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It’s not often you get to hear two people play Londonderry Air on glass harmonicas. Or see five kids swaying on top of a 20-foot rocking horse. Or eat a turkey leg nearly the size of your forearm. I did all three on Sunday afternoon, the last day of this year’s Florida Renaissance Festival. True, you won’t be able to go there yourself until next year. But you can enjoy reading about the experience for now – and maybe get psyched for the many other festivals coming up in the weeks ahead. The weather this whole weekend was great. The sky was clear, the sunshine intense, the humidity low. To me, March and April usually have some of the year’s best weather in South Florida. So far, March is holding to form.
The combination of great weather and a popular event brought out the crowds to Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach, where the festival is held. As a result, getting to the Renaissance grounds took some patience. But once I was there, a strange world of the past appeared. The first thing I saw was a 10-foot tall jester – stilts of course. Everyone who performed or worked there in any way was dressed in period clothes – flowing peasant skirts, puffy sleeved shirts, bodices, the whole Leonardo da Vinci look. That gets your attention. After the jester, I walked past the giant rocking horse, which was powered by a fellow who stood on the horse’s side and shifted his weight. The glass harmonica players I heard later were delightful, swirling their fingers with genuine musicianship around a series of water-filled glasses. And the turkey I ate, sometime between the horse and the harmonicas, was very tasty. A nice smokiness and so much meat I couldn’t even finish it.
I was surprised at how impressively big the Renaissance festival has become, spreading over a much larger area than when I last attended the event several years ago at another park. There seems a greater variety of things to do, see, taste, hear. I think the same is true of many of the large festivals in and around Fort Lauderdale these days. But part of what makes the Florida Renaissance Festival different is the length of its run: five weekends worth of fair maids and jousting knights. It also attracts a very casual, relaxed, family crowd, judging by what I saw on Sunday. It was a fun day for me. And that rocking horse, wow. That thing really looked like fun. Sometimes it’s hard not to be a kid anymore.
The combination of great weather and a popular event brought out the crowds to Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach, where the festival is held. As a result, getting to the Renaissance grounds took some patience. But once I was there, a strange world of the past appeared. The first thing I saw was a 10-foot tall jester – stilts of course. Everyone who performed or worked there in any way was dressed in period clothes – flowing peasant skirts, puffy sleeved shirts, bodices, the whole Leonardo da Vinci look. That gets your attention. After the jester, I walked past the giant rocking horse, which was powered by a fellow who stood on the horse’s side and shifted his weight. The glass harmonica players I heard later were delightful, swirling their fingers with genuine musicianship around a series of water-filled glasses. And the turkey I ate, sometime between the horse and the harmonicas, was very tasty. A nice smokiness and so much meat I couldn’t even finish it.
I was surprised at how impressively big the Renaissance festival has become, spreading over a much larger area than when I last attended the event several years ago at another park. There seems a greater variety of things to do, see, taste, hear. I think the same is true of many of the large festivals in and around Fort Lauderdale these days. But part of what makes the Florida Renaissance Festival different is the length of its run: five weekends worth of fair maids and jousting knights. It also attracts a very casual, relaxed, family crowd, judging by what I saw on Sunday. It was a fun day for me. And that rocking horse, wow. That thing really looked like fun. Sometimes it’s hard not to be a kid anymore.
posted by LauderBLOGGER at 3:16 PM
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