Medieval Faire in Lehigh Acres

Saturday I spent the day at the Kiwanis/Lee County 10th Annual Medeival Faire with my out of town guest, Steve, from Buffalo. It was a hot day with temperatures getting close to 90.

I’ve never been to this renfest before. I’ve heard good things about it so I decided it was about time to give it a try. I’m glad I did.

The renfest outgrew it’s home in Ft. Myers a couple years ago and moved out to Lehigh Acres. It’s way out in the middle of what was nowhere just a few years ago. Lehigh Acres has become a major city. The quiet little two lane road out into the marshes has become a six lane highway packed with cars.

The festival grounds are quite nice. The festival is layed out in a roughly circular shape with a couple cross lanes. There are eight stages for entertainment, plus a jousting area and a human chess board.

My main interest is in the music so I started my day watching a performance by one of my favorite bands, Empty Hats. They performed a couple brand new numbers for the first time. One of the songs was a bit rough, with Lady Victoria nervously forgetting her lines at times. Later in the day I heard them do it again and it went very smoothly. She’s an excellent singer and I hope they let her do more singing.

I spent some time with my friend Bob DaVinci, Lenny’s brother. We got caught up on the latest news. Later in the day I caught one of his performances. He does wonderful comedy versions of operas. They involve audience particpants. The opera of the day was Making Meatballs. At last year’s renfest in Tampa the opera of the day was Go Figaro! I was chosen to play the jackass. Ricky laughed hysterically until he was chosen to be the jackass’ ass.

There were a lot of performers familiar to me, but there were many I was unfamiliar with. I was delighted to discover two new groups I haven’t heard before. Merry Mischief is a husband and wife duo that put on a fine show. Three Pints Gone is a three piece group. I was surprised to learn they were from the Milwaukee area. I lived in Milwaukee for five years so we had something in common to talk about. They did some wonderful songs. One set was a set of sea chanties. A very talented group.

In my opinion, no festival is complete without Emrys Fleet, the ratcatcher. It was great to see my old friend again. If you’ve never seen him then it’s a whole new show! Otherwise, it’s 20 year old crap… his words, not mine. I’ve seen his show so many times I know it by heart, but it still cracks me up every time I see it.

I wish the day was longer so I could have seen more new shows. I liked it enough that I’ll probably go again next year.