Time for the 2019 Arizona Renaissance Festival
Visitors to the 2019 Arizona Renaissance Festival will have to put down their turkey legs for a little while if they want to sample the festival’s latest attraction.
This year’s event includes five medieval-themed escape rooms. Among the 15-minute experiences are “Sword and the Stone,” “Merlin’s Wand” and “Escape the Plague.” There’s a $5 charge to try to puzzle your way out of an escape room.
In addition to the escape rooms, there will be the usual assortment of costumed performers, rides, games, artisans and food for sale.
Festival spokeswoman Sanja Malinovic called the Renaissance Festival “Disney unplugged.” She said one of her favorite aspects is the way everyone can get involved in what she calls the “village at play.”
“It’s the interaction with characters who make everyone a part of the village at play,” Malinovic said. “You never know what you will encounter on or off the stage.”
The Pleasure Feast and other food
You’ll be treated to some risqué amusements if you sign up for the Pleasure Feast, but the real treats are the abundant food and drink.
The Pleasure Feast includes a fivecourse meal (prime rib, baked chicken paprikash or stuffed cabbage leaves are the entrees), 90 minutes of rowdy entertainment and a special-edition Pleasure Feast goblet.
Arizona Renaissance Festival
Feb. 9-March 31. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, plus Feb. 18.
12601U.S.60(justeastofGold Canyon Golf Resort).
$18-$28. 520-463-2700, arizona.renfestinfo.com.
Buy your $75.95 ticket in advance. The price includes festival admission.
If you’d rather munch while exploring the grounds, festival favorites such as steak and chicken skewers, sausage, bangers and mash, roasted corn and, yes, turkey legs, will be for sale.
There are also gluten-free options and a variety of desserts including pies, cakes and ice cream. Adult beverage choices include beer, wine, hard cider and mead.
Themed days
As if the whole Renaissance thing isn’t theme enough, the festival will host several special weekends.
❚ The weekend of Feb. 16-18 is dubbed Regal Royals and Monarch Monday. It includes a queen’s birthday celebration on Presidents Day, Feb. 18.
❚ The AZ TARDIS (think the television show “Dr. Who”) will be on hand during Time Traveler Weekend Feb. 2324.
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❚ Feb. 24 is LGBTQ day. Pirates invade the festival the weekend of March 2-3.
❚ In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, Celtic Weekend is March 16-17.
Performers
Among the newcomers is the heavy medieval band known as the Craic Show. Legend (i.e., their website) has it that this Celtic steampunk group of barbarians first got together on a battlefield in 1541. Their music combines several styles into a blend you might not expect to hear.
“It’s really cool how a lot of medieval music, especially played on the bagpipes, sounds Middle Eastern,” Craic Show frontman Daniel O’Ryan said. “We love flirting the line between traditional European medieval and renaissance music and the fun drinking Irish tunes from the last few hundred years.”
Other newcomers include vaudeville dancing pigs and Rick the Hypnotist.
And favorite performers from years past will be back. Shamus the Insulter will be on hand to let people know how you feel about them for a small fee.
Other favorite acts include shows of falconry, Cirque du Sewer (acrobatic performer with cats and rats) and harpist Sarah Mullen.
Cast in Bronze, four tons of bronze bells that make up a rare travelling carillon, is also back for another run.
Rides, games and crafts
Try your luck at games of skill with a renaissance twist, or simply buy your souvenirs rather than trying to win them.
Games include target shooting with a long bow or crossbow, storming a castle in a paintball battle or throwing tomatoes at a peasant who hurls insults at you.
The festival’s people-powered rides include the Assault Catapult, the Piccolo Pony (a giant rocking horse), Da Vinci’s Flying Machine and the Voyage to the New World.
More than 200 vendors will sell a wide variety of arts and crafts. Shop for costumes (for purchase or rent) and other clothing, housewares, musical instruments, pottery, leather work, woodwork and weapons.
You can purchase specialty items such as elf ears, chain-mail fashions, custom leather, armor and even battle hammers.
Jousting
Come cheer for your favorite knight at the 5,000-seat Arena of Champions. Jousting takes place at noon (the Lord Mayor’s joust), 2:30 p.m. (Crown Prince’s joust) and 5 p.m. (Joust to the Death.)