Williamson County Renaissance Festival

We had a great time at the Williamson County Renaissance Festival yesterday!  I thought I'd share a bit about it - it's good family fun!


This is the second Renaissance Festival we've taken the boys too.  We've enjoyed both of them.  We arrived around 10:30 on a Saturday morning -- along with lots of other folks.

The ticket lines moved pretty fast.  They had several lines to take cash and just 2 or 3 that could process a credit card payment.  The lines for credit cards were much longer - I'd suggest taking cash for the tickets if possible.  You need lots of cash anyway, most of the vendors are cash only (although a few could process a credit card using a smartphone).

We made our way to the main field for the scheduled joust.  We managed to get front row seats!

The joust itself was pretty good.  As good or even better than the one we saw at Medieval Times a few years ago.  They had 4 guys that competed in several events.  I really liked one where they had to throw a sword into a bale of hay -

Here's a pass with the lances

Word of advice - the joust is held out in the sun.  Sunscreen would be recommended.  All of us got a little sunburned.

After the joust we headed back into the main festival area.  We walked around and checked out all of the vendors.  We were glad that it was much shadier here.

Here's a neat piece of art I saw - this guy is sculpted from copper:

There were PLENTY of people in costume.  We saw several full suits of metal armor that would have bit right at home on a Lord of the Rings set.  Lots of fake elf ears and fairy wings too -- my wife and I had a good time gawking at the costumes.

The boys enjoyed checking out all of the vendors.  They were, of course, drawn to the vendors that had some sort of weaponry on display.  Logan ended up buying a small wooden crossbow and Tyler bought a small dagger.  Tyler also found this cool little dragon dish thing -- when on display, we thought it would be perfect for him to keep loose change in.  When we bought it, we learned it was actually an ash tray!  Oops -- parenting fail.  Our 10 year old now owns an ashtray.

Lunch was pretty tasty - Logan and I enjoyed the turkey leg.  Honestly one of the best turkey legs I've had:

Grrrr  -- MAN FOOD!

The giant plate of kettle chips was pretty good too:

No, really - he liked them

One other little touch that I really appreciated was that almost all of the shows and acts that you could see around the festival were "rated" using the typical movie rating system.  Most acts were G or PG rated -- but there were a few that were unashamedly PG13 and R, so, it was nice to be able to avoid them.

All in all, it was an extremely well run event that we really enjoyed.  My only complaint is that the food vendors were too specialized.  If you wanted a turkey leg, a drink, and some chips -- you had to stand in 3 different lines.  I wish that the food places had drinks for sale as well.  Check it out over the next few weeks if you have a chance!