Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire - Part 1

We had a Saturday free to do something together as a family, and while Amp was looking around for somewhere to go or something to do, she stumbled upon the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. The Ren Faire is located on the grounds of Mount Hope Winery (or vice versa, I'm not quite sure which). It is open weekends for much of the year, and is located out between Lancaster and Hershey, just off the Turnpike. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and honestly had visions of a total freak show dancing in my head. But I figured it would be worth a visit, and I thought the kids would like the pageantry of it, so off we went.

My first impression on arriving in the parking lot and walking into the place (after a fairly steep admission) was... "wow, this is big." I didn't really have a strong preconceived notion in mind, but was surprised at the size and sophistication of it. It was the size of a little town, with buildings, outdoor stages, pavilions and a full sized jousting stadium. Much more on the jousting later...

There was undoubtedly a touch of Freak Show to the proceedings, but I realize that is being very narrow minded and unkind. I am sure that most people would consider my hobbies odd as well. To an outsider, my two primary hobbies at this point are using an expensive GPS to track down tupperware in the woods, and painting and fighting battles with little metal toy soldiers. So I suppose in that sense, the Ren Faire is perfectly normal.

It is certainly not every day that you get to living statues and mermaids side by side with people dressed as medieval peasants, wizards and fairies. And vikings and crusaders. Knights and damsels. Rogues and serving wenches. And pirates, of course. A lot of people spend a lot of money on costumes and period paraphenalia, but once again, what I spend my money on would seem odd to most others.

It was a beautiful late summer day, and the place was packed. In addition to lots and lots of ways to spend money on every imaginable kind of food, beverage and souvenir, there were little street shows and larger productions going on all around us all the time. There really was a lot to do: details to follow in the next post.