Georgia Renaissance Festival

Georgia Renaissance Festival

Yesterday, I went to the Georgia Renaissance Festival with Abi and her family and their elderly friend, Grace. It was quite a good time!

First, the atmosphere. It was quite "Renaissance," that is, you couldn't tell you weren't in the 14th century, unless of course you noticed the strollers, cell phones, and porta-potties. There were people everywhere dressed in "vintage" style, as royalty, peasants, workers, knights, et cetera. My guess is most of these people are amateurs or tip-based, just showing up whenever the festival's in town, just because they like using their costumes and acting a character. I think that would be some fun: first, having a get-up that allows you to wear a sword, and second, being able to invent for yourself a character and become him for however long you're there. Just interacting and ad-libbing with the other actors there would be fun. For a while.

Food was good. They had a bunch of stuff like turkey legs and all kinds of meat on sticks. Anything's renaissance if you eat it off a stick, I've decided. Plenty of beer rounded out the available menu items.

Ah, yes, the shows. We saw jousting first, which was good but staged. Well-staged, nonetheless. Then, on to an acrobat and mediocre comedian who did some very impressive balancing acts and was a very good one-man show. He talked the entire time, running a narrative of what went well and especially what didn't. Then we ate and watched a few, smaller shows, including a sword-swallower who was very crass and only moderately interesting. He actually swallowed a balloon and allowed his stomach acid to pop it so it would go all the way down. Hmmm...

The other two big shows we saw were the Zucchini Brothers, a pair of jugglers who were very funny and very talented. Easily one of the best acts there. And after them, two guys who enjoyed taking verbal shots at each other, doing some stage swordfighting, and talking about beer. Good times!

So it was a fun day. Never been before, but I think I'd go back. It's an experience, to say the least.