Colorado’s 47th Renaissance Festival

(COLORADO SPRINGS) — The magic and mystique are back in Southern Colorado with the return of the Renaissance festival. The annual summer fair held in Larkspur takes visitors back to the 1500s.

Thousands of people dressed in their most vintage costumes to enjoy the day in a fully immersive village with all things fairy, knights, kings, queens, and everything in between.

“It’s so exciting just walking around and getting to experience kind of everybody in all of the community and the creativity that comes together to make this thing happen,” says Zak Yates, he says he enjoys coming to the festival each year.

On Sunday thousands of people took a trip back to the 1500s to experience the English Renaissance.

From the top of the royal court through the magic of the realm all the way to the court jester, visitors traveled back to medieval times.

“It’s really a way to go back in time; this gives us a time where everything was a little bit slower paced. Right here we say things in 25 words rather than five,” added Theodore Winglwink one of the characters at Sunday’s festival.

This summer is the 47th season of the festival in Colorado.

Louise Smith says she spent years hand-sewing each detail of her costume.

“I sewed most of this myself and then I helped put that together. So been a lot of costuming, I just want it to be bright and glittery,” she added.

The festivities include jousting, knighting ceremonies, live music featuring fiddlers, face painting, and plenty of accessories to shop.

“It’s stepping out of that everyday life that we do and having this magical wonder that you see in their eyes, and that’s why I do it,” added Winglwink.

Each weekend will have a different theme, on Sunday it was a magical fantasy. Mary Rugg is one of this season’s vendors and her specialty is all things hats. She is the owner of Madd Hatters and says she is excited to attend each weekend.

“I sew all the flowers and all the trimmings on the wool felt ones too or add flowers sometimes for the straw hats and make fabric adornment and use lots of hot glue,” she added laughing.

Rugg says she’s been a part of the festival since 1985.

“This is the first one I started out with the tulip hats, and they’re my best seller, but they’re also the most fun because I can make them in any color combinations for people. So, it’s really fun. And then these are the Merlin hats and my wizard hat,” she said.

She says creativity is one of her favorite parts of the festival.

“These are some of my scarf creations, and they do very well, and they’re really fun for people,” said Rugg.

The Rennaissance festival kicked off on Saturday and runs every weekend through August 4th.

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