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Amy Browning, The Battamon
Two knights battle it out at the Texas Renaissance Festival in
Plantersville.
Amy Browning, The Battalion
Audience participation is a big part of the Renaissance Festival. Men from the audience are se
lected to hold a rope for the performer while he juggles three sickles.
Festival celebrates
medieval culture
By Amy Uptmor
The Battalion
F or two months every fall, knights can be
found jousting, and fairies can be seen in
the woods of East Texas, along with wiz
ards, jesters and magical animals.
For the last 21 years, the Renaissance
Festival in Plantersville has brought a little
of the magic and culture of the English Re
naissance to thousands of visitors from
Texas and beyond.
More than 130 cast members, ranging
from students to grandparents, transform
into witches, nymphs and medieval maidens
as part of the recreation.
Stephanie Budenstein of Flouston be
comes Oblivious the Jester every weekend at
the festival.
“We have a multi-acred stage and a huge
audience,” she said, “so it takes a lot of peo
ple and practice to put this on.”
Budenstein, who has acted before, said
she has enjoyed being part of the festival for
the past three years.
“I do it because it’s fun,” she said. “If some
thing more were to come out of it, that would
be great too, but that’s not why I do it.”
Participants rehearse for two months
prior to the event to make sure the festival
is as authentic and fun as possible. Buden
stein said the rehearsal is necessary be
cause of the sheer magnitude of the Re
naissance Festival.
“People don’t realize how much work goes
into this,” she said.
Visitors to the festival are treated to many
stage performances, ranging from juggling
acts to belly dancing, from across the country.
One of this year’s acts, the Flaming Idiots,
is a juggling trio from Austin. The group has
been performing at the Renaissance Festival
for the past four years, and members said they
enjoyed returning from their extensive touring
to the yearly Texas festival.
“Texas audiences are fun,” Jon O’Connor,
a member of the Flaming Idiots, said.
“They’re easy to whip into a frenzy.”
Kevin Hunt, another member of the trio,
said the group, like most acts, performs
five times a day every weekend for the two-
month span of the festival. Although it is a
strenuous schedule. Hunt said it is defi
nitely worthwhile.
“We pass the hat after every show to cov
er our expenses,” he said. “This is very lucra
tive for us.”
The Flaming Idiots’ hour-long juggling
act involves acrobatics, audience participa
tion and, as their name implies, juggling
with fire.
But the festival offers more than enter
tainment. Visitors can purchase “Renais
sance” items ranging from shoes to magic
dust or have their palm and tarot cards read
by fortunetellers. Close to 200 vendors are
present at the festival to offer their trades
and crafts.
Large crowds attend the Renaissance Fes
tival, even if people are going for their hun
dredth time.
Katy Null of Houston said she and her
friends have made a tradition of going to the
festival at least once every year.
“They create such a unique atmosphere
here,” she said. “It’s a fun way to escape and
play for a day.”
Kathleen McCullough of Dallas visited the
festival for the first time this year and said
she was impressed by the festival directors’ ef
forts to recreate the Renaissance.
“I was expecting everything to be made
out of cardboard,” she said. “I didn’t think
they had an actual Renaissance village built
out here. It’s very impressive.”
Society for Creative Anachronism re-enacts medieval traditions
By Katharine Deaton
The Battalion
A n anachronism is some
thing out of its place or
time.
Crystal Bennett, Society for
Creative Anachronism president
and a senior civil engineering
major, said SCA recreates the
clothing, food, fighting and arts
of the Middle Ages.
“Just about everything they
did in the Middle Ages, we do,”
Bennett said.
SCA is participating in the Re
naissance Festival Nov. 3-5.
At the festival, the group has
a booth to display dancers, arti
sans, singers and fighting
demonstrations.
Sandra White, a senior ocean
engineering major and SCA re
cruiter, said the group enjoys the
Renaissance Festival.
“It’s a lot of fun,” White said.
“The artisans set up their spe
cialty areas which include em
broidery, calligraphy, weaving
and bead work. They also show
off the costumes they’ve made.”
The main event at the festival
is the fighting demonstration,
Bennett said.
“We show two different combat
styles,” she said. “We recreate the
chivalric fight and rapier combat.”
The chivalric fighting consists
of armored knights on the ground
with long swords and axes. The
rapier combat is compared to
street brawling with daggers and
knives, Bennett said.
Joe Simpson, an employee
with the chemistry department,
is the knight marshal for the
group and is in charge of the
chivalric combat.
“I make sure that when we
fight, it’s safe,” Simpson said. “I
also teach the new members how
to fight.”
Sometimes, melees will happen
at the festival, Simpson said.
“During a melee, two teams
fight each other,” he said.
“There can be up to 4,000 peo
ple fighting.”
Research is required for the
group to effectively recreate the
Middle Ag£s, Bennett said.
“Our main point is education,”
he said. “Everyone does research.
We have our own library of books
people have collected over the
years. Eventually, someone be
comes the expert on a subject and
teaches everyone else.”
Bennett said they want to ed
ucate all students, not just those
active in SCA.
“We have two goals,” Bennett
said. “One is to let people know
what SCA is if they want to be in
it. The second is to educate peo
ple about the medieval period.”
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