TX – It didn’t happen last year, but the Scarborough Renassaince Festival is on again. If you like turkey legs, this is totally worth the road trip.
Renaissance Festivals are an escape anytime, but after a year of shutdowns and cancellations, Scarborough Faire in Waxahachie was more refreshing than ever!
I made the trip last Sunday on a perfect, sunny, and 84-degree day, and I may go back again before the fair closes on May 31st to eat more turkey legs and buy more jalapeno jelly.
If you dress up in medieval attire when you go to a Renaissance festival and completely immerse yourself in the time period, I’m in awe of you. I completely admire the corsets, knickers, chain mail, and leather drink holders hanging from your belt, from afar while I’m moseying around the festival in shorts, a t-shirt, and sneakers. But that’s one of the cool things about a period fest — you can really get into it or just observe, and either way everyone is happy.
The horses in the Joust were majestic, and the green knight won. My girls and I happened to be in the section of the crowd forced to cheer for the red knight, but secretly I was hoping the green horse would win, and I was also happy that as a Rangers fan I’m not forced to cheer for the Yankees if I happen to sit in the wrong section. Jousting crowds seem happy with whoever wins, probably because they’re busy eating food on a stick and drinking beer out of a mug that’s hanging from their belt, and trying to explain to the kids why those men are trying to knock each other off of the horses with long sticks. There’s a lot to take in.
We took in a Birds of Prey show while we were there too, and sat underneath a falcon that flew right over the crowd on his way back to the stage. And I learned that vultures are smart! They spend their time eating dead things and cleaning up nature’s messes, but they also follow simple commands and will go home if a trainer tells them to return to their huge birdhouse. And their flight is pretty graceful. Flap, flap, glide. Flap, flap, glide. The kids thought they were going to the festival just to have fun, but they accidentally learned something too.
Oh my gosh, the food! If you’re craving fair food, this will tide you over until the East Texas State Fair can return. They have steak-on-a-stake, chicken-on-a-stick, turkey legs, pizza, nachos, fried mac-and-cheese (on a stick, of course), Scottish Eggs (hard-boiled eggs wrapped in sausage and deep-fried), french fries, fried cheese, and ice cream too. I had strawberry sorbet in a frozen orange, so they do have some healthier options too. Whatever you eat, you’ll walk it off because the festival grounds are so huge.
There are shops all over the festival, and the vendors seemed glad to be back after a year off. Some of them offered extra discounts to try to move some of the oils and soaps that they had been holding onto for two years since the festival was canceled last year. I bought candles, soaps, jalapeno jelly, and a leather hip pouch. Your credit card will be warm after this festival.
