Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Ren Fest 2013

As promised, pics from the PA Ren Fest!! Yaaay! I know you're excited, so let's dive right in. 


In silks

I love aerialists, so right off the bat the hanging silks from this stage called to me. I didn't even have a drink yet (that was quickly remedied) or anything to snack on (that took a while... I kept getting distracted) but I didn't care. I was going to sit there and watch the whole thing. Confession: I'm a bit of a Groupon addict, and I once bought a fitness class pass that included aerial yoga and and aerial silks class. It was magical, and the silks tried to cut my legs off from the rest of my body, but I loved it and kind of want to be a bad-ass aerialist diva when I grow up. 

Gaaa, I want to do that!


In between all the amazing things, this show was a bit silly. And I like silly, and corny, and terrible TERRIBLE puns. Love them. I'm a huge dork. But potentially not as big a dork as the girl who brought her violin with her to Ren Fest. I don't know if she did some impromptu busking while she was there, but I saw here everywhere, and she rocks. 


Dueling violins?
Every year there's something new to see, and there isn't enough time in the day to see everything. So this year was my very first time watching the glass blowing demonstration. It was quite toasty. I'm really impressed with everyone who can do this king of thing, since I can barely turn around in my kitchen without breaking something. And because everything there was beautiful. I bought an ornament to hang in my kitchen window, if I can rig up a hook that isn't going to send my new sparkly to an untimely death. 


Really hot things.

I don't really want to put this one up, but it's a whole 'circle of life' kind of thing, and honestly it's pretty amazing. Just sitting there in the bushes between a very busy path, I saw a butterfly. So I decided to take a picture, since it seemed to be pretty attached to that flower. But no! It was attached to the mouth of a giant preying mantis. Who was eating its brains. Nature is messed up. 


Zombie mantis.

So of course I needed therapy after that. In the absence of actual licensed professionals (the tarot readers don't count) I had to turn to retail therapy, and it worked pretty well. Last year I got a ring from the same booth, and I must say, I love them. It took me a good long while to decide, and at one point I'm pretty sure I had a ring on every finger, but I managed to find a favorite. 

My (new) precious. 
I also got lost for a bit in a series of shops that go back into a little hill. They make me positively giddy, I feel like I'm in a Hobbit hole, or the home of a very clean fairy. Everywhere you look there are piles and drawers full of the cutest miniatures and soaps and candles and things that sparkle (sigh, I want to live there). 


Curiosities. 

 There were too many performances, and we tried to see the big ones, but you know if people are playing with fire that I need to be there. If there are three people playing with fire, and one of them is standing on top of the other... well, that's friggin' awesome.


Look what I can do!

You can't just stand on your friend and juggle flaming sticks though, everyone does that. If you really want to make an impression, you need to do learn how to make yourself into a dragon. Or at least breathe fire like one. 

Don't hiccup... 

 So yeah, Ren Fest 2013 was definitely a success. I drank too much, ate too much, and took over 300 pictures (and some of them aren't terrible!). Now I have a year to recover before we do it again...


Don't forget to stop in the gift shop!




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