Attribution: Mike Harding
Yesterday my daughter and I (along with a friend and his daughter) made a day out of the San Francisco Renaissance Faire hosted in Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park. The faire is still running today, so if you’re local and inclined, you can still have the benefit of the local medieval arts and crafts sale, try your hand at archery, enjoy madrigal singers, laugh at the bawdy shows, and watch the full-contact jousting. No, I do not jest, it is full contact and it’s quite the show. Not to mention the chance to see characters like Sir Bat of Man (right) who obliged when I snapped this image of him with the trusty iPhone…
It’s not quite like the faire that used to be hosted in the Black Forest in Napa, but it was still fun to be able to roam about with a turkey leg (the girls enjoyed dragon dogs, kettle corn, and a strawberry and cream crepe.) People were having a great time and the look on my daughter’s face when she successfully launched an arrow toward the target was priceless. But without a doubt, the stars of the show were the war horses.
These horses were amazing, the Clydesdale was the smallest of the horses present – each had to be six feet tall at the shoulder. Even more amazing, they were all rescue horses. Watching a ton of horse with a knight in full armor tilting toward the quintain at full speed was quite a spectacle. The knights also demonstrated their skills by spearing targets in bales of straw while galloping by. Finally, they participated in full contact jousting, making several passes. Neither knight was unhorsed nor were lances broken, but that wasn’t for lack of trying! A very entertaining day to be sure…
Attribution: Mike Harding
Attribution: Mike Harding
