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Put your troubles aside and escape to the Arizona Renaissance Festival, a peaceful shire where pleasure and celebration are the only orders of the day as decreed by King Henry. To celebrate its 20th anniversary as the state’s biggest kingdom of outdoor entertainment, the Arizona Renaissance Festival has planned two months of non-stop entertainment, feasting and games. It began last Saturday and runs through the end of March.
In the festival’s vast 16th century European village, an expected 260,000 revelers will find new shows on 12 stages of continuous entertainment, including:
• Whip Master Adam Crack, who holds four Guinness World Records for his daring and dangerous bullwhip stunts.
• A new stunt show, The Pirate Jousts! A landlocked buccaneer trades his boat for a horse and takes on King Henry’s royal knights.
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• The Lost Boys, the hottest band in medieval rock ’n’ roll.
• Gillie’s Nest, home of Rumpelstiltskin’s goofy Scottish cousin, Gillie-Du.
• Danny, Lord of Mischief with hit and run comedy.
At the Arizona Renaissance Festival, the entire 30-acre kingdom forms the set for comic adventures, in which you can be both audience and part of the fun. With a cast near 1,000 costumed characters, the festival is like a Monty Python movie come to life.
Festival fans can leave their cares behind and enjoy the pleasures of a simpler time in a storybook town where you can choose from continuous music, dance and comedy shows, shop for wonderful arts and crafts, plus games, rides and a feast of exotic food and drink. Throw tomatoes at the insulting fools locked in the stocks at Vegetable Justice. Cheer a favorite mounted knight (or pirate) at three jousting tournaments each day. Or test your skill at games like the Dragon Climbing Tower, the Archery Range and the Maze. The thousands of Arizonans who have become festival regulars over the past 20 years will be happy to know that many fan favorites are back for the anniversary celebration, including:
• The sharp wit of the Ded Bob Show.
• All three Tortuga Twins.
• Zilch the Toryseller.
• The dashing swordsman Don Juan and his zany servant Miguel.
• The Wyld Men mixing it up in the medieval mud.
• Cast in Bronze, a tower of musical bells played on a mechanical keyboard with fists and feet.
• Birds of Prey demonstrations of majesty in flight.
• And hundreds of minstrels, dancers, jugglers and jesters.
Families will enjoy the king and his court (where kids can be knighted by royalty), Mother and Father Goose brought to life with their costumed flock, rides on the people-powered Da Vinci’s Flying Machine, Christopher Columbus’ Voyage to the New World, the Slider Joust and the Piccolo Pony (a rocking horse bigger than an elephant).
The food is as spectacular as the entertainment. Festival kitchens cook up an endless feast of Scotch eggs, potato pancakes, bread bowl stews, steak-on-a-stake, gourmet sausages, and the festival’s famous giant roasted turkey legs, and new this year, large beef ribs. For dessert, try the fresh crepes, the cakes and cookies from the Monks Bakery, candy delights from the Chocolate Shoppe, and a favorite of all renaissance wanderers: a bag of cinnamon-roasted almonds. Festival pubs offer soft drinks, beer, wine, champagne and ale. The Cocktail Inns serve such full-spirit drinks as Medieval Margaritas, Duke of Daiquiri and the Bloody Marie Antoinette.
For the best in medieval dining, make reservations for La Festa Italiana at the FeastHall. This six-course, bang-on-the-table dining event features the return of the Feast Master with a new music and comedy extravaganza. Or — book the Village Green for group parties and the Village Chapel for special wedding ceremonies.
When the Arizona Renaissance Festival was introduced to the Superstition Mountains in 1989, the shows took place on three stages amid eight-acres of village attractions. Now 20 years later, the event has grown to become the largest Renaissance Festival in the West. The Village of Fairhaven is now spread over 30 acres with its 12 stages of non-stop entertainment, a tournament arena for jousting, an open-air market with more than 200 artisan shops, kitchens and pubs, games of skill and people-powered rides.
Have more fun than you thought possible in a single day at the Arizona Renaissance Festival.
FESTIVAL INFO
What: The 20th Annual Arizona Renaissance Festival.
When: Saturdays and Sundays through March 30. Gates open with a cannon shot at 10 a.m. and close at 6 p.m., rain or shine.
Where: From Tucson: Take the Tucson shortcut, The Pinal Pioneer Parkway (Highway 79) to Florence Junction, then west 7 miles on U.S. Highway 60 to the Festival Village.
Tickets: Advance discount tickets at Fry’s Food and Drug Stores and Fry’s Marketplace. Or go online to RenFestInfo.com to buy advance print-at-home tickets, get detailed directions and festival information, and to make reservations for the Pleasure Feast. Tickets are always available at the gate.
Parking: As always, parking is free.
