Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire

After eight and a half years of blogging, I have to wonder if y’all are getting tired of seeing pictures of the same events year after year. Ha! We first attended the Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire when Leif was one, and we’ve attended many years since—even when I was almost nine months pregnant with Lola!

The faire is held in the middle of nowhere on a huge field in a valley surrounded by stunning forested hills. Most of the faire is in the open field, but part of it is in the forest. That’s where we started out.

We visited the Pict settlement. Lola didn’t want to get too close to the head.

But she loved getting her face painted.

My new favorite addition was the timeline fence that bordered the whole forest camp.

The kids’ favorite activity was rat-catching. They purchased rat-catching licenses and received a plastic bracelet. Costumed players with rat masks roamed the faire, and the kids had to find and catch them (the rats tried to elude capture). When caught, the rats would tie a ribbon on the children’s bracelets. This year a new ribbon was introduced: the big black ribbon with skulls on it. This meant that the (fleas on the) rat had given the child the plague and they had to return to the home-base to get cured. I think only Leif contracted the plaque (twice). The kids were also given a little scavenger hunt paper and they had to find various spots and ask for stamps on their paper. When they turned in their paper, they received a necklace with a tiny rat charm.

There were many different performance stages at the faire with various performers (music, magic shows, plays). Luke and Leif spent quite a bit of time at a small stage where a single guy was reenacting Harry Potter. Leif was excited to be called up as a volunteer.

And, of course, the jousting tournament. The audience watched from the hill.

The morning weather was perfect, in the 70s with a nice breeze, but it was getting quite hot by the time we left in the early afternoon. I always feel sorry for the knights jousting in 90 degree weather, and they had another performance late in the afternoon.