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Texas Chapter 2
June 2, 2002
For the last 8 weekends we have been attending the 22nd Annual Scarborough Renaissance Faire http://www.scarboroughrenfest.com which takes place near Waxahachie, Texas, about 40 miles from our home in Fort Worth.
The chosen time period is roughly that of Henry VIII.
Scenes from the daily parades.
The faire covers 37 acres of land and has many permanent buildings that are otherwise unused the rest of the year.
Various buildings around the grounds.
There were knights-in-armor, participating in tournaments of jousting, sword fighting
The armor was impressive.
and other traditional (k)nightly pursuits.
So were some of the other costumes.
There were also lots of merchants, entertainers and artists. They were all in costume and there was a daily parade to show them off and do a bit of advertising.
A costume vendor, some jugglers.
The Rogues, some mud fairies at work.
Entertainers also took the form of buskers wandering about selling goods and services. You could buy jerky ("It's not just an attitude anymore.") or pretzels or long-stem roses ("Romance on a stick."). You could also buy insults. This guy was good. He made Black Adder sound like Mother Theresa. He gave you your choice of Poetry or Prose and you could purchase $5, $10, or $20 insults. We heard him deliver four or five sets of insults. The $10 ones took about 2 or 3 minutes to deliver and they were truly scathing. Also, during the 10 or 15 minutes we listened to him, he never repeated an insult. We never got to hear the $20 insults.
He was actually quite friendly
Maybe too friendly?
as long as you paid him.
Maybe not?
There are also a large number of "taverns" and food vendors scattered throughout the site and we are happy to state that the "Privies" are NOT historically accurate.
It took 2 visits for L to get into the spirit and get a costume. J took a little longer to put together a look, and at the time of writing is still waiting for his boots to arrive. Handmade, they will take a couple of months. L has promised to make the pouch/purse to go with his outfit, so we can leave the day pack at home and still carry our camera and wallets.
Us in costume.
Needless to say, we will be attending this faire as often as we can for as long as we live in this area.