The Renaissance Faire, a time of festivities commemorating the well known period of human history where new ideologies and inventions were founded. In 1980, the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire was, and still is, held at Mount Hope Estate where the entire faire was originally only contained in the winery parking lot. It was only a two-day jousting event, which became very popular. To present day, the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire has expanded to 35 acre site at the estate having many performances of plays, jousting, and other acts within a recreation of a 16th century village. I came there as apart of the Reach Program finding it out to be a pleasant experience as well for all who came to the faire.

We first entered through the main entrance to explore the faire. Later we went and watched a small performance of a ‘magician’ as the man called himself. I found him to be hilarious having an act that I thought was not predictable. Soon, it was time to go to the globe theater. At the globe theater, this is where plays would be performed as on the day me and my other peers went to the faire, we were to watch some performances from ours’ and a different school district. It was much like a competition, since there were judges to record which the school district did better than the other. They all did a wonderful job though I found our school district’s play, not biased, to considerably better. Both groups, however, were a bit too quiet as I could only make out so much of what they were saying. After the plays, we were let to explore the faire to ourselves. We were becoming hungry after a while, and decided to find food that appeared appetizing. Soon we found ourselves at one of the far corners of the faire where there was a place, named Bread and Broth, where the people, who dressed accordingly to the festivities, sold bread boules filled with a soup of your choice.

I found it to be exciting to have as my friends and I each brought a bread boule of soup. I rejoined with my friends where we wandered the place for a while until we regrouped with our other peers. It was soon time for one of the main events of the day that was Human Chess. It was where we had to sides of this game: England with their leader, King Henry, and France with their leader, King Francois. The game proceeded with a chess game rules, which after a player’s moves, some of the “chess” players will battle out whom of the kingdoms have proven worthy. The actors, who performed the Human Chess match, did a splendid job with their performance and choreography. Their display provided me with the sense of entertainment and realism being it was much amusing.

Eventually, it was time for the other and final event: The Jousting Event. It was spectacular with the pride you can hear in the voices of the people, and the gallant behaviors they prestige. I never truly seen the end of the Jousting Event before, even though it is different for every weekend, so it was exciting. There was a battle at the end with, funnily, the jester was the true enemy who threw grenades around where they actually had explosions. It was in easiest of terms, epic. After the final event, it was time to leave. If anyone who reads this article has not been to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, I would highly recommend going at least one weekend to the faire as I promise you will not be dissapointed.