Plaza Park has a nice lake feature with lots of ducks, and a few fish.
Spring is a good time to look forward to in Tulare County. One of the reasons for that is that the weather warms up a bit and the Renaissance Faire comes to town. Unfortunately, the weather warmed up. Well, to be honest it really warmed up, like to nearly the 100 mark. Yeah, in April! And wouldn’t you know that the county came out just about 10 days earlier and trimmed back lots of the giant valley oak trees that populate Plaza Park where the faire is held. I think most of the faire-goers as well as the participants would have liked that little more shade with the weather so hot.
But I don’t think it kept anyone from coming out.
This shot taken near the entry shows the HMS Dauntless
This is the 18th year for us to have the Renaissance Faire here in Tulare County. Our Faire is put on by the Guild of Saint Mortimer.
There were booths for food of nearly every kind again this year, although I did not see a Starbucks coffee booth.
Crafts, novelty, art, clothing, and other booths dot the landscape at every faire and this was no different. This year the newest thing that was going over very well was Angel Wings.
Beautiful tents were erected around the park as Royal Glades, and resting places for the participants and royalty.
Food booths were just inside the front gates.
And several even had things for faire-goers to do like sword fighting lessons, belly dancing lessons, making copper rubbings.
And of course there were individual musicians throughout the park playing bagpipes or recorders, or drums, or fiddles.
There were four different stages or fields of entertainment:
The Village Stage had a show every 45 minutes throughout the day and featured the following performers: Guild of Triton, Out of Kontrol, Chris Yates, and the Shakespears Sisters.
The Market Stage also had shows every 45 minute throughout the day and featured the following performers: Grinn and Barrett, Fowl Tales, and Trey the Professional Show-Off.
One of the muscians, this one playing bagpipes.
The H.M.S. Dauntless recreates a sea vessel and how life at sea was lived, including duels, gun loading drills, preparing for docking and prepare for sea.
The Tournament Field had two shows per day at noon and 3 pm. The Knights of Mayhem entertained with four games of the day. The two knights represented Ireland and Scotland. First, they would carry a long slender staff about eight to ten feet in length and on horseback ride a straight line and take a large ring measuring about 8 inches in diameter from as many of the three holders along a sixty or eighty yard distance as they could. A point was scored for each ring held on the staff. Second, they carried a spear about six feet in length and tried to throw it into a target on the ground as they rode past on their horse.
One of the odd assortment of characters you find at the faire. More tatoos than you'd care to see.
Points were given for each circle of a four circled target. Third, they rode at full speed towards a target on a swivel, and tried to hit the target in a way that made the whole upper portion swing around and around, the more swings the better, as long as it misses the knight. Points were awarded for the total number of complete circles the target swiveled. And finally, there was jousting, where the two riders each on horseback ride towards each other at full speed on opposite sides of a center fence and carry a heavy jousting pole with which they try to unseat the other rider. Points were scored using the following rule, one point for breaking the jousting pole on your opponent, two points for unseating him, and three points for drawing blood. Both of the knights did very well in each of the events with only a few points difference by the end of the first three events. And being the high caliber knights that they were, they each scored on every pass in the jousting, but neither was unseated and no blood was let, much to the delight of the both knights. The Queen honored the Irish knight as the winner. It was fun and exciting to watch again this year, although I too wished it weren’t so hot.
Included in the pictures is one of a small castle section where a weapon is displayed. Some day I hope to find, or maybe I will get wise enough to create a small brick the size of Lego to make such a castle with. I know it will take several kinds, but heck I have time. I just want to build a castle or two or three …….
For many years I have been interested in medieval history, armor, castles, and most anything to do with that time period. Renaissance Faires bring that all alive for me. Being able to stroll through booths and displays I find very pleasing. The guilds that put on the faires have continued to gain members over the years and they put up some very elaborate encampment displays. Watching people, whether recreating the era in period costumes or just enjoying the day brings a smile to my face. And over the years I have found that the items for sale have become more and more interesting and in some cases harder to pass up. If you are into dressing the part there are booths where you may purchase new reproductions of the clothes of the time. If you are just into food, all the faires I have attended have had such a variety that the poor peasants and vassals of the time would have been envious.
