Huzzah! This weekend, April 1-2, the 35th annual Arizona Renaissance Festival is in town for the final time this year. When making the trip out to Fairhaven — the festival grounds in Gold Canyon — and entering a place locked in time, here are some things you cannot miss during your medieval experience.
An April Fools’ Day Fit for a King (of Fools)
Aside from this weekend being the last operating weekend of this year’s Renaissance Festival, this Saturday is also April Fools’ Day, and when “in Fairhaven, anything can happen April Fools’ Day, especially when you have the King of Fools like myself running around,” says Jerome Hill, the festival’s promotions coordinator, and resident “King of the Fools.”
As the “king of the jesters and the jester of kings” for the past 10 years, Hill is a knife-juggling magician who hosts “three different stage shows throughout the day that involve comedy and danger,” he says. He goes on at 12:30 and 3:45 p.m. (Mêlée Stage), and 5:30 p.m. (Teatro De La Rosa Stage).
Hill takes a lot of pride in providing an authentic, unique comedy experience every time he takes the stage. He does not write his jokes or comedy material beforehand — in favor of a more organic approach to audience engagement. “I’m there to play with them as much as they’re here to play with me and I feed off of that when I perform,” he says. This improvisational process allows for an individualized experience during every show.
Additionally, audiences can bear witness to Arizona’s sole bear trap juggler. “I actually juggle bear traps,” Hill says. “I’m the only juggler in Arizona who does that.”
Get a CRAIC Out of This
The word “craic” — pronounced “crack” — is an Irish word that roughly translates to “have fun or tell a good story.” Daniel O’Ryan strives to accomplish both as the lead singer of The CRAIC Show, a Celtic steampunk barbarian band that features roguish vocals, a variety of old-world and new-world strings, percussion, winds and bagpipes.
“We play traditional medieval music, renaissance music and Irish music … we’ll do some French songs, we’ll do some German tunes, [and] we’ll do some Scandinavian songs,” O’Ryan says. “We’ll play a good selection of all those different styles of music at every single show.” Similar to the King of the Fools show, The CRAIC Show does not repeat any material. “We play different songs every single show,” he says.
O’Ryan has been doing this for the past 20 years, and the main goal of his show is to provide and facilitate that sense of craic. Audiences can often be seen “dancing, conga lining through,” O’Ryan says. “We invite other people on stage to perform with us … we’re like, ‘Get up here and play with us!’ So the stage is full of musicians, the audience is full of participants and dancers, and it’s just a really, really good time.”
Exclusive Jewelry
Aeris Dea — “copper goddess” in Latin — is a jewelry boutique at the festival that specializes in handmade jewelry derived from stripped-down, recycled copper wire. Kirstie Nashtock is the manager at Aeris Dea, and many of the pieces carry heavy influence from the Nordic-Viking era — some being “very historically accurate,” she says.
For instance, the hairpins she sells were inspired by “Viking women across the world [who] were buried with these pins in the back of their hair,” Nashtock says. “They were made in copper with a wave to the stick and then a swirl at the top.”
If the Viking aesthetic isn’t your cup of tea, Aeris Dea also sells a number of neutral, “very floral… Art Nouveau” styles of copper-based jewelry. Regardless of design, every Aeris Dea piece is hypoallergenic, nickel-free, clear-coated and made by hand. Currently, the only way to obtain one of these pieces is to visit the shop in person.
Fathomless Feasts
“After a long drive to Gold Canyon, you’re gonna want to get something to eat, maybe something to drink,” Hill says. The festival offers a variety of medieval-inspired food and drinks for weary travelers.
“We have cafes, we have coffee, we have alcohol, we have soda,” he says. “We have all kinds of different food options from something as simple as pizza to something as different and unique as our Transylvanian chimney cakes that we just started doing this year.”
According to Hill, if there is a staple food that every festivalgoer should cross off their list, it would be the turkey leg.
Final Thoughts
The Arizona Renaissance Festival provides a unique opportunity for people to venture in and explore medieval times through spectacle, magic, music, food, jewelry and more. As Nashtock puts it, “[it’s] an experience whether you were working here locally, traveling full-time, or coming in as a patron; you just never know what you’re gonna see around the corner.”
To buy tickets, or for more information about the festival itself, visit the official website or Instagram. The Arizona Renaissance Festival is set to return in 2024, from February 3 – March 31 (Saturdays & Sundays including Presidents Day).
