Bristol Renaissance Faire (Part 3) Joust-A

At first the Mayor and Court Jester were undecided if the jousts were going to be done as the crowd seems rather lackadaisical about the whole affair. When the crowd cheered harder for the joust, they relented.


We cheered for Sir William, despite his tendency to cheat and cause trouble.


It takes a lot of skill to be able to ride a horse, while carrying a lance and shield. Add to that, sparring with a competitor.


As mentioned in a previous post, this was a very hot day. 90° and climbing. I can only imagine how hot it must be in the suit of armour.


If I'm not mistaken, this is the Queen who came to watch the fighting. If so, she's different than the one from last year. Even so, a Queen's a Queen.


Sir William preparing for another joust. Here he's making sure his horse okay. He calls for water, but pours it on the horse instead of drinking it.


There is a lot of tom-foolery on the grounds, so it's determined there will be another joust later in the day. This time, there will be more at stake.

Bristol Renaissance Faire (Part 2) Side Acts

One of the great things about Ren Fair, there is always something to do. Some of the shows are a little dirty though. Take the mud show for example.


In the previous post, you'll have noticed Gypsy Geoff performing with Moonie. But he's also got his own juggling show. Here he is juggling canes. Despite having a bit of difficulty at first, you have to admit this takes real skill.


One of his unique tricks is to ask for three objects from the audience. Here he's got an umbrella, a bottle and my brothers shoe.


Geoff also has children join him on stage. They either help him in a juggling act or with spinning plates. It's always fun to watch.


Another thing to keep an eye out for is the costumes. The greatest thing to check out besides all the wenches are the colourful fantasy creatures. Not sure these really existed back in medieval England. But hey, it's all for fun, right?


If they can help it, they will try to avoid being photographed. But if you are lucky, you can still find them frolicking about, not paying attention to you.


If all else fails, send a child their way. Don't worry, they won't eat the children. They are rather fond of the children and are more likely to play with them.


You can also find live animals at the Ren Fair. These elephants for example are available to ride. Sure, it's a localized area, but how many people do you know can say they've actually rode an elephant before?

Bristol Renaissance Faire (Part 1) Moonie Show

This is Moonie, he's an entertaining, juggling, tightrope walking acrobat. Occasionally he plays with fire (in more ways than one).


He really doesn't need it, but sometimes he works with others. For example this beautiful trio, and Adam - a whip master; he's also good at throwing knifes.


This time Moonie is joined by Gypsy Geoff. He's a juggling specialist. Between the both of them, juggling knives is second nature. Doing so while trying to maintain their balance? That's taking it a step up.


Acrobatics must be rough enough, but in 90° weather such as the day this photo was taken? That takes some dedication. Keep up the great work girls!


Geoff hold a set of leaves in his mouth as Moonie juggles from behind him. As this is going on, Adam cracks each leaf off of the branch with his whip.


In front of the board Adam uses for his knife throwing, Moonie clowns around and pretends Adam has just finished throwing them while he was in front of the board.


Everyone has their special skill, one of Geoff's is hamming it up. He does a fantastic job pretending the knives were just thrown at him.



During the day, Moonie puts on a fantastic show. At the end of the day he improvises with his friends. Some of the things they try work, some don't. Either way it's always entertaining.


Once more, the girls helping the Moonie show. They are HOT! As I mentioned before, it was 90° out, so everyone was HOT.