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November Issue
2010
Annual Carolina Renaissance Festival
Take Place in Huntersville, NC - Weekends Through Nov. 21, 2010
Located just north of Charlotte in Huntersville,
NC, is a village where imagination, fantasy, and history burst
to life. It is a place where adults can feel and act like children
while children are treated as royalty. It is a magical realm where
you will forget about your daily cares and enjoy the magic of
a simpler time and place.
It is the Carolina Renaissance Festival and Artisan Marketplace.
Introduced to the Charlotte area in 1994, the Carolina Renaissance
Festival and Artisan Marketplace contained just six acres of village
attractions. Now, the event has grown to become one of the largest
renaissance themed events in the country as well as one of the
largest attractions in the Carolinas.
Operating 7 consecutive Saturdays and Sundays in October through
November 21, 2010, the 22-acre tree-lined Renaissance Festival
village is nestled amongst 245 acres of beautiful forest coated
in autumn colors. A perfect setting for a fictional, story-book
renaissance village filled with charming cottages, castles, kitchens
and pubs, all with the feel of a 16th century European village.
A fictional village called Fairhaven a peaceful shire where
pleasure and celebration rules the day.
It is within the walls of Fairhaven that villagers, artists, crafts-people,
musicians, performance troupes and food vendors have gathered
together to create a marketplace festival in celebration for the
arrival of their visiting King and Queen.
Entertainment
With trumpets blaring and cannon blasting, the gates of Fairhaven
swing open at 10am and close at dusk. The day is filled with an
abundance of attractions appropriate for all age groups, including
11 stages, each packed with a unique mix of continuous music,
dance, comedy shows, and circus entertainments. From sword swallowing
to one-of-a-kind old world musical instruments, the entertainment
options are endless. The shows are always spontaneous, and you
can take part in the action if you wish or sit back and
enjoy watching the audience volunteers who make a spectacle of
themselves. You will never know what happens next, on stage or
off.
One of the special features of the Carolina Renaissance Festival
is that the entertainment is not confined to the stage. The fun
takes place right in front of you on the streets of Fairhaven
Village, as a costumed cast of 300 medieval commoners, knights,
and royalty celebrates a 16th century day of play. Part of the
Renaissance experience is meeting and interacting with the colorful
characters roaming the village, creating an interactive street
theater. Musical fairies and lively woodland sprites embody childlike
innocence. Close up magicians amaze and amuse. Wonderful statuary
comes to life. There is even a walking tree! You can take audience
with the King and Queen, or mingle with the mud covered peasants
who endlessly proclaim "Welcome to the greatest show in Earth!
Huzzah!"
Outrageously unpredictable and unstoppably hilarious, the Carolina
Renaissance Festival blends the comedy of Monty Python with the
mythology of The Lord of the Rings.
One would be remissed without mentioning the incredible array
of live musical performances many of which are accompanied
by ethnic dance influenced by Ireland, Scotland, India, Africa,
and the Middle East. Ancient old world instruments such as the
hurdy gurdy, hammered dulcimer, penny whistle, along with classical
guitar ensembles and gentle harp music all fill the lanes of the
village. Even scurrrvy pirates and old Irish folk songs have a
home with adventure filled ballads that make you sing and shout
along - all part and parcel of the Festival day.
Attractions
In addition to the non-stop schedule of entertainment, you cannot
miss the birds of prey exhibition where the royal falconer will
don his hunting garb and take you on a thrilling trip into the
past explaining and demonstrating the use of falcons, hawks, owls
and more in the ancient sport of falconry! Listen to fascinating
bits of history delivered while a hawk flies overhead in a simulated
hunt displaying the unique skills that enraptured nobles long
ago and made falconry the sport of kings. It is both educational
and awe inspiring as you learn about the popularity of falconry
in the renaissance while watching a falcon dive at over 100 miles
an hour!
A modern recreation of the Renaissance era wouldn't be complete
without a depiction of one of the grandest events of the time
period the tournament Joust! Easily the Carolina Renaissance
Festival's most popular attraction, the joust is full of pomp,
pageantry, and chivalry. Three times daily, noble Knights strap
on the heavy suits of armor and mount two tons of snorting steeds.
