Last Sunday I attended my first ever Renfaire. It was at Black Creek in Toronto on June 20th.
I was first struck by just how many of the attendees were in cosplay (about half); how many costumes had nothing to do with the Renaissance (about three quarters); and the sheer number of folks sporting those plastic Temu elf ears (like… a lot).
The day started with a joust in which the MC belabored the point that the sport was completely real and very dangerous. Within about 2 minutes, one of the knights was launched from his (massive) warhorse, and landed hard on the ground.
He laid there, unmoving, for quite some time while the smiles in the audience began to droop.
Sir David had dislocated a shoulder and the joust was over.
I think I can speak for the audience when I say we all felt a bit crappy about having paid to see an exciting bloodsport in which someone actually got hurt.
The rest of the faire (the extra e matters) was good - it included pizza cones, lemonade, taking in a few shows (Men in Tights - a pantomime style audience participation show, Midwife Crisis - a straight up stand up comedy routine, and a sword-balancing belly dancer) which were all very well done. We finished with a walk about in the shopping tents.
Here's a few photos:
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