Huzzah! (And All that Jazz!)

 

by Pa Rock

Time-Traveling Tourist

During my infrequent trips to visit my son's family in the Kansas burbs of Kansas City, I often remark, with a tip-of-the-hat to Rogers and Hammerstein, that everything's up-to-date in Kansas City.  But today my Kansas grandchildren along with their parents and myself visited a part of the Kansas City area that is decidedly out-of-date - by six-or-seven-hundred-years.  We spent five hours at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival which is held in the Bonner Springs area, not too far from Leavenworth, a city where I lived for almost the entire year of 2005.  

I had been to the Ren Fest several times in the past, but this was my first trip back in over fifteen years - and it was the first time that my grandchildren, Olive and Sully had ever been.   They seemed to enjoy it, undoubtedly more than slow old grandpa did - but even I had fun!

The place was crowded - no, make that CROWDED!  We managed to get stuck in traffic getting there about 10;30 in the morning - with all of the traffic seemingly headed to the Ren Fest, and then stand in a massive line waiting to get in.   When my friend from college in the sixties, Rosemary, joined us in the afternoon, she also got stuck in traffic.  As we finally left in the late afternoon, people were still arriving.  The Kansas City Ren  Fest runs from Labor Day to late October, and tomorrow is its last day for this season.

There were lots of visitors to the festival who came in costume.  I saw fairies, witches, monks, harlots, trolls, bandits, pirates, archers, knights, and all manner of Medieval beings.  I even saw one guy wearing a superman cape, one dressed as a shark, and one guy who appeared to be wearing a real, hollowed-out pumpkin on his head.  Lots of people brought their dogs, and a few of them were in costume.  Two of the dogs were wearing lion's manes and looked very fearsome!  One costume that was not overused was face masks.  The approximate population of Metro Kansas City was at the festival today, and only about a dozen or so were wearing face masks.

We watched a Maypole being wrapped, several very entertaining shows, and one guy standing with his head and arms through a board while people paid to throw quartered tomatoes at him.  We also saw camels, and even jousting.  Most things - and people - were geared to the Middle Ages in Merry Olde England, except for a few oddities like superman and the shark - and one gift shop whose entrance was based on Dr. Who's police call box, the Tardis!  (But Dr. Who is a time-traveling Time Lord, so I guess the Tardis was not necessarily out of place). There was also a shop selling CBD products.  

I had intended to eat lunch there, and was thinking seriously about getting one of the large turkey drumsticks that are a hallmark of the event.  But there were only two shops selling the drumsticks and lines to both were two-to-four people wide and seemed to be forming somewhere west of Bonner Springs!  People being served as we walked by had been in line since about Wednesday!   The only foodstuffs that I was able to score the entire day were two large bags of kettle corn and a small bag of cotton candy.

 

Overall the day was a rip-roaring success, but I wouldn't recommend for people over seventy to get a season pass.  Once a year is plenty!