Recently, a few of our HerCampus members and myself traveled to a far and magical land; The Mythical and Medieval Festival!
This is Myrtle Beach’s only renaissance festival and lasts for only one weekend. The festival helped raise money for a local non-profit called Caleb’s Dragonfly Dreams.
This non-profit focuses on providing positive activities for children residing in shelters or group homes. These children have been abused, neglected, or abandoned. These activities vary from group outings, to providing craft projects, to even just providing time to spend with these children.
The proceeds from the entry ticket helped go to this charity, as well as a few items that you could purchase inside the festival.
The festival itself has only been around for about 9 years, but it continues to grow as numbers during our visit were projected to be around 2,000.
When we first arrived, we had to backroad my Corolla into a large parking field. I was excited off the bat to see many people walking around in costumes, taking the event very seriously.
When lining up to enter the event, performers were cheering on the crowd as a cannon erupted, apparently signaling the start of the festival. As a first-time faire goer, I was a little concerned with the noise, but I was told that it is completely normal.
The large field held multiple vendors that ranged anywhere from jewelry, taxidermy, tarot reading, and even small authors. The great part about this is all the vendors are small local businesses!
After strolling around and having to restrain myself from buying everything I saw, we headed over to the makeshift “tavern”, where workers were providing us with instrumental, thematic music and selling a much-needed alcoholic drink, mead.
When going to a Ren Faire, I heard that this is a must try, and I couldn’t agree more. The refreshing peach and honey wine had us ready to see the main event, the jousting tournament.
I don’t think I have ever been so involved in a “sporting” event in my life. With everyone dressed up in costumes, watching “knights” compete made the environment feel exciting and whimsical. I did get the opportunity to see Roman, our knight’s feisty horse, up-close after the tournament.
I would say he enjoyed the pets; however, I think he liked nibbling on the knights shoes a little more.
Of course, we also had to check out the calmer kids’ area, where face painting and a pop-up Narnia themed play area equipped with cotton “snowballs” and bubble snow greeted us. I will say this had all our inner child bouncing off the walls with excitement.
Finishing up the day with a Celtic Cross tarot card reading and purchasing some trinkets from the on-site blacksmith tent, I can proudly say I took the biggest nap of my life at home whilst covered in “fairy glitter” that at the time seemed like a great idea to in corporate into our costumes.
Although I love giving to charity, I cannot say I have ever had so much fun doing so until that weekend.
I highly recommend going to this event next year to anyone. I mean, who doesn’t want to play dress up and escape the boring adult world for a few hours?