It is a land of kings and queens, knights and ladies, villains and heroes. The grounds ring with quaint music, fairy singing, and pounding hooves culminating in clanging swords. Succulent smells of spiced meats, flavorful chocolates, and smoked turkey legs fill the air. There are rides for the children, shops full of finery for the maidens, and action packed jousting shows for all those not faint of heart. From singing nuns to black-hearted knaves, the Arizona Renaissance Festival has something for every member of your family!
This past weekend, we traveled to the Phoenix area for the express purpose of visiting the Arizona Renaissance Festival. We hauled the 5th wheel to a campground near Florence, and were not disappointed that we had made this short r.v. excursion just for that one destination. The venue consists of daily jousting tournaments, hundreds of shops, and nearly a dozen stages with continuous, family-friendly entertainment varying from comedians, acrobats, and musicians, to falconry and bull-whip exhibitions.
My family’s favorite part of the festival was the jousting tournaments! There were 4 knights – 2 honorable and 2 evil. We chose to always sit in good Sir Eggeron’s stands, cheering him to victory! The royal family would then reward the victorious knight with a beribboned headband or wooden dagger which the knight would then present to a young maiden or squire sitting in their stands. [if you have younger children, try to sit in the front row 🙂 ]. On the day we went, during the noon joust, our brave Sir Eggeron was mock-wounded in sword play. Daddy looked over to find one of our young sons crying – he thought that our knight actually had been run through!
We enjoyed smoked turkey legs for lunch, which were a unanimous hit, and the girls perused the dress shops for reenactment attire. Our family loves to period dress, and while we weren’t prepared for the festival, I had braided the girls’ hair that morning, and one of the big girls had made flowered headbands for herself and her sisters during our drive time. You can pay to have hair braided and interwoven with flowers at the festival, and can purchase fairy headbands, swords and shields. We could easily have spent several days there and not been able to attend all the shows or see all the sites! Everyone in our family enjoyed themselves, and would like to go back!
The Arizona Ren. Fest. takes place every Sat. and Sun. during February and March. While this is a little too far for those of you on the east coast to make a weekend jaunt of it, there is also a festival in North Carolina during October and November. You can find more information about the Arizona Renaissance Festival, and the Carolinas Renaissance Festival. These shows are great for a weekend excursion to get out of your snowy surrounding, and well worth the effort of dewinterizing the RV! If your family enjoys tales of chivalry and action, his is definitely one trip you will want to put on your calendar!
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