Make merry, and medieval, at Renaissance Festival

The Age of Chivalry Renaissance Festival started as a one-day event with fewer than 100 participants and about 1,000 members of the public. Nineteen years later, it's expanded to a full weekend with more than 1,000 participants and 40,000 members of the public.

It returns this year, Friday through Sunday at the Silver Bowl Park, as one of the largest renaissance fairs in the country.

Bill Haldeman, or Sir William Baine, King of Albion Adrian Empire, has attended every year since its inception. His guild is one of many that participate at the festival and has its own encampment that hosts, among other things, a torture exhibit.

Other entertainment includes the bands Lexington Field, The Mahones and Killian's Angels on the main stage and more than 50 shows per day on smaller stages. Throughout the festival, attendees can enjoy costumed performers taking part in historical re-enactments, medieval pageantry and jousting tournaments.

The work of 100 artisans, such as blacksmiths, toy makers, perfume blenders, stained-glass designers, and many other craftsmen will be in production and available for sale.

There will also be a royal parade Saturday and Sunday, full-contact jousting tournaments, magicians, flame eaters, belly dancers, gladiator battles, as well as bow-and-arrow and ax target games.

"The fair tries to encompass the entire span of the age of chivalry," says Haldeman. "You have guilds from Roman and barbarian times all the way to the post-Renaissance and pirate periods."

Translation: The fair makes for prime people-watching.

It's not just the sites and entertainment that makes it such a draw every year, either. The food is just as noteworthy. Of course, the giant turkey leg has become synonymous with the festival, but the fish and chips and beer and ales have become pretty popular, too. And, the six-course Boar's Head Feast ($25, reservations recommended), served by in-character wenches and tavern knaves, is as humorous as it is filling.

For members of the public, the festival is a fun, sometimes silly way to spend a weekend. For people like Haldeman, it's something much different.

"If you have the opportunity to share the hobby you love with 40,000 people for one weekend, see friends you've been interacting with in that context for 20 years, to challenge yourself and learn something new at every fair, that's great," he says. "But at any moment you can be surrounded by a particular era and magically transported to another time and another place. That's what mesmerizes me most."

Contact fashion reporter Xazmin Garza at xgarza@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0477.