KIM BURTON-SCHRAM
LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER
For the second year, the Maxville Fairgrounds were transformed into a Renaissance Festival complete with medieval merchants, birds of prey, entertainers and incredible jousting knights aboard their brave steeds.
Attendees were decked out in their finest gowns, tunics, vests & cloaks, along with lots of elfish ears were seen. Despite the cold, over 8,000 people attended the Faire on the first day of the two-day event, and expectations for the second day were set at another 8-10,000 attendees. Shoppers browsed tents selling beeswax candles, floral wreath crowns, hand-crafted pipes, honey & mead and jewellery, along with various renaissance and medieval clothing pieces and accessories.
Longbottom’s leaf creates handmade long stem pipes from different types of wood. Longbottom attends various renaissance festivals and events to sell the pipes. Long-time costumers Baroness Snert, aka Debora Fleming, and “her slightly honourable court” Lady Pifflewump, aka Vanessa Passmore, entertained attendees with their basse dancing while flutists Brenda Nobbs and Deborah Quigley played. This travelling troupe has been making their own costumes for 30 years, outfitting a royal court that attends renaissance faires to entertain crowds. The troupe said the Glengarry Renaissance Faire was an enjoyable, well-organized event. Jean-Luc Sabourin was a wandering minstrel playing the hurdy gurdy, a French instrument from the Middle Ages. Jean-Luc built and taught himself to play by purchasing a kit online from The Netherlands.
Everyone enjoyed the antics of Zoltan the Adequate, while anticipating the main event of the Faire. The grandstand was filled when the knights and horses come onto the field and the exciting jousting began. The knights for the day were Sir Nicholas riding Dave the Shire horse, Sir Andrew riding Sirus, Sir Tyler riding his Percheron horse King Levon and the only lady rider participating in full-contact jousting, Dame Fiona riding a horse in training. Before the games began, the knights handed out roses to their chosen lady or lord symbolizing their devotion. The games to teach a knight how to be a man- or lady-at-arms began with mounted games of skills, using a spear to capture rings, then throwing the spear towards a target. In the sport of extreme jousting, the knights and horses head towards each other at speeds of 25kmh, carrying an 11-foot wooden lance that packs a 5,000lb punch per square inch.
The crowds clearly enjoyed the excitement of the mounted games and the knights displayed bravery as they faced their opponent at the opposite ends of the riding lists. With the large turnout of attendees in costume, the Renaissance Faire in Maxville has proven to be a popular event, well worth checking out.
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