We spent a lovely March day at the 15th century village of Fairhaven. Time travel? No, but the next best thing: a visit to the Arizona Renaissance Festival near Apache Junction. Held in the early spring each year, the festival takes place at a 30-acre "re-created" Renaissance town that features 12 stages full of music, juggling, sword-swallowing, and slap-stick versions of Shakespearean plays, among other foolery. Besides the entertainment, there are a petting farm, demonstrations of falconry and archery, greyhound adoptions, and period-type rides and games for the kids. There are also craftsfolk demonstrating how their wares are created, like glass-blowers, smiths, and cobblers. And tons of food and shopping -- there are over 200 shops! You can buy just about anything vaguely "medieval" or "Renaissance," from a broiled turkey leg or a cup of mead to a silver chalice or a stained glass window!	The entrance to Fairhaven
A few festival scenes:

One of the rides, a giant swan swing	The Bedlam Bells Morris Dancers	If these two are supposed to be guarding this booth, maybe someone should tell them the nap's over?
Want to scale the palace wall?	Ladies of the court rest in the Royal Pavilion	This shop sells -- what else? -- pirate gear.

The first act we saw as we entered the park was the Shantyman, accompanied by Rosie Peaseblossom. This duo was singing sea songs and Celtic tunes at the Monk's Park stage. Later, we caught a bit of Dextre Tripp's ropewalking at the Rialto Stage and a performance by the band Tartanic at the Palace Theatre. Tartanic is made up of two bagpipers and two percussionists who play a variety of drums, including Middle Eastern and African instruments. Their show was high-energy, full of banter and horseplay, and we enjoyed it very much. We hope to see them again, and, until then, we can enjoy the CD we bought. They reminded us a lot of one of our favorite bands, the Wicked Tinkers. (And, if you've visited our pages during Highland Games season in Washington, then you know how much we enjoy the Tinkers' shows!)

To learn more about these performers, check out their web sites: Dextre Tripp Tartanic The Shantyman

The festival has a tournament arena where three competitions are held a day. We went to the earliest, deemed a "Joust for the Queen's Favor." The four knights competed on horseback, first catching rings, held at the sides of the arena by their squires, with their lances, then competing to catch a ring suspended on a rope between two poles. After that, they paired off to dual with swords. The final feat was a series of jousts in which they tried to unhorse their opponents with their lances. Each section of the arena had a knight to cheer for, led by a winsome wench cum cheerleader. Our section supported Sir Phillipe, the brave champion from France, who was the victor in all but one of the contests; he was -- alas! -- knocked off his horse in the final joust.

The knights listen to instructions from the Master of Arms (in the center, wearing the scarlet doublet.)

The following photos are screenshots from video of the joust; as a result, they aren't very clear, but it was hard to capture the action with a still camera.
"Our" knight captures a ring suspended on a line across the arena.	Two knights pass each other in the joust.	Swordplay on horseback

Good Queen Eleanor and other ladies of the court watched the tournament from their royal box. After the knights had competed to see who could collect the most rings on the tip of his lance, spearing them from the hands of the squires perched on the fence rails, the Queen came down to the side of the arena to commend them. Despite the reluctance of the Master of Arms, she insisted upon holding a ring out herself for another pass. Afterwards, she declared that it had been quite thrilling and, perhaps, she would try it again some time -- on horseback! Now, that would have been pretty daring for a lady of the day, no less a Queen!

Our champion

Here you can view a snippet of video that shows Sir Phillipe in action:

Our "cheerleader" wench

The jousting is performed by the Hanlon-Lees Action Theater. They perform at renaissance faires around the U.S. Check their schedule to see if they're coming to your town.

Yes, knights do sign autographs!

NEW! We made a return visit to the festival on April's Fool Day, the Saturday of this season's closing weekend. We got to hang out with pirates! Arrrrr! To see a slide show of photos from that visit, just click here. (A new window will open.)