My First Renaissance Faire

Would it be safe to say that I am among the last people here on blogworld to attend a Renaissance fair? Unfathomable it seems given the fact that I love all sorts of street fairs and festivals. In fact, I was pretty confident that I have pretty much attended majority of the festivals in the Bay Area. However, the Renaissance Fair or Highlands Games have eluded my attention nor interest. Anyway, are Renaissance Fair and Highland Games one and the same or are they different?

Anyhow, with a conscious effort to do and see more local sights and activities this year we found out about this event. I cannot tell you where we saw it, some pop up from a website or something most likely, but a Renaissance fair has never been in my radar until that moment.

So we booked online right away for October 15. The fair was held in the city of Hollister, more or less 90 miles away from San Francisco. The Norcal Renaissance Faire was held in Casa de Fruta

The day was cold and overcast, but everyone seemed to be having a good time. Here are photos from the fair.

Chicken feet, anyone?

I had sticker shock at how much we spent for food. Had I known, I would have waited left and ate outside, because you can go in and out of the festival.

There are stages scattered all over the festival site. We stayed and watched a bit of everything.

I have no clue why the Pirates of the Caribbean characters made an appearance here.

Casa de Fruta is more than a fruit stand. It's like an small amusement park with shopping and eating and fun activities for kids all in one spot. And for oldies, there's free wine tasting.

This is garlic country, since the garlic capital city of Gilroy is next door.

Raspberry wine.

There's a lot of old machinery and trucks along the perimeter as a decor I assume. They're very interesting.

My first experience was definitely a positive one. Next time, I will show up in costume too, because the people in costume looked like they were having a lot of fun.