One of the festival's appeals and what makes it an interesting event is the myriad of small shops spread out throughout the fair grounds. These shops range in size and the assortment of goods the offer. There are numerous shops that sell weapons and armor of different eras, from samurai katanas to Roman greatswords. Much to my surprise, these things, while awesome looking, are ridiculously expensive. I guess if you consider the time and effort that is put into the making of a sword or an armor it would make sense. However, I was not in the mood to spend hundreds of dollars on a sword, no matter how tempting it was!

Besides armor and weapons shops, there are merchants who sell different crafts and handmade goods. We walked past vendors selling woodworks, glass accessories, jewelry, and even perfume and lotions. Besides the shops, there are few chapels that are even used for real weddings. Not sure if I would ever want to get married there, but I can see how this venue can be appealing to couples. After all, you can live out your perfect fairytale wedding with your Prince Charming. Chapels are decorated in different eras and themes to accommodate different tastes and preferences. So if you have ever thought about what it would be like to, for example, get married in ancient Rome, well, you are in luck!

The biggest appeal of Texas Renaissance Festival is, of course, the wide variety of shows that are offered to its guests at no additional cost. You can literally come to the festival site as early as the doors open and stay till the festival closes its doors and not see all of the shows that are being offered. There is everything for visitors of all ages. From a puppet show to a group of rowdy knights making racist jokes, you can definitely something that would interest you.

Let's start by taking a closer look at the Gypsy Theater show that is offered in the Greek corner. We started our renaissance season by watching this show first and it was rather entertaining. The dancers were wearing bright gypsy skirts making the show very colorful and appealing to the audience. While the show only lasted approximately thirty minutes, there were different dances and different combinations of dancers that made the show fly by pretty quick. Your time would not be wasted if you choose to stop by and enjoy some dancing by the Gypsy Theater!

The next show that we watched after the Gypsy Theater was the performance by the Greek Theater. To be honest it was not very entertaining, however, some people found it interesting enough to stay. We were not among those people, so we decided to get out of the area and go look for something else. And, boy, were we glad that we did!

While walking away from the Greek Theater, we were intrigued by the musical performance taking place not too far from where we were standing. The performance was by the band called Tartanic and it was essentially bagpipes meet hard rock. It was totally awesome and incredible to hear as I never imagined bagpipes could ever sound so badass. Paired with the drums, the results were pure musical bliss. I would highly recommend anyone attending Texas Renaissance Festival to stop by the Tartanic stage and listen to their music. I promise you won't be disappointed!

The show that we saw next defied the laws of logic and sense altogether… As we were walking through the forest area of the festival grounds, we noticed that there was a group of actors dressed in bright and eye-catching costumes. You could tell that these costumes were made from quality materials and must have cost quite a few bucks. As we walked past the actors we noticed that they were gathering people around them indicating that the show is about to start. We figured that we had nothing to lose and stayed there.

The show turned out to be a kids’ fairy tale, however, the acting and the plot made us think that the creators of this performance were high on drugs when they came up with it. Not only was the story plot pretty hallucinogenic, the actors’ performances were equally as entertaining. No offense to the actors, as I believe they did exactly what they were supposed to and more, but this show was on another level. These actors were making weird sounds, dancing around and doing other things that quite did not make sense to us. We did end up having a good laugh about it so I am definitely glad that we got to witness it.

As entertaining as the forest show was, there were still plenty of other shows that merit visitor’s attention. Throughout the festival grounds there are numerous stages that feature singers, dancers, athletes and others. There is a show about the birds, where the trainer brings out different types of birds onto stage and they do tricks. There is a performance by a masked gentleman who plays what looks like a piano but instead is an assembly of different sized bells. There is also a fire show where gypsy belly dancers play with the fire and perform different kind of dances and tricks using fiery tools. Anyone can find something that they would enjoy watching, that’s the biggest appeal of the entire festival.

Not only would the kids love the renaissance festival, adults would enjoy their time too. Thanks to a couple of adult shows and performers, there is an added flavor of debauchery that follows the event. The first adult show we witnessed was called “Grab Them by the Crotch and Throw Them Out the Window”. One can assume what kind of a show that would be. Intrigued by the title of the act we stayed to watch, and we were not disappointed. The show featured a “tournament” between representatives from four countries: Ireland, Germany, France and Italy. All “knights” of course were rather crude and inappropriate. There was a myriad of jokes that balanced on the tight rope of appropriateness with some of the jokes being pretty awful… The number of laughs, however, showed that the audience enjoyed that degree of inappropriateness. This act quickly became our favorite event at the entire festival and we are looking forward to seeing it again!

Besides the show mentioned above, there are also some challenges that you can participate in. One of them is to throw tomatoes at the jester who is standing twenty or so feet from you and keeps insulting you. Just for a couple of dollars you get three tomatoes which you can then attempt to throw at your insulter and make him shut up. It was rather entertaining watching people attempt to silence the jester and hear all the funny jokes that he was shouting out.

The biggest event of the renaissance festival, however, is the tournament. Qualifying rounds begin early in the afternoon and there are different showings related to the tournament throughout the day which lead to the final event taking place in the evening. The day's worth of activities end with an epic battle between the four knights. What makes it interesting is that there are different scenarios with different knights being crowned victors. I have been to renaissance festival numerous times and each time the ending to a tournament was different. Kudos to the organizers for keeping the main event diverse and interesting. Unfortunately the guy we were rooting for did not win the tournament and was beheaded by a knight from Germany. It was rather disappointing but, hey, that's life! Overall, the final act is about 15-20 minutes long and is viewed as the main even of the renaissance festival so you don't want to miss it!

Besides multiple shows and performances you can watch free of charge, there are also numerous activities that you can engage in for additional pay. Have you ever wondered what it's like to throw an axe at the target or learn about your future from the palm reader? You don't have to wonder anymore! All of these can be accomplished at Texas Renaissance Festival. You can try yourself in some physical activity such as shooting a bow, tossing an axe or a ninja star, rock climbing and others. If physical activities are not your thing, you can take it easy with some tarot and psychic readings. The world is your oyster! As long as you pay!

What I also like about Texas Renaissance Festival is that there is a wide variety of food vendors to choose from. You have Chinese, Italian, American, Polish and many other cuisines, all within the festival grounds. These vendors are located throughout the festival territory within areas which are closely related to the type of food which is being sold. For example Polish food is located in what's called a Polish Village, while there is some seafood which you can try out right next to the pirate ship. As an add-on, there are also pirates on this ship throughout the day. They typically engage in singing all these dirty and inappropriate songs but that's better than eating food in silence. These singing pirates are actually quite popular among avid festival goers and they draw pretty big crowds! I guess a lot of people can relate to excessive drinking and inappropriate song singing...

In conclusion, I think it is pretty obvious what my stance on Texas Renaissance Festival is. I have been to this event numerous times and I am planning on continuing this trend. Every time I come to this event I find something new and interesting to do. I believe that this is a beauty of the Renaissance Festival. It appeals to crowds of all ages and offers a full day of fun at affordable prices. I hope that after reading this post you will attend this colorful event in the coming years. Thank you for reading and I will see you there next year!