With plumes waving and chain mail clanking, they take up their
lances and charge at one another in tilt. Shattering lances, clashing
swords, and daring deeds of bravery all collide into a realistic
recreation of a joust to the death! These Knights (actually stunt
riders and actors) battle inside the village on a large tournament
field in a 2,000 seat arena. Adults and children alike can join
in the fun and cheer their favorite knight with creative and sarcastic
chants taught by the Fairhaven rabble rousers!
Games & Rides
The Carolina Renaissance Festival is home to plenty of activities
for children including a most unusual collection of people powered
rides and games of skill. Inspired by the joust? Try your skill
with a lance on the Slider Joust challenge game. You can storm
the castle in a paintball battle or try to solve the riddle of
climbing Jacob's Ladder. Mix skillful pleasure and comic adventure
by throwing tomatoes at the insulting fools locked in the stocks
at Vegetable Justice. Test your skill at games like the Dragon
Climbing Tower, the Archery Range, and the Maze. Fly high into
the sky on the Pirate's Assault Catapult. Take a ride on Christopher
Columbus' Voyage to the New World, the Piccolo Pony (a rocking
horse bigger than an elephant), and Leonardo's Flying Machine;
a people powered amusement ride based on Di Vinci's designs for
human flight.
A family favorite is Mother (and Father) Goose brought to life
with their costumed ducks and geese, the Petting Farm, and Camel
and Elephant Rides.
Already the Carolinas' largest costume party, put the Carolina
Renaissance Festival on your Halloween list of things to do with
free event admission for all children 12 and under, with free
tricks & treats to be found all around the Festival village,
and a Halloween Treasure Hunt with prizes! Children are encouraged
to show off their Halloween costumes and enter the Halloween Costume
Contest!
Shopping
In addition, the Renaissance Festival is a great place to buy
your Halloween costume or accessories. Early holiday shoppers
can peruse over 100 craft shops in an open-air village market
which provides a diverse selection of handmade items such as pottery,
jewelry, perfume, glass blown ornaments, ceramics, bath &
body products, medieval costumes, hand carved candles, unique
musical instruments, children's toys, a full spectrum of clothing,
and much more. You can even create your own special gift at the
raku pottery booth.
Housed in rows of storybook shops and medieval style tents, you
can watch artisans make a masterpiece right before your eyes.
Enjoy demonstrations of fine skills such as weaving, woodcarving,
blacksmithing, glassblowing, pottery, and jewelry making
all through the use of ancient skills and low technology.
Eating
Did you work up an appetite perusing all the shops and enjoying
all the entertainment? Well you will be pleased to know that the
food is as spectacular as all the attractions. In addition to
the shows, music, crafts, and the wonder of getting lost in another
time, people visit the Carolina Renaissance Festival for the food
as well. Village kitchens cook up an endless feast of bread bowl
stews, steak-on-a-stake, gourmet sausages, and the festival's
famous giant roasted turkey legs. For dessert, try the fresh crepes,
the cakes and cookies from the Monks Bakery, candy delights from
the Chocolate Shoppe, Italian ice, gelato, and a favorite of all
renaissance wanderers: a bag of cinnamon-roasted almonds. Festival
pubs soft drinks, a wide variety of craft beer, wine, champagne,
ale, honey mead, lemonade and Medieval Margaritas to compliment
the day-long feast of hearty foods fit for royalty.
Each year the Carolina Renaissance Festival adds new entertainment
and new facilities making it the fall destination for quality
entertainment in the Carolinas. And for visitor convenience, the
Festival has embraced modern times. In addition to purchasing
advanced discount tickets at Harris Teeter grocery stores region-wide,
visitors can now print their own tickets in advance on the Festival's
website at (www.RenFestInfo.com). So bust out your sense of good
cheer, leave your cares behind, and take a day trip out to the
wildly popular and entertaining time machine known as the Carolina
Renaissance Festival and Artisan Market Place.
Advance Discount Tickets: $18 for adults, $7 for kids ages 5-12;
available at Harris Teeter Stores region wide. Children under
5 are always free. Tickets purchased at the gate are $1 more,
or print your own online at (www.RenFestInfo.com). Senior (60
and over) and adult Military discount tickets are $17 at the gate.
Parking is free courtesy of Harris Teeter.
Event Sponsors: The Carolina Renaissance Festival is presented
by Harris Teeter, Carolina Blonde, Pepsi, and the Charlotte
Observer.
For more event information call 704/896-5544; toll free at 877/896-5544,
or on the web at (www.RenFestInfo.com).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2010 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2010 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.