KANSAS CITY RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL 2008
        Village of Canterbury, 1520



        After a long absence, Ryleh the Wanderer finally returned to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival in the Fall of 2008. What a difference just four years can make! Among other things, the KC faeries had moved up from the Enchanted Forest to the Main Gate where they could now sing and dance around the Maypole all day long, while Barbarian Battles moved into the Forest; there was also a new Royal Court, led by a much-younger (and much thinner) King Henry VIII celebrating his impending marriage to Anne Boleyn; best of all, there were many new acts and exciting entertainments such as the drums-and-fire show of the Sonic Sidhe and the wild and lively dancing of the Gypsy Warriors, to name a few. Since it was also "Beauty and the Beast" weekend, many patrons brought their dogs to faire, not only to see and be seen but also to compete in the dog show held simultaneously on the grounds. The bulldog in a tutu was, of course, quite memorable but the "beasts" weren't limited to just canines. There were also snakes (boa constrictors, to be specific), parrots and an iguana in attendance each day. As you might well imagine, that weekend was quite colorful, exotic and exciting, indeed! (Photo, Above: the Main Gate to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival after the morning rush of patrons has come and gone).




        Ryleh wasn't alone in this year's adventure. Accompanying him for the weekend was Dr. John Dee (AKA Aaron) and the Elven Lady Alexiel, AKA Erica, Aaron's real-life fiancee (Photo, Right). Both of them are veterans of other renaissance festivals, aye, but those faires were small, local events covering less than five acres at best. Neither of them had seen a truly LARGE faire before so, needless to say, the Kansas City Renaissance Festival was quite a novel experience for the two of them! To make Saturday even better, we also managed to meet up with the Neosho, Missouri branch of our faire family, "The Ides of March," at the Main Gate just before faire opened. It was great to see Paula and her Highlander again, as well as Paula's kids, Ian and Jeffie. Alas, we only managed to spend half an hour with them before the various currents of faire pulled us apart -- and such is the sheer size of the Kansas City Renaissance Festival (16 acres, at least) that we never saw them again for the entire weekend!




        Faire family wasn't the only familiar faces at KC, however. Many of the local players and regional entertainers from the Joplin, White Hart and Oklahoma Renaissance Festivals were playing Kansas City that weekend, too. Queen's Gambit, for example, played the Dunwoodie Dell Stage (Photo, Left), While Lady Nancy with her "Silly Songs of the Selkie" held forth on the Royal Pavilion (Photo, Below). The "Lord Mayor's Company" didn't play KC this year as an act, but their members entertained at the Royal Smoker, mc'd the Human Chess Match and even did a stint as grounds security at the faire! Then there was Toy, the Mechanical Man giging in the Olde North Bramble; Malevito the Maleficient playing "Evil Sorcerer" along Sheffield Way; the Musical Blades with their "Pyrate" version of "Whiskey in the Jar" playing it up in The Wildwood -- we even met the young cavalier from the fencing company which does both White Hart and Muskogee. Alas, he was working cast at KC, so we couldn't enjoy more of his his company, longer. Still, we kept running into so many familiar faces that it felt more like a family reunion than a weekend spent at faire!




        For Aaron, tho, the biggest attraction at Kansas City was Barbarian Battles. "Battles" allows young men -- and women! -- the opportunity to take up (boffer) arms and flail away at each other unmercifully while inflicting miminal damage at best to either party. We first encountered them at Joplin this Spring, where Aaron quickly made a name for himself in the daily tournament held there. Needless to say, he was excited to hear that "Battles" would be at KC this year. In fact, one of the first things he did when he hit their booth was buy a polearm weapon called "The Reaper," featuring a longsword at one end and a mace at the other! Then he proceeded to battle away Saturday, either in the former Enchanted Forest or in the tournaments held at the KC Jousting field (Photo, Above: Aaron standing at the end of the line with his "Reaper," waiting his turn to do battle). Lady Alexiel was none too happy with that turn of events as she really wanted to see what else KCRF had to offer! Worse, not only did Aaron take two stout blows to the head during the course of the day but he also overdid it physically way too much. He really got to feeling it later that evening -- and wound up forgoing the Battles on Sunday in favor of squiring his lady around faire, much to her joy and satisfaction (Photo, Below: Aaron and Erica together quietly watch the antics of the Pyrate Lasses at the Canturbury Pub Stage).



        Alas, but all good things must end! Despite Aaron's injuries -- and everyone's sore feet from making numerous circuits of the entire festival each day! -- we were all sorry to leave KCRF that Sunday afternoon. There was so much going on that none of us really got to see even half the acts, shows and other entertainments offered that weekend! Fact is, it would take at least three weekends to "see it ALL" at KC -- and that doesn't include all the improv bits with which both cast and players embellish their performances. On the bright side, the road is now a four-lane freeway between Kansas City and Arkansas, where we live; so the drive there and back is a lot faster than it was four years ago. All things being equal next year, there's a good possibility we'll try to do at least TWO weekends out of KCRF's seven-week season. For those who haven't been there, the Kansas City Renaissance Festival is definitely worth the cross-country drive. See you all there in 2009!



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        This page created 19 October 2008