Hear Ye, Hear Ye!
This past weekend my husband and I attended our very first Renaissance Fair. The theme of the weekend (as you can see) was Wine, Chocolate, And Romance. This theme changes weekly though, so do your research before going..you might miss out on a weekend you would really love!
We were going to go the weekend before last, October 1st, because the theme was Oktoberfest and they had a keg toss competition, a root beer chugging contest, and other fun features, but it was rainy so we decided to put it off another week.
We had been working on our costumes on and off for about two weeks, and having that extra week to prepare turned out being a good thing. We weren't by any means extravagant, but we did make a lot of the costume items by hand and I had to perfect my hair braiding for my husband's beard.
Anyways, Saturday morning we made the hour drive from our home in Illinois across the Mississippi River to Wentzville, Missouri. The town was clearly marked with signs directing you to the park, and upon our arrival shortly after 10am, parking was abundant.
(Which was something I had worried about having never been to Wentzville before)
We parked in the designated field and walked up to the ticket counter. We had coupons, so our tickets were around $31 for the both of us.
Once we had our tickets, we walked under the banner and into...a woods. But it wasn't just a trail through a line of trees, we walked into a little town!
The smells of campfires, food vendors, and the crisp autumn air hit you like a brick and just like that, you are transported back to the Medieval Ages.
Shops selling swords and shields, clothing vendors, musicians, soaps and beauty items, crafts, drinks, food, performers, the "town" had it all.
I forgot to mention that this place was pretty big. They give you a map as you come in so that you don't get lost. There is a main Street where many of the vendors lie, but then also you can take the paths to other camps, like the Gypsy camp- where they were giving dancing lessons or the German camp where they had horse riding and a blacksmith working on some chainmail armour.
We started our fair experience by watching an escape artist perform on the St. Louis stage...
Then we wandered down to the jousting field and caught the tail end of the opening joust.
I didn't know it then, but the show that they do throughout the day builds on the last show so that it actually tells a story. They aren't just doing the same show 3 times during the day, it's more like a 3 chapter story book. I'm sorry we had to miss the first part of the first show!
We also watched some belly dancers while we ate lunch. I had the most DELICIOUS chicken Gyro for lunch from the "It's all Greek to me" food stand. However, I wish I had been more hungry because there were several places that I wanted to try food from!
They offered your choice of lamb or chicken, so I got chicken and my husband got lamb so we could try both. The food was reasonably priced at $6 a Gyro. I came expecting to pay $6 for cheap food like..a hotdog and nachos. Much like what food costs at a sporting event. (Stadium food)...
So I was pleasantly surprised! The food was actually delicious and didnt cost me as much as I figured it would.
After lunch, we wandered around by the jousting field to look in some of the little shops and just..watch people. We sat down in the Knight's pub to listen to the live music, which was very nice. I really enjoyed listening to the different bands that traded off every half hour.
When it came to dressing the part, it was about 50-50. There were lots of people that did dress up, but then there were also plenty of people that didn't.
As you can see, our costumes weren't extravagant
Some of the costumes made us laugh, and some of them were really interesting.
And apparently the costumes were not limited to Medieval theme. There was a guy dressed from head to toe in a purple wizard costume, someone dressed as an Ewok from Star wars, we saw some Dr. Who costumes, several Links from Legend of Zelda, Fairies, and a really cool Medieval Doctor costume!
When 2 o'clock rolled around, we headed back over for the 2nd chapter of the jousting. We were seated on the purple knight's side, who was apparently the 'bad knight' and our slogan they told the crowd to cheer was "cheat to win".
We also had to miss seeing the chocolate pie eating contest and the wooing contest, which were happening later in the afternoon. We did get to SEE the chocolate pies they made for the contest though..and they looked amazing!
On our way out, we stopped at the axe throwing booth and my husband and my brohter-in-law's girlfriend went head to head to see who was the better axe thrower.
My husband got two of his five axes to stick and he ended up winning, since she only got one.
I will admit, I was on the fence about going to this festival. I had heard about it, and in years past I had remembered some of our friends going but I never saw any pictures or really talked to them to ask how they liked it. And for $31 entry ($16 a person with a coupon) it was a little bit of a gamble for us with my husband back in college full time and having only one income.
But... I'm so glad we went now. We ended up spending around $30 inside the festival, and that was buying lunch for two people, two drinks, and paying $3 to throw the axes. We spent almost 6 hours at the fair and it was such a neat experience I would gladly go back.
If you are in the mindset that I was, having never been and thinking about going...DO IT. Yes, my husband and I spent about $60 that day, but you know, a nice dinner out would have cost us around $50.. and for an extra $10 we got to experience a place we had never been before!
Take your time and watch the shows (there are a ton and they go on constantly, with most shows being 30-45 minutes long and there are...5? different stages) listen to the music, watch the people, drink some Mead and enjoy a day outside.
With all the trees there is plenty of shade and with all the activities there is always something to see.
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