The Shire Spectator

Alas, we have now reached the conclusion of our chronicles spectating the Shire for the 2025 season. 'Tis only fitting that the festival season is concluded with several weekends marked by memento mori , as the final, multi-weekend theme of Halloween reminds us that like life itself, the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire (PRF) must also have its end. Unlike the actual Renaissance, one does not need to remember thy death on account of plague, famine, or war at Mount Hopeshire. Fortunately for us festival-goers, spooky season is instead ushered in with larger-than-life displays of skeletons, pumpkins, and other fun frights that make this a beloved time of merriment, rather than mourning, at the Shire. In the final hour of seven o' the clock, Ax and Lotti explore the evening event that sunsets the Shire season. Heralded by the Pub Sing Finale at the Globe Theatre, we bid farewell to our beloved queen, most wondrously portrayed by Jules Schrader's five-year reign as Queen Elizabe...

The Bard hath said, "Time travels in divers paces with divers persons," and just as Rosalind noted in As You Like It , whether a few hours pass at an amble, trot, gallop, or not at all, be it entirely dependent upon the person. With fewer than two hours left in the festival day, Ax and Lotti have ambled into the hour of six o' the clock at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire (PRF) during the anachronistic Time Travelers Weekend. Time, which we know to be in the Shire as the Elizabethan era, has suddenly galloped into the Victorian era and beyond. This week, Ax and Lotti find themselves surrounded by wonders and whizbangs of future invention: from goggles to gears, timepieces to top hats, one might encounter both steam punks and stormtroopers at the PRF. Yet despite the sudden introduction of gunpowder, lasers, and even what a supposed doctor described as a TARDIS, the time-honored and untouchable tradition of the Ultimate Joust is how the most serious scores are settled in...

Like a bat out of hell(es), we find ourselves in the middle of Oktoberfest weekend as we approach the hour of five of the clock. Similar to the celebration of Celtic history during the Shamrock and Shenanigan weekend, the Oktoberfest-themed weekend at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire (PRF) celebrates this tradition of German culture, specifically, the beer- and pretzel-loving lands of Bavaria. Gone are the kilts and green attire as travelers adorn themselves with lederhosen and fedoras, while fraus and fräuleins are spotted in an array of ever-flattering dirndls. Yet perhaps the most important accessory of all during this festival day is the classic bier stein. From pints of stout to steins of dunkel, we instantly immerse ourselves in this Bavarian Ballyhoo. This is always a fun and popular weekend as beer confidently takes center stage: the clarity of a helles lager, the dark maltiness of a dunkel, the "a-peeling" banana flavor of the hefeweizen, and of course, the star of...