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(bright music) - [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(jovial music) - [Narrator] For just eight weekends a year, as fall rolls around, thousands converge upon a special place near Huntersville.

- They have like literally like a medieval type of village.

It's kind of awesome.

- You can be who you want, you can do what you want.

- It's just a huge medieval party.

- [Narrator] The Carolina Renaissance Festival immerses those who visit into a time long ago and a land seemingly far away.

- [Wanda] It's not like the Renaissance was.

It's like what the Renaissance should have been.

- [Narrator] Go behind the scenes to meet the producers, artisans, and performers who travel from far and wide to bring the annual festival from the realm of fantasy into reality.

Along the way meet devoted patrons who make the Carolina Renaissance Festival their can't-miss event of the year.

All that and more on "Trail of History."

(upbeat music) (jovial music) (people talking indistinctly) Once upon a time in a kingdom not so far away, villagers hurried about and readied their shops, some stocking fresh baked goods and others sweeping floors, all while a musician played a merry tune.

(bright music) Outside the gates, a jolly group of travelers from near and far gathered, gleefully entertained by the village welcoming party while waiting to hear these words.

- [Crier] Prepare for cannon fire.

(cannon fires) - [Narrator] And with a bang, then sound of trumpets, The Carolina Renaissance Festival's 2024 season kicks off.

(folksy music) - How do you describe the Carolina Renaissance Festival?

There's music and there's food and there's people and there's comedy and there's sword fighting and there's jousting.

- [Narrator] Those passing through these gates step into a land of make believe.

- When you come to the Renaissance Festival, you're walking on stage with the actors.

You're immersed in the theater, not just as a viewer but also surrounded by it.

It's very three dimensional.

- [Narrator] The vibrant environment nearly overwhelms your senses through the sights, the sounds, and even the smells.

There's games, human-powered rides, food, drinks, and, of course, live shows.

(crowd cheer) - Yes, we tried feeding them carrots, but they only like money.

- [Narrator] Now don't get the Carolina Renaissance Festival confused with your common everyday theme park, for at the festival the patrons play an equally integral role in the overall fantasy.

- [Jeffery] It's a very broad-based audience.

We see a lot of families, we see a lot of young couples, but we have a little bit for everybody.

- The variety of people that go to the Renaissance Festival is like same as the variety of all the people in Charlotte.

You see a a huge cross session of people, not just the geeks and not just the, you know, the Renaissance fair enthusiasts or the gamers.

There's everybody goes.

- [Narrator] Everywhere you look, you'll see elaborate costuming.

- When I heard about the event that you can dress up, I was like, "Oh yeah, sign me up."

- [Adam] Garb obviously is the number one thing.

Everybody has their own character, and the costumes they choose for that's a lot of fun.

- [Narrator] Attendees like Adam Beasley and his wife Ashley invest a lot of time preparing for their day at the festival.

- A big portion of it is the making.

Everything that I've got here except for the pants, everything I made.

So all year long, if we're not at ren fair, we're making something for the next ren fair.

- [Narrator] But he and others say it's not just about dressing up.

- It's a joyful experience.

You can be who you want, you can do what you want.

It's a lot of fun to get away.

- Reality isn't always fun and you come here to get away from it.

Whether you're drinking, whether you're just having fun, enjoying the food, whether you're just enjoying the shows or even the shops, it's everything for everybody here.

- [Narrator] Across the festival's 25-plus-acres, you'll find some things historically correct, but the events producers admit they take a little bit of artistic license with the time period.

- The festival isn't strictly based in history.

There's a mix here.

We have our living history groups and we honor them, and they do a very authentic period costuming and various types of demonstrations.

But we also have fairytale, we have fantasy, and then we have a bit of a Monty Python movie come to life.

Well, the festival's an interesting mix of vaudevillian-type comedy, circus arts, some classical and serious folk music culture, but there's also exhibitions of falconry.

There's performing animals.

It's quite a mix of music, dance, theater, comedy.

(bright music) - [Narrator] When the Carolina Renaissance Festival kicked off in the fall of 2024, it continued a tradition that started back in 1994.

The person behind it all, festival producer Jeff Siegal.

- I mean, it's a lovely way to spend a day outdoors where you're in the woods, escape your cares, forget about your concerns.

You're home a few hours later and the world's back in front of you.

- [Narrator] Siegal got his start with the arts way up in Minnesota during the 1970s.

- Coming right out of high school, I started getting involved with a combination of public sector and private sector arts and entertainment, community theater, parks, special events.

I had been working with music and other types of festivals and the Renaissance Festival became a combination of all of those.

I had created funding to place a festival.

One of our longtime artisans that I've worked with earlier in my career suggested we come to North Carolina.

- [Narrator] So with the seed planted, Siegal got to work.

- We met with the state director of tourism back in the early 1990s and presented the idea, and they were very enthusiastic towards us.

We actually looked at sites in metro Raleigh and in metro Charlotte, and came upon an opportunity to bring the Carolina Renaissance Festival to fruition here.

Everybody we've worked with governmentally, state tourism, community, community theater, schools, it's been an exceptional experience.

- [Narrator] The first Renaissance fair or festivals started in the 1960s out in California and soon spread across the United States.

- Now there are hundreds of Renaissance-themed events around the country, large and small.

Of festivals that are our size, where you have the permanent setting on a fairground, you're looking at roughly about 30 of those type of events.

- [Narrator] The Carolina Renaissance Festival runs for eight weekends during October and November.

Director of marketing and entertainment