Arizona Renaissance Festival

A trip into the past always makes for an interesting day. Our most recent such trip was into medieval England. Well, it was a fair imitation of 16th century country faire considering the time machine (our truck) took us back in time but left us geographically stuck in the Arizona desert. This made for an interesting mix of scenery, with old English architecture amidst cactus and Palo Verde trees. I’ve been to several such festivals and I must say that the Arizona Festival is the most elaborate I’ve seen. Walking by security guards in medieval garb talking on walkie-talkies, however, confused my sense of history. This passed as I got deeper into the 30 acre village. A few other confusing issues like thoroughly modern privies (restrooms) were out of place but heartily appreciated.

These festivals are held all across the country and many of the players follow the “circuit”. Like me, they are fulltime RVers, but for them traveling and being stuck “outside of time” is their fulltime job. That rather makes them modern day gypsies and certainly must provide for a most “interesting” life.

Cleavage was an all important part of a lady’s attire, while the men seemed to lean toward the frilly.

The humor in the shows was abundant and often bawdy. Rose and Irene sang wildly “colorful” bar songs and encouraged parents not to attend with their children (rightfully so). The Pirate Shanty-man and Bonnie Lass left it to the imaginations of their audience to insert the bawdiness where needed. That left the humor zipping right over most (but not all) the kids heads.

Every festival has those guys that play in the mud. We had the Wylde Men.

Juggling anyone? Yep that too. This guy liked to juggle things that weren’t easily accessible in the 16th century (that's a chainsaw and it was running). Later in the show, while balanced atop a free standing ladder, he lit off the equivalent of two sticks of dynamite taped to his chest. He said he didn’t drink, smoke, or do drugs………so he needed the adrenaline.

No medieval festival would be complete without jousting and here we had it three shows a day. No holds barred. Charge and ram. And that they did. By the way, the French knight won, he's the one not falling off his horse.