Renn Fest!

Our second year to go to Renn Fest (Rennaisance Festival), and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. People go to extraordinary efforts to dress in their version of rennaisance, and some people just dress up (we saw Lord of the Rings characters and a Drizzt).

My happy points:

• The military precision of the parking in the morning (think, steady stream of cars, directed into specific spots in big open field)
• The man in the wheel of death - haven't seen many street performers who just give an enjoyable performance with no crudities involved.
• The drumming group called The Drum Runners
• The (loosely) celtic (I think they're channeling some sort of shaman celtic vibe) group called Cu Dubh (again, lots of drumming and some lovely non traditional harmonies with bagpipes, who would have thought?!)
• The street mime artist who could blow bubbles with soap on her hands
• The glass blowers who give a demonstration every half hour
• We also saw an elephant this year! Giving rides! but the line was very long and it was the end of the day, so not for us.
• All the people dressed up.

Not so happy points:

• Queues - everyone comes out to play, around about 12.30pm, so there are queues for the bathroom, the atms (just bring cash, people), the food and the beer
• The crowds - it got a bit difficult with the pram. We didn't go into any of the shops, because it would have just been too awkward. But after this visit, I'm really curious to try to look next year.