The Virginia Renaissance Faire

[Victoria_Martin@fcw.com]

Greetings all in the Merry Rose!

I thought I would post a mini-review of this new Faire. I attended (under 
threatening skies) on Sunday, May 5th. My other Renfaire experience includes the 
Maryland Rennaissance Festival and the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire.

It was VERY easy getting there, and it wan't crowded at all. (Take Rt. 3 East 
from 95, follow the signs.) Parking was muddy. It was $14 for adults, unless you 
brought the coupon from the Post that gave you one free adult admission for one 
paid adult. I believe some stores in the D.C. area offer reduced price tickets 
in advance. It was much smaller than the MD Festival, which some might 
appreciate. The food was expensive (just like all these things, I suppose), so 
eat before you go.

The buildings were sort of Disneyworld History, but charming. There is a man-
made pond in the center of the site with a 2 masted ship. I don't think the ship 
is going far.

The shopping was fair (pun intended) but nothing like the merchant's area at 
Pennsic. The souvenier t-shirts and mugs and crap were of better quality than 
usual. The individual artisans have some nice work, I bought a tiny blown-glass 
bottle of essential oil to wear around my neck. Lots of jewelry, not much in the 
way of swords. 

There also seemed to be a lot of rides for kids, so parents might have a good 
time at the faire.

As for the shows: The falconry exhibition was excellent. The falconer allowed 
the birds to take flight and then lured them back. I have never seen these birds 
of prey in action, it was very impressive. The bit was a little scripted, and I 
could have done without the "save the earth" moral at the end of the show. The 
jousting was pretty ordinary, and the banter was predictable, but the knights 
were into it, so it was fun. One knight, the "evil" one, was the best actor. He 
enjoyed himself almost too much. :)  We also saw "The Minstrels of Mayhem," and 
they were amusing. Make sure you see the "Beer" song. I was surprised that there 
were no silly Shakespeare performances, usually my favorite bit. I think that 
there weren't enough wandering players, either. It seems like they were short on 
staff. 

My only big complaint is that I saw several guys, obviously on-duty employees of 
the park, looking like band roadies and not medieval peasants. I mean, how hard 
can it be? It takes a lot away from my experience to see a guy on a walkie-
talkie, in black jeans, a t-shirt, and a do-rag, opening the gate for the 
jousting knights. I can live with the stretch panne-velvet tights if I have to, 
but who are these losers who look like they belong with Van Halen on tour?

I attended in garb, and that brought the usual mundane question: "Where is the 
bathroom?" 


Josceline de Warenne
victoria@fcw.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe to the Kingdom of Atlantia mailing list, send a message
to majordomo@csc.ncsu.edu with no subject and the body consisting of:
unsubscribe atlantia