Journey to the past
El Rancho de las Golondrinas hosts Santa Fe Renaissance Faire
Enjoy a royal time at the 12th Annual Santa Fe Renaissance Faire. The event on Saturday, Sept. 14, and Sunday, Sept. 15, at El Rancho de las Golondrinas, outside Santa Fe, will feature a Royal Court with a grand procession. The King’s Quest Parade will wind its way through the festival grounds. The Royal Court also will be available for photo opportunities at various times throughout the day at the Royal Pavilion. A princess tea party will be held in the
adjacent lawn, as well as a princess story time.
“It’s (the parade) probably about 150 feet long,” said Vic Macias, manager of special events and site rentals at El Rancho de las Golondrinas. “We have the queen’s pikemen, so those are the same people that do the Entrada during Fiestas. They’re in the front leading the king and the queen, and then after the king and queen, it’s the court, and then after the court, it’s the jester, and then they’ll have wenches. It’s pretty cool to watch.”
Watch knights take to the battlefield in armor.
“We have our Armored Combat League,” Macias said. “It’s a national league, and it’s a bunch of knights fighting each other with 200 pounds of armor, but they’re seriously whaling on each other with real axes and real swords, and somehow they score it, because they use this as one of their meets, because the championships are in England. They earn points to get there. So there’s matches here all day long. … It’s incredible that they don’t die. It’s insane. It’s intense, but it’s super-cool to watch.”
An enchanted time awaits you in the Fairy Village.
“They have the arts and sciences demonstration; they have a Fairy Dance School, the Wild Hunt Academy Sword School, the Fairy Village Knighting Ceremony, so they go knight different fairies that come in,” Macias said. “We have a lot of kids that come in dressed like fairies. They go down there and they interact with them and they become part of the camp. They’ll make them part of the village, and the Wild Hunt Academy does a lot of different types of games with the kids also.”
The more adventurous can visit the Buccaneer Bay Pirate Port, featuring plenty of pirate fun.
“They’ll have the cannonball games, and then they’ll have skull croquet,” Macias said. “They have a pirate challenge where all the pirates play this game against each other, and it’s pretty funny, actually. It’s kind of hard to explain, but last year they played kind of, like, dodgeball with an orange or something like that, but it was pretty funny, because they’re in character and they’re doing all these things, so it was pretty hilarious.”
Attendees can also learn more about the history behind Renaissance armor, warfare and dress.
“They have this history corner where they have hands-on history where kids can touch swords or battle armor,” Macias said. “‘Dressing in Nobility’ is another event they have, and they basically explain the costume.”