back of the shop. I love all these bright colors!

Through the window of the "Tribal Revival" musical instrument shop:

It seems I need to take a pic of this Grichels sign every year. It's just so cool!

So, after wandering around for a bit we went to the joust. This is the later joust of the day, "The Joust to the Death!" So it's bloodier and more exciting in general than the regular joust. By the time we got there, all the seats were taken. So we ended up wandering around the perimeter of the field. This worked out pretty well for taking pictures.

This is our favorite knight there. He reminds me of an 80s wrestler villain and he has a great time in his role.

An intriguing and genuinely creepy part of Ren Faire is the Danse Macabre, if you're lucky enough to catch them! They march through the streets to a drum beat and when the stop, they freeze in position. That's the creepiest part. Then they run randomly around the audience that has gathered. 

There have been years where we've tried to find the Danse Macabre and haven't, but this time we kept running into them!

I think the guy in the background is yawning, or maybe he's really scared?

I just noticed that red dragon mask in the background. I'd been trying to get a picture of that person all day and now they show up accidentally!

Check out that spinal column! I only noticed now that the spine is held together by beads. That way it can really move.

There were plenty of other characters around. I can't really categorize them, so here's a series of pics of the misc. cool characters we saw:

Cool hair!

More cool hair!

What a neat dragon hat. He was in front of us at the falconry show. And I'm spotting an elf ear next to him.

Speaking of hats, this one goes four or five duck/hats high!

A closer look:

I thought that was pretty clever. I don't know if there's a duck/hat inside joke I'm not aware of...

A Leprechaun! 

She could join the Danse Macabre! 

Me with I'm thinking Green Arrow and a samurai? Does that seem right to you guys? I didn't notice all the weaponry going with the samurai until now. Wow! The armor was actually pretty serious, because when I put my hand on his back I felt something sharp. 

Every Ren Faire day closes with a drum circle. There are other instruments too. I recognized a few musicians from various acts. 

Other people brought their own instruments and joined in.

We didn't catch the bellydance show earlier, but I'm pretty sure she was performing in it.

This guy rolled in on that big ball and brought out his giant wings and at another time two fans. This was very dramatic. Everyone started keeping beat with the fans as he snapped them shut.

I'll leave you guys with one of my favorite views of the Faire. It is so pretty there later in the day when the sun shines through the massive trees. I love those shadows!

Hope you enjoyed the pics! I'd love to see some photos from your local Ren Faires if you end up going.