Taming the Shrewsbury Faire
September in (or near) Corvallis is an event-ridden month. I don't mean for this blog to be little more than a calendar of festivals, but this is just one of those weekends. In addition to the Rhapsody in the Vineyard wine walk tomorrow night, this is the weekend of the Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire in Kings Valley.
If you haven't been to a ren faire before, it's worth the half-hour drive and the $9 admission fee ($8 with this coupon) just for the people-watching opportunities. Either you will find yourself renting a corset and dropping phrases like, "Hail, well met!" or you will clutch your giant turkey leg and giggle at the bawdy pickle vendor. Either way, it isn't a dull experience. And I haven't been to a faire yet where there hasn't been at least one lost Star Trek crew member or Klingon. Guess they're short on conventions these days and figure a geek fest is a geek fest.
I happily put myself into the geek category for this one. My favorite exhibit last time around was the trebuchet demonstration, although I was disappointed that they were so tiny. I also discovered that my archery skills are still intact, which will serve me well if we decide to bomb ourselves back into the iron age, I suppose. It's also great fun to peruse the "fyne shoppes" with hand-crafted weapons and clothing. I always end up picking up a piece of chainmail and trying to convince myself that I could actually use it for something, but really, I know better.
If you're interested in taking the wayback machine back to the latter half of the 16th century, the Shrewsbury Faire will be open from 10 to 6 both Saturday and Sunday. To get you started, here's a ren faire glossary complete with insult generator.
Yours truly,
A frothy, hedge-born gudgeon.
If you haven't been to a ren faire before, it's worth the half-hour drive and the $9 admission fee ($8 with this coupon) just for the people-watching opportunities. Either you will find yourself renting a corset and dropping phrases like, "Hail, well met!" or you will clutch your giant turkey leg and giggle at the bawdy pickle vendor. Either way, it isn't a dull experience. And I haven't been to a faire yet where there hasn't been at least one lost Star Trek crew member or Klingon. Guess they're short on conventions these days and figure a geek fest is a geek fest.
I happily put myself into the geek category for this one. My favorite exhibit last time around was the trebuchet demonstration, although I was disappointed that they were so tiny. I also discovered that my archery skills are still intact, which will serve me well if we decide to bomb ourselves back into the iron age, I suppose. It's also great fun to peruse the "fyne shoppes" with hand-crafted weapons and clothing. I always end up picking up a piece of chainmail and trying to convince myself that I could actually use it for something, but really, I know better.
If you're interested in taking the wayback machine back to the latter half of the 16th century, the Shrewsbury Faire will be open from 10 to 6 both Saturday and Sunday. To get you started, here's a ren faire glossary complete with insult generator.
Yours truly,
A frothy, hedge-born gudgeon.
posted by Corvallist at
8:24 PM
2 Comments:
Your cutesy titles are killing me.
By
Anonymous, at 11:19 AM
Please come again!
My wife and I performed there for the first year in 2006 as Foiled Again!, and will be returning shortly. This time we come armed with two comedic swordfight acts, one bringing in a friend for a threesome of thrusts, parries, and ripostes.
Pretty child-safe, in that all the swords and most of the innuendo will go right over the heads of the short ones in the audience, I think.
It's been a good one for us because it's all just one weekend, as opposed to many which run for a month or so; as parents ourselves, that's just not feasible, finding child care and giving up that much of our time. Worth the drive from Seattle with a two year old, even (although we cheat, and have relatives in Eugene we can stay with).
By
Kevin, at 4:12 PM
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