Texas Renaissance Festival

Texas Renaissance Festival – November 3rd, 2007 – Plantersville, Texas

http://texrenfest.com/ - Link to the home page of the Texas Renaissance Festival

Every weekend in October and November, one of the largest Renaissance theme parks in the world.

http://texrenfest.com/map.html - Map of the Festival Grounds
I’m not sure just how big the area is, but comfortable shoes are definitely a big plus! The grounds are well kept and the fun is everywhere you look.

http://texrenfest.com/gardens.html - Several Wonderful Gardens on site at the Festival
Awesome care has been taken with these gardens. Beautiful plants and garden art to feast your eyes on. A gardener’s delight!!

http://texrenfest.com/acts.html Links for some of the Acts and Entertainments
Hilarious and entertaining, these folks will have you laughing till your sides hurt.

http://texrenfest.com/demonstrations.html Link to LIVE Demonstrations of Old World Crafts happening at the Festival
Glassblowing, metal forging, and all kinds of other crafts by master craftsmen with ancient tools of the craft.

http://texrenfest.com/games.html Link for games and amusements
Hand driven rides and fun games for everyone, young and old alike.



We had an incredible time at the Renaissance Festival yesterday. This was my 3rd time in 15 years to go, and my husband’s first time. It was my first time to go with no kids to be responsible for. Needless to say, this year was much different than in years past.

Everywhere you look, people are in costume from the 16th century. Not only the people who run the place, but the Festival goers really get into the fun. There are many photos to load here, so be patient. You can click on any of the links above to take you directly to the official Texas Renaissance Festival web site, which includes many videos. It’s available for Dial up or Broadband.

Step into the Past when you walk through the gates.

If you have been to the Festival and have photos to share, please feel free to add them to this thread.

Janet

The Ded Bob Show

Birds of Prey

Several gorgeous birds of prey fly over the audience.

Edited to add: I have created a thread in the bird watching forum about these wonderful birds of prey. Look for the link later in this thread.

This message was edited Nov 9, 2007 10:21 AM

Some get up close and personal.

Butterfly Garden

So many beautiful butterflies and plants inside of this structure.

Cast in Bronze

This wonderful musician played the most enchanting music on 2 tons of bronze bells.

The whole audience was mesmerized by his performance.

Elephant rides and llama rides

Giant swings that and hand driven by hard working strong guys

The merry-go-round, again, hand driven.

The Magic Garden

A wonderful path with 6 different places to stop and rest.

Copper plant stand in the Magic Gardens

Mosaic Bridge across a little creek in the Magic Garden

A lovely place to get off your feet for a bit

A closer look at one of the beautiful statues

We were astounded at how big the plants were along the shady path.

This plant didn't look real, because of the perfect symmetry. You can tell by the spot on the left of one of the leaves that it is real.

Another resting place along the Magic Garden path

This beautiful Tree of Life caught my attention.

The Magic Garden was filled with the haunting music from one of the locals.

A gathering of fairies

Acrobat in action. Just one of the many wonderful sights you see as you walk around the Festival.

This area is the Arena. The Hanlon Lees group put on a show that is incredible. Jousting and many other acts are performed here several times a day.

There were so many people walking around the Festival. I had no idea that there were so many people inside of the arena until we walked up the hill. We were at the very back of the arena and all I could do to get a photo was to hold the camera in the air and hope for the best. Here are some of the Hanlon Lees group.

The half horse/ half man and his lady

Incredible architecture on each of the buildings. This dragon is massive and is on the top of the Dragonslayer building.

Another dragon on the same building

Same building, this knight was also on the top.

There are so many wonderful structures throughout the Festival. It's like stepping back in time.

Carriages and Rikishas offer rides

I have no idea who these folks are. Most likely, just Festival goers that love to get into the spirit of the adventure of being there.

More folks in costume

I hope you enjoyed the thread. Again, please post more Renaissance Festival photos if you have them. It was definitely a wonderful time!

Post #4156009 - these are wooden you can get them from some African traders, they make them over there - very real looking right? You can just see the joints if you lok close.


I just love them all - what a stunning place, looks like it would be a blast.

Mitch

Wonderful place, and the gardens are amazing, thank you for posting and showing us the place.
Oh!! and Happy Birthday to you too.
Josephine.

Yes I just saw that - Have a great day!!

Happy Birthday.

Thanks so much folks. Mitch, I wasn't sure if they were real or not, but they sure looked real. Hubby said there was no way they could have grown that way. I guess he was right... (as usual! HA)

Everyone should try and make plans to attend the Festival. It's been going on since 1974. We drove about 2 1/2 hours to get there. The drive was up country lanes and highways and was very pleasant.

We had thought about getting a place to stay and starting very early in the morning. Instead, we chose to drive early and save our money. I'm glad we did. Hubby hates to spend money anyway, so it was a bonus to do it this way. There are campsites on the place that cost $10 to stay. We figured if we were too tired to drive home, we could have camped. We took an air mattress and air pump and could have stayed in our van.

As it was, we just drove on home and saw a beautiful sun setting behind us. Hubby told me to look in the mirror. When I saw that big red ball in the sky, I turned around in the seat and got this photo from inside the van while he was driving. It's not a great photo, but was a perfect ending to a perfect day.

They do look very real - and are very costly... we have a very very small one (about 2 foot tall) and it ran about 40 back 10 years ago or so... I would love to see what that one would have cost...

More than a few campsites I wager.

Thanks for the great photos. I love that Tree of LIfe and Mosaic Bridge!

Happy Birthday!

Thanks for the birthday wishes, cocoa lulu. I'm so glad you all have enjoyed the photos. It was a very special day for me. The tree of life was pretty good size. Taller than my hubby and made of a wide assortment of metals. Since I work with copper, it really was neat to really "eyeball" it. The artist did an incredible job on it.

The mosaics were all over the place. From the bridges to the benches to the walls of some parts. Stained glass was everywhere you looked. The buildings were all just like it might have been in that time period. Cobbled walkways, incredible food.

I can't believe I didn't mention the food. It was very good and there was never a line to wait in. You just walked up to a counter, told the person there (always in costume) what you wanted. They told someone behind a wall and out came the food. (snap) Just That Quick! You paid the price, they called you milady or milord or luv. It was all most excellent too. We shared a bit of everything we could find that appealed to us. Always a place to sit down, even if it was a concrete bench or a cobbled bench of sorts around a tree. Lots of straw on the ground to cushion feet. It was so clean. I still can't get over that with all of those people there, everyone took care of their trash.

Janet

Oh Yes, I seen photos of you copper work, it's wonderful. I studied jewelry fabrication and silversmith for a few years and always wanted to try a large piece like a tree. Dh is getting a mig welder for Christmas...maybe he'll let me borrow it.lol

We've been to the Renaissance Festival in ....Waco? Houston looks to have far more garden structures, very pretty.