Fest offers chance to travel back in time
Nadiia Petryk
All the knights and damsels of Arizona are dearly invited to don their best gowns, polish their armor, and join King Henry and His Court in the celebration of the 20th Annual Arizona Renaissance Festival. The festival, which runs through March 30, is just east of Phoenix on US Hwy 60 past the Gold Canyon Golf Resort.
The event first started in Arizona in 1989 as just a small eight acre medieval village and now it has grown into the largest Renaissance festival in the West.
Today it is a 30 acre amusement park with 12 stages, 200 shops, kitchens and pubs, and more than 1,000 characters in costume.
The festival village is filled with a fun atmosphere of living a simple life.
Ancient artisans demonstrate their talents in glassblowing, woodcarving, blacksmithing, candle making and ceramics.
Unique handcrafts are available for sale, so every guest can leave the festival with a custom-made souvenir.
As every year, visitors can enjoy the jousting tournaments, birds of prey demonstrations, comedy shows, and hundreds of minstrels, dancers and jugglers.
Kids have fun on rides and at games, while adults enjoy the wine tasting and spending the day outside.
Also, the organizers of the festival prepared special additions for the 20th anniversary celebration which were not demonstrated in previous years: Whip Master Adam Crack, who holds four Guinness World Records for his bullwhip stunts, and medieval rock n’ roll band The Lost Boys.
The festival kitchen is working very hard to supply hungry guests with giant turkey legs, “steak-on-a-stake,” sausages, potato pancakes and scotch eggs.
For those who are over 21, all these delicacies can be served with real Dark Age drinks like Duke of Daiquiri, Medieval Margarita, and the Bloody Marie Antoinette.
The Festival is not only a fun place to visit, but also is a great place for a part-time job.
MCC students from the Music and Theater Departments are working at the Renaissance Festival to earn some professional experience.
Lord Charles Figg of New Town, or Charles Newton as he is known in the real world, is taking classes at MCC in management and this year will be his 19th time to participate in the festival.
“I have a lot of wonderful friends working here. Many of them are traveling with the festival and I get to see them just once a year, when it comes to Arizona. For us the festival is an annual family reunion,” said Lord Figg.
Advanced discount tickets are available at Fry’s markets or at RenFestInfo.com.
Finally, one more enchanting detail – the parking is free.
