New York Renaissance Faire!

So last Saturday we made our annual visit to the New York Renaissance Faire.

It's a long drive from Long Island to to the site of the faire in Tuxedo, NY.  We leave early in the morning, check the GPS to determine whether the best route takes us up the New York Thruway to the Tappan Zee (er, the Mario M. Cuomo) Bridge, or whether we should go through the Bronx to the George Washington Bridge and up Route 17. This time we took the Tappan Zee.  What I like about this route...as you approach the bridge...you can see a castle in Tarrytown ...it's actually a hotel, but it looks so medieval...

We start our adventure at the Orange Top Diner (very retro diner, the food is amazing), then proceed to the faire, arriving just before the 10 AM opening. Our plan is to stay until the faire closes at 7 PM.

This year I did not wear "garb"  (You must never call it a "costume", you must always call it "garb").  Instead, I went with a unicorn-and-dragon- themed graphic t-shirt.  And regretted my choice when I saw all the faire-goers in garb.

We go to the faire mostly for the live entertainment.  Most of the performers will do a 30 minute show, and many of shows are interactive.  We try to catch favorite acts and we also like to see new shows. It's impossible to see all the entertainment in a single visit.

This year we started with Hey Nunnie Nunnie.  From their website:

Since 1994 the silly sisters of sin and song have captivated and charmed audiences across the world with their unique style of reverent and irreverent comedy.


Here's some video I shot last year:








Next up...Arsene Dupin.

He is a mime...no, he's a juggler...no, he's a magician.

In any event, he is one of Drew's favorite performers.  We had not seen his show last year, so I wanted to be certain we caught his act this year.

And then there was Cirque du Sewer -- billed as the acrobat with acro-rats and a confused cat.  

 I think you can tell I really like this act.  You may recognize Melissa Arleth from her appearances on The Gong Show and America's Got Talent.  The cat refused to perform on The Gong Show, but the act did well on AGT. Who knew that Simon Cowell likes rats?






I asked her to take a picture with me.

Yeah, I'm a fan.

Another favorite?  Stewart and Arnold, a father and son knife throwing act.

In the "try something new" category, we also saw The Tortuga Twins. A comedy troupe, they pulled hapless individuals out of the audience to enact a humorous version of Robin Hood and Maid Marian.

Of course, you must go to one of the jousts -- excellent horsemanship and swordplay:

There's plenty of food, of course ... steak on a stake, sausage, turkey legs, gyros, nachos, pierogis, pickles, pizza...yummy cookies, fudge, ice cream...we don't do the pub crawl, but they have excellent beer selections....

And it was Marketplace Weekend...meaning...we spent so much money on junk er, meaningful souvenirs of our day, that we were able to obtain two free tickets for another visit to the faire.  So we will probably go back in late September.