Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire

Ravenboy is home for the month and we love reliving good old times. Really old times in this case, this family and Dabralady spent the day in Mt. Hope at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. Set in 1601,the entire festival celebrates the end of the Spanish Threat to English sovereignty and to the glory of the colonies in the New World. You can spend an entire day, 11:00 am - 8:00 PM, within the festival grounds and not see even half of everything that is going on. Shows included bands playing period instruments, vocalists with tawdry song and dance, and Shakespearean plays all performed on outdoor stages. Many performers are not miked so it makes it hard with untrained and noisy audiences attending.

From as far away as West Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey revelers travel to Mt. Hope and join many locals in period garb to fully experience the day. Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire has been established for over a quarter of a century and falls mostly during the month of August weekends so it is very difficult to avoid the heat. We went on a beautiful day and did our best to seek the shade of some of the old growth trees on the grounds. It was hard to avoid the sun though as we sat at the edge of Bosworth jousting field to watch the royal falconer give his show.

Dabralady found a lovely ring of silver filigree in one of the many fine shops along the merchant's row. RGBisMe and I were glad to try some fine Honey Mead and ended up purchasing a couple of bottles. Ravenboy was glad to be able to attend the acrobat's performances. He has a friend who was blowing fire in a performance at Arlington racetrack pretty much at the same time as we watched another young lady accomplish the feat.

If you have attended this faire in the past you may not realize how much is has grown. Yes, the mud pit, beggars and Sir Walter Raleigh are still on the scene but they now utilize so much more of the enclosed grounds that had been stretches of open grass before. There was something going on everywhere I looked and although I was tired and over-stimulated by the end of the day I was also very satisfied and felt I had gotten more than my money's worth.