Renaissance Festival

ARIZONA RENAIS

For a few winter weekends each year, Old World chivalry - and devilmentcombine for a strikingly different outing in the desert near Apache Junction We could see, as we walked toward the main gate, the dancing girls dark haired and well tanned the jugglers and men with swords milling around like Robin Hood's minions in Sherwood Forest. We were not prepared for what was to come, though. My wife felt a tug on her sleeve. She turned to find a young peasant girl, some rich man's chattel probably, looking pleadingly up at her. "Trade you an orange for the child," she said, thrusting the fruit forward in her bony white hand and pointing at our four-yearold grandson, Brian. My wife was taken aback but recovered quickly. "No thanks," she said, and began to walk away. "That's probably the right thing," the peasant girl called after her. "You can get two oranges for him inside." And so we were introduced to the Arizona Renaissance Festival. My wife was smiling appreciatively. But Brian was not amused. He didn't say anything, but you could tell he had powerful misgivings about going on. Clearly, he did not want to be bartered away for a handful of fruit, or for anything else, for that matter. But straight ahead we went, through the entrance and into the throng. The place was full of storytellers, sword fighters, knights, damsels in distress, even a king and queen, all costumed in their best 14th century garb. The village sprawled across 16 acres of desert east of Apache Junction. On a wide avenue, flanked by shops and pavilions, strolled peasants in rags, nobles in finery, shopkeepers, and artisans. Townspeople of all sorts, shapes, and sizes. Everywhere we turned, there was something going on. People sitting in the shade

SANCE FESTIVAL

of trees watched swordsmen duel, while others lounging on hay bales under a tent munched on huge turkey legs or sausages and listened to storytellers and poets. Down the way, there was a castle of sorts and inside a display of implements of torture used in that time before the dawn of the Age of Reason.

At one end of a row of shops, a barker offered rides on elephants and a dromedary. At the other end of the village, behind an arena, was a barn and corral where the knights' horses were kept. Their battle axes, chain mail, swords, shields, helmets, and other weaponry hung on the walls of the outbuildings. Nearby, artisans forged lances and made breastplates, tools of the knightly trade.

But the Old World ambience, though enhanced by the exhibits and shops, was rooted in the actors and actresses and the characters they portrayed fops and jesters, magicians and weavers, the courtly and the lowly. In all some 200 entertainers wandered about the grounds, acting and interacting with thousands of spectators.

It did not take Brian long to become absorbed completely in that 14th century life-style. He laughed at the slapstick, marveled at the magicians, ate heartily,applauded enthusiastically at the sword-play, selected wisely at the shield and sword shop, and gaped awestruck at the jousting events.

Brian and I, entranced by the atmo-sphere, thought of the jousters as knights on a quest, protecting the weak, ridding the world of evil, and upholding justice at the point of a lance.

And that was our viewpoint as the knights in full armor entered the arena for the afternoon's engagement. It was to be a friendly joust as jousts go. No one was to be killed. Instead, it was to be a contest of skill and strength. The king and queen were there, and everything seemed on the up and up.

We picked the black knight as our champion. He was riding against the blue knight. After some warm-up in which they speared small rings with lances at full gal-lop, they were ready for the real thing.

With a brassy fanfare, they came riding hard, helmets down, shields up, each man's long, sharp lance pointed at the other's heart. Wham! Whack! Both lances glanced off the shields, and neither knight was unhorsed. They rode to opposite ends of the arena, turned and charged again. Again they met at full gallop. Again the lances were deflected by the shields. But this time the blue knight's lance broke on impact. His squire gave him another one.

Then another charge. This time the blue knight was unseated. The black knight whirled his horse around and attempted to spear the blue knight, but missed. Then the blue knight knocked our champion from his horse with a mace. The battle shifted to swords. It did not last long. The blue knight lost his weapon, and the black knight had him. It was all over. The black knight had won fair and square.

Then an incredible thing happened. The black knight pulled a knife and slit the throat of the blue knight, who reeled and fell lifeless.

Well, you cannot imagine the commotion that caused. The black knight had committed a serious breach of etiquette by killing an opponent in a joust that was intended to be bloodless. A knight dressed in red was particularly outraged. He accused the black knight of unsportsmanlike conduct and challenged him to a joust to the death.

The black knight quickly accepted the challenge, and the king approved the combat, which was set for later that day.

Brian and I, of course, stayed to support the black knight against this red-clad upstart. We were confident of victory. However, because the knights are returning to the area again this month, we feel it would not be proper to report on the outcome of that competition. No good critic reveals the outcome of the mystery in his review. Suffice it to say that Brian wants to be a knight when he grows up.

And if you happen to see us at this year's festival, keep your oranges. We aren't trading.M Robert J. Early is the editor at Arizona Highways.

Free-lance photographer W. D. Wray has been the official photographer of the Arizona Renaissance Festival since its inception.

WHEN YOU GO

This year's Arizona Renaissance Festival will be held from 10:00 A.M. till dusk on Saturdays and Sundays, beginning February 9 and ending March 17. The festival grounds are located on State Route 60-89, 10 miles east of Apache Junction. For prices and further information, telephone the festival office at (602) 463-2700.