My husband is no longer a Renaissance Faire virgin (how have I been married to him this long and not know that he's never been to a Ren Faire?!)! Same with my kids.
Just yesterday, we went to the New Hampshire Renaissance Faire in Kingston, NH. We had the perfect day to explore. And with three small kids, this fair was just the right size for us.
I'm not one of those people that would travel around to attend various Renaissance fairs, but prior to this one, I had been to at least two of them (in my high school years). One of these was a huge professional one in the Kansas City area. I say this only to give context to some of my comments about this fair.
And this fair was just perfect for our family. As I said, it wasn't huge, which made it very manageable with younger kids. They also did something neat for the kids... when you paid for your tickets, the woman at the entrance engaged the kids in a conversation and explained that the Queen was looking for her lost sister, and could they help find her? So the kids spent the majority of the time trying to solve clues for a scavenger hunt... This had the great effect of keeping them so occupied that not once did I hear complaints about being ready to go home. On the contrary, we had to pull them away (sadly, before they had finished the quest).
Like most Ren Faires, there was music, jousting, pirates, plays, fairies (my girls loved these in particular - too bad I didn't get a photo of some of the more realistic ones)... so much to see.
We had arrived too late to participate in the May Pole dance, but did watch for a while.
And then there were the costumes of people attending the event (not the professionals working at the event). I had to share the two I was most impressed with.
First up... Pan. I stopped short when I saw him walking toward us. Both the girls are very interested in Greek Mythology and the various Rick Riordan books, so actually seeing a satyr impressed them... and his costume was so realistic! I mean, look at those cute curly horns! And the hooves!! I can't stop gushing about the costume.
And then there was this gentleman, who had a very realistic looking dragon on his shoulder, complete with remote-controlled animatronics. I don't think the girls noticed the subtle black cables that the man used to control his dragon. They just stared at it... it had such a wonderful Jim Henson feel to it.
How do I know it was a success? My kids are still talking about it AND my husband says he would even go back next year.
