CUMMINGTON — As nerdy as I am, until Sunday I had never been to a Renaissance fair. The Massachusetts Renaissance Faire, however, provided an absolutely lovely first experience that made me regret having to leave early.
The faire wasn’t held in-person last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it appears to have been more than missed, drawing a record crowd over two days to the Cummington Fairgrounds.
The faire had an ongoing storyline, with a number of actors dressed in fairy costumes wandering around and sometimes interacting with the patrons. But they were far from the only people dressed up, with costumes ranging from medieval dresses to Merida from the movie “Brave,” to a man dressed as an officer from Star Trek.
It was also pet day, which meant lots of cute dogs — much to the delight of both myself and my girlfriend, with highlights being a gorgeous Irish wolfhound and a corgi dressed as a princess.
One memorable performance involved Shelli Buttons, her daughter Kaya Starr and their pet duck wandering around, as mother and daughter did aerial silk work and Buttons juggled knives and balanced on bottles.
“Everybody loves him,” Buttons said, speaking of the duck. “He stole my show.”
Over with the Knights of Lord Talbot, a group of Hundred Years War re-enactors, I spoke with Allyson Szabo as she was cooking beef and barley pottage over an open fire.
“It’s kind of a cross between a soup and a stew,” Szabo said.
The pottage was thickened with barley and rice and also contained beef shanks, stout, golden beets, carrots and parsnips.
Szabo is the author of “The Reenactor’s Cookbook: Historical and modern recipes for cooking over an open fire,” which she wrote in 2020, doing the test cooking in her yard in the Keene area of New Hampshire.
Szabo said she wrote the cookbook as a combination of serious research and a conversational tone that could be accessible to her kids or the knights she works with.
There were many families with children at the fair, and fair volunteer Kiernan Pearce said that the Massachusetts Renaissance Faire is one of the few fairs she’s been to with free events for children.
“It helps the parents have a few minutes of downtime,” she said.
Pearce also said that she would be putting on one of the events, teaching quilling, a paper art form, later that day.
One of the families at the faire was Rachael Otto, her husband, Vincent Sarno, and their son Dominic Sarno, of Sunderland.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Otto said, of the faire.
Dominic Sarno expressed an interest in playing the ballista game, which involved shooting at a human target, while Vincent Sarno said that he had also been to a Renaissance fair in the Netherlands that was held at an actual castle.
Sadly, the turkey legs at the faire were all sold out by the time I went to get one. But I did get to enjoy a baked potato loaded with macaroni and cheese and chili courtesy of Get Baked Potato Company.
Of course, I couldn’t leave the faire without seeing a joust, and we got to see a “trial by combat” between Sir Giles, accused of many dastardly crimes, and Sir William, who rode in carrying only a stick because he claimed Sir Giles had stolen everything from him. The combat featured a number of contests on horseback, as well as a lot of banter and comedy, culminating with the pair squaring up in a joust.
Both performers are members of Stormy Knights, and the contest was emceed on horseback by Larry Rabin, another Stormy Knights member who played Don Lorenzo, the Baron of Treviso. This is the third Massachusetts Renaissance Faire that the knights have performed at.
“Everybody’s glad to be back in time,” Rabin said.
Rabin was also a vendor at the fair, and he said that his business, Just in Tyme Boots and Leather, was enjoying record sales.
Tintagels Gate has been part of the Massachusetts Renaissance Faire since before it had its current name, and its booth was selling a variety of play and functional weapons.
“There’s been a lot of people coming in,” said Tintagels Gate owner Pat DiPietro, who also praised the beauty of Cummington.
Before leaving the faire, I also made sure to buy a flower crown for my partner, from The Painted Poppy, which was selling crowns made of fresh flowers at the faire.
Overall, what I enjoyed the most about the faire was that it was nice to see so many people seemingly happy and comfortable with themselves. Frank Zappa once said that “everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, and don’t kid yourself,” and I think it’s fair to say that many of the uniforms and masks people wear every day are ones they don’t like very much.
Is it any wonder then that getting to wear a medieval tunic or dress for a weekend might just put a smile on someone’s face? I chose not to dress up while covering the faire this year, but I plan on coming back in 2022 and maybe, just maybe, I’ll do so in a Star Trek uniform.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.