ENC RenFae

A renaissance weekend in North Carolina, featuring some of the Fae Folk.

This past weekend was the ENC Renaissance Faire. It was the third year for the event, and I’m proud to say that Krystal and I have attended at least one day each year. This year promised to be extra special at Krystal was able to get the whole weekend off, so we could plan to attend both days!

Of course, such an event was also an excuse to dress up in fun clothes. The last couple years I’ve worn my kilt and padded armor but this year Krystal suggested I wear the flower hat I claimed at our 2023 D&D finale meetup, and that I could wear a shirt I’d used for a Raine Whispers cosplay along with a leaf cape she had, and oh by the way there were some pants I might fit into . . . It’s great when I want to not dress as masculine and can raid her closet as we wear almost the same size. It was only after putting it all together that I realized she’d pulled a fast one on me and put together a cosplay of another of my D&D characters, Belladonna. I had to run outside right away and take a couple selfies and share them online – Uniglitter even shared me on their Instagram story!

We drove to the faire (about a half hour or so away) and stopped for McDonald’s on the way. I’m okay paying food truck prices if I absolutely have to, but if not . . . Anyway, we got to the faire and the line was long but not bad. Krystal had some things to put on that wouldn’t have traveled well beforehand; she was going as a version of Belle from Beauty and the Beast, but one where Belle is the Beast.

By the time everything was said and done, we noticed the line was quite long indeed, and we ended up waiting in line just under an hour just to get in. This was definitely not the norm from previous years, but we made line friends as we are wont to do, talking about cosplay and making props and conventions and D&D and all sorts of things to pass the time. It turned out the long wait was due to three factors: (1) the show had grown substantially since last year, which we suspected; (2) they had tech issues in that only two of their eight ticket scanners were operating correctly; and (3) they were stopping the line every so often to stamp folk’s hands for adult beverages. once we got past the stamping station things went very quick indeed. Or at least that’s the way it seemed; I’m a terrible judge of time unless I’m looking at a clock. One of our line friends had a stopwatch running to time their wait in line.

We made it through the ticket gate and the line ran through an indoor exhibition hall before exiting outside for the outdoor stages and food trucks and vendors. I didn’t even make it outside before someone stopped me and gave me a trinket: a tiny d12 die. I didn’t have any trinkets to trade, but it made no difference to them and I accepted it gratefully. I do not fear taking gifts from the Fae; they already have my name.

Here are three trinkets I picked up over the course of the renfaire: a tiny d12, a cat’s paw crystal, and a brilliant sphere

I must apologize; my camera does not take close-up photographs that well . . .

And then it was out to the vendor fields where Krystal and I started to make our usual walkthrough that we do of every vendor hall or exhibition, making one circuit before looking closer. Of course, if something really catches our eye we’ll stop and look, and sometime we have to ask ourselves “if I leave and come back and this item is gone, will I be sad?”. Most of the time the answer is no, at least for me, but this time a particular set of dice caught my eye.

Specially, a bird-themed set of dice from Tiffany’s Treasure Chest that featured tiny bird skulls and black feathers as inclusions. For those wondering, yes, the dice are still balanced. These dice look like the could be a backup for Rustle should my current dice betray me; in that case they’d be rolling with the bones of their Kenku ancestors. They could also be used for one of my two Tabaxi PCs I’ve had on the back burner, one of whom is a ghostslayer bloodhunter named Sky Full of Stars . . .

Krystal also got some dice: a set of “anxie-tea dice” and another sea-themed set for her Aquan PC, Ari. We had just left the booth when we got a text from our friends Amanda and Kai that they had arrived and made it through the line as well! (Kai is the inspiration for my Oath of Glory Paladin, who is also named Kai.)

We walked around the booths some more an caught snippets of various acts and performances, including a marionette show by New Bern Puppets. Krystal helped them get their start several years ago at Tryon Palace and it’s been amazing to watch them take off and be in demand around the region.

We also found Amanda a flower crown, specifically a strawberry crown. Krystal had seen it earlier and even sang “look at you, strawberry crown,” so when Amanda said she really wanted one, by happy happenstance we knew right where to go. We also found stickers and such, and Kai even found me Pusheen stickers, while Krystal found me one from Hazbin Hotel!

Lots of people commented on our outfits, and one time in particular on this first day stands out. I will admit that I am not used to people noticing me, nor is it something I look for. But Krystal does and once she said “so this couple walked by and one of them saw you and grabbed their partner and physically turned them so they could see you and the look in their eyes was just pure joy. You made someone’s day.”

We were getting hungry by this point so we found the food truck with the shortest line. Krystal stood there while Kai went to get a drink (lemonade, I think) and Amanda went to get ice cream and I went to get some mead, returning with a brew from StarDust Cellars worthy of Belladonna.

By this point Krystal was almost to the front of the line, and we spent the last few minutes talking to the folks in front of us. It was a fish taco place, but I had the shredded chicken tacos with chips while Krystal ordered Mexican street corn. Kai also ordered the shredded chicken tacos and Amanda the vegetarian street corn – the street corn minus meat and with extra veggies like corn.

It was while we were waiting in this line that one other patron in a very large mushroom outfit saw us and gave us little sprouts to wear!

We found a cool spot near one of the 4H sheds and sat near a D&D live play and one of the stages where a harpist was playing. Then Kai and Amanda went to claim seats for the Jacques ze Whipper “secret show” while Krystal and I walked around inside for a bit. Krystal’s parasol had broken while we were in line, it being a very windy day, and we were trying to stay in shade as much as possible. I must say this did not work very well, and we made liberal use of the aloe when we got home later on.

We eventually made our way to our friends and enjoyed the show; then we did a last walkthrough of the vendors, assuming that lots of people would leave after Jacques’ last show (we were right).

Our final lap of the day included getting water and then stopping to pet some bunnies and goats and then we made our way to our cars and to home. We were hot and tired and the order of the day seemed to call for milkshakes, though the Cookout marquee did it’s best to tempt us with Krystal’s usual order prominently displayed:

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Just as an aside: even if you are only getting a beverage from a cooler at a food truck, wait your turn in line. So many people cutting line just to throw cash at the poor person running register, and I know a few of them shorted the business by a dollar. I don’t know how many did this, but I did make sure to leave a tip to help them cover those costs.

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We got up the next morning a little later, assuming the crowd would have thinned out for day two – and we were right. Once again we got McDonald’s on the way and then we could walk right in with no wait time. We walked around the vendors and noticed some empty places; checking the event Facebook page we realized that some vendors had sold out of the stock they’d brought with them!

We did enjoy looking at some booths we’d only glanced at the day before. One of those booths was Bent Out of Shape Silvery, which makes jewelry out of old silver spoons and the like – rings, earrings, necklaces and the like, as well as other accoutrements. (I looked for a website or facebook page but could not verify the ones I found was the right one.) Krystal and I were digging through the rings and chuckling at the ones with presidents on them when she found a ring from the 1933 World’s Fair.

Those of you who’ve been on my blog since before 2018 will know of Mr Tom, of course, but to make a very long story short:

Mr Tom Poole was born in 1918 and was a lifetime resident of eastern North Carolina, apart from those years when he was in the Navy. For thirteen years until his passing in 2017, he was my close friend/grandfather figure. He lived a full interesting life, including a visit at age 15 in 1934 to the Chicago World’s Fair (held 1933-34). He had such an interesting life that, after his passing, I wrote down his stories in a book I self-published so that they wouldn’t be immediately lost to time.

It almost goes without saying that the ring (now resized to fit the ring finger on my right hand) came home with me, and is currently resting between my father’s pocketknife (d. 2021) and one of my grandpa John’s cowbells (d. 1989). I cannot thank this vendor enough for helping me find this continued connection to my friends and family 🧡

We watched a few more of the shows, and once again folks commented on our costumes.

This time, a little girl eating on one of the bleachers near the jousting field said “you’re so beautiful” and I thought she only meant Krystal but Krystal said “oh no, I deal with kids groups all the time and there were lots of looks going on. She was talking to both of us.” There was also the random guy who just yelled “you to look great”. But the most jaw-dropping coincidence of the day was when Krystal (who had brought trinkets to trade this day) went to give one to a blue Tiefling only to discover they are a bardlock named Ari the Bard– and Krystal is currently playing a bard named Ahri!

So then we came home and rested and had cold things for supper; Krystal a salad from Panera and I had some homemade tuna salad (after I’d had several hours to cool down; I wasn’t about to eat that while I was still warm from the outside!)

Today I’m seeing the Renaissance Faire was a great success according to the metrics, and folks are already planning to return next year.

Huzzah!