Dave and I enjoy visiting the Renaissance festivals or fairs. We attended several of them through the years and always had a great time there. It is like going back in time to take a glimpse of how life was back then. This year we visited the Virginia Renaissance festival. It was a nice venue, although not as large as Maryland or North Carolina Renaissance festivals. I discovered that there are two types of Renaissance Festivals: the permanent (or semi-permanent) faire like The Maryland Renaissance Festival with buildings and streets, etc. and the tent faire where the buildings are mostly tents with small stages as in the case of the Virginia Renaissance Faire.
Virginia Renaissance Faire is located at Lake Anna Winery in Spotsylvania, VA and runs for 5 weeks starting Mother’s Day weekend. We visited the fair on the closing weekend in June. This weekend was dedicated to the Celtic heritage celebration with bagpipes and percussions. In the Tavern, Fletcher Moone is supposed to have rousing songs of ale and adventure. The Festival starts right behind this Front Gate.
The Queen has arrived in Staffordshire, and the village is ready to celebrate featuring Circus Stella with dogs, aerial skills, trapeze, and rope walking. The Knights will be preparing for the joust, the merchants will be preparing turkey legs and other savory goods, and the players will be performing.
Walking through the village, we saw numerous tents like these at the festival.
There were several stages set up with different performances within the village. We were watching one of them, when the Queen arrived on stage and became a part of the performance.
Later, we stopped at the Woodland cottage stage for the Circus Stella with dogs show.
I had some old-fashioned lemonade there, which was quite tasty.
And we enjoyed the aerial show across from the Woodland cottage stage.
Dave was considering trying some archery.
Food was offered at every corner, some was right from the stove.
Turkey legs are our favorite food at the fair. They were so good there. 🙂
The village is extended into the woods. It felt great walking among the trees and hiding in their shade on this hot summer day. Some folks were taking naps right there, on the ground.
Or taking a break on the nearby benches, like us. 🙂
There was a small pavilion with animals, surrounded by curious kids.
There were a few stores selling Renaissance period clothes. Some of it was really cute.
Of course, there was plenty of Renaissance style dancing at the fair.
And a fire spitting performance.
Dave and I stayed for the dog racing later in the day, which was quite interesting.
Driving back home through the beautiful Lake Anna Winery after the Renaissance festival. We had fun at the fair, but I think we should attend the Maryland Renaissance Fair next year.
