I've never been to a Renaissance Festival before so this was a new experience. For Carl, too! Kelly had been to others, so she was our guide for the day. And our chauffeur...
The Colorado Renaissance Festival was held in Larkspur, CO, a little south of Denver. It took us about an hour to drive to the correct exit and another half hour to drive the last two miles to the parking lot.
It's amazing how many people got dressed up in period (and not so period) clothing for this event. And not just the paid performers, either...
We did a lot of wandering around the extensive grounds and I took a bunch of photos. What follows is organized by subject, not chronological...
Quite early in the day, they had a parade through the grounds. The photo on the left shows the piping band from Colorado Springs, which lead the parade. This was Celtic Weekend at the Festival (which ran for several weeks). The photo on the right shows two of the four knights who participated in the jousting. The knight on the left (dressed mostly in black) is the villian of the melodrama and the knight on the right (dressed mostly in white) is the hero.
Above are three photos of the royal court in the parade. The photo on the left shows the king, queen, and one of the courtiers in a horse drawn carriage. The other two show members of the court. The woman in green in the center photo spotted my large camera and cried "Oh, it's the paparazzi!" and stopped to pose, nearly pulling her companion off his feet...
The parade continued with most of the costumed performers who would later wander the grounds and almost all the performers with stage acts. One of the roving performers was this wood sprite on shown on the left. Another portrayed Captain Jack Sparrow, shown in the photo on the right riding one of the elephants. The elephants were also available for anyone to ride, if they paid the extra fee.
In addition to stage shows, jousting, and parades, the Festival featured a lot of shops with wares for sale, ranging from period clothing to things to hang in the garden to swords and brooms.
The three photos above show some of the wares for sale at the festival. The photo on the left is a display of hair garlands with ribbons to flutter down the back. The center photo shows some fancy umbrellas. The photo on the right shows a display of wooden carved dragons. The workmanship on these was fantastic!
The photo on the left shows some humorous pottery cups found in one booth. The center photo shows a shop with brooms, walking sticks, and wands. The photo on the right shows a crooked rooftop worthy of the Harry Potter section of Universal Studios!
Among the amusements available on the grounds of the festival was this circling ride supposedly based on Leonardo daVinci's flying machine design. There were also elephants and llamas to ride. Some of the amusements were actually based on medieval stuff, like the logs that two people sat on and tried to knock each other off of.
There were giant swings, booths for knife and star throwing. A booth with bows and arrows. Another booth had "crossbows" (very underpowered). Another allowed people to use catapults to launch cloth frogs. And there was one whole section we never looked into where there were kid rides.
I still don't understand what wearing wings has to do with the Renaissance, but Kelly assures me it's just another aspect of the costumes that people wear to these things. We definitely saw a lot of them, including the four in the photos above.
Then there were the incongruities. Like the mother on the left holding her small child, both dressed like someone from the Middle Ages, but there's a blue tooth receiver in her ear... The center photo shows someone dressed as a humble friar taking pictures with his cell phone. Then there's the photo on the right which has an interesting family. Father and son are in kilts - Dad looks like he could have fought beside Braveheart. Mom is more steam punk with that turquoise hair.
Despite the strange clothing some were wearing, there were also a lot of people dressed as if they were at a medieval festival, as these four photos show.
These two photos show two attractions that just didn't fit with anything else. The photo on the left shows a man playing a large carillon, a set of tuned bells that are operated by levers either pounded by the fists or stomped on by his feet. The result was mesmerizing and very nice to listen to.
The photo on the right shows a captive Red Tailed Hawk. This hawk had been injured and has lost the use of his left eye, destroying his depth perception and eliminating his ability to catch his own food. He's been in captivity for over ten years and makes regular educational appearances for the group sheltering him. Most of their rescued raptors are nursed back to health then released into the wild.
And what would Celtic Weekend at the Renaissance Festival be without bagpipes? The photo on the left shows a portion of the large piping band out of Colorado Springs. They played very well. The photo on the right shows a group called Celtic Legacy, one of the stage shows taking place several times during the day.
The jousting was held in three sections, making it into a melodrama. We arrived too late for part one, but parts two and three continued the story. The tournament involved four knights who happened to include two good knights and two bad knights.
Most of these jousting photos are from part 2 of the melodrama. The photo on the left shows the king, queen, and the royal court which has arrived for the tournament and are being greeted by the crowd. The photo on the right shows one of the dark knights (and the main villian) riding into the grounds to be introduced to the crowd.
The knights have been introduced and each spoken to the crowd. Now they get their helmets on and prepare for the tournament. The photo on the left shows the two good knights while the photo on the right shows the two bad knights.
The initial phases of the tournament show the knights spearing a ring held aloft by their squires. The second part has them spearing the same rings, this time, thrown into the air as they approach. The third part has them jousting with each other. Supposedly, once a knight has become unseated, the action stops and that knight is eliminated from the competition. Our dark knight has other plans...
The photos on the left and center show some of the jousting. In the photo on the right, the jousting has degenerated into a general melee as the dark knight refuses to accept the judgement that Sir Michael, the hero, has won the day.
The photo on the left above shows more of the general melee swordfight which brought part two to a conclusion. When we returned for part 3, the tournament started the same as part 2, but included a grudge match between the hero and the villian.
The center photo above shows some of the jousting in this grudge match. The photo on the right shows the hero and villian in individual combat. The hero has just delivered a telling strike against the villian, knocking him to the ground.
Yes, the villian dies in the end, saving the princess from a fate worse than death. However, due to some treachery, the hero also dies. The "bodies" are removed from the field and everyone goes home.
In addition to the medieval stuff at the festival, there was a large section devoted to pirates. The photo on the left above is the first character we encountered upon entering the grounds, Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Carribbean movies. The photo on the right shows the main shop devoted to pirate stuff. The center photo shows a detail from the exterior of this shop.
The photo on the left shows Captain Jack Sparrow and the wenches of the Pirate Pub singing a song in praise of beer. The song was hilarious!
The photo on the right shows a statue of a pirate gazing over the valley with a castle behind him.
As we were leaving the grounds, most of the costumed performers gathered at the entrance to sing us on our way. The three photos above and the one to the left shows these actors.
Thus ended a pleasant day.