Last Saturday I went to the Arizona Renaissance Festival for the first time. When it comes to Ren Faires, I’m pretty spoiled because the first one I ever went to was the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, which is one of the largest and oldest. I’ve also been to the one in Irwindale in Southern California, which is apparently the oldest Renaissance festival in the US. However, I was delighted to find that Arizona also has a large Renaissance festival. There was a lot going on, and I recognized a number of the vendors. I was a little surprised, because it’s so hot here, but it makes sense that they can hold a big event here early in the year when it is too cold and wet in other parts of the country. One thing I noticed pretty quickly was that not so many people dressed up, and a lot of people were carrying parasols. It was about 90°F, which wasn’t so terrible in the shade, but the sun was so intense that it just hurt. It was the last weekend of the festival, though, so it’s probably better to go earlier in the season.
My favorite part of Renaissance festivals is all the fairy and fantasy themed stuff. I like to go as a fairy myself when I dress up (or as an elf when I feel like wings are too much trouble). During one of my early trips to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, I took a picture of Twig the Fairy. Later I saw her again with more spectacular wings plus her own booth and merchandise! The images she creates are just beautiful, and as a huge fairy fan I was really inspired by her work. She is super cute in person and also plays delightful music on her flute. I love watching her interact with the kids.
I was really excited when I saw the advertisement for the AZ Ren Fest because there was a picture of Twig! It turns out AZ is one of the Ren fests she comes to! I was lucky and ran into her almost immediately upon entering the festival. I got even luckier that she was at her booth when I got there! They had a discount for buying three books, so I picked up the three I didn’t have, and now I have all five of her books. I also got them signed!
I told her I had all of her books, and she made a cute gesture and then wrote a note in the last book. Thanks, Twig! ♥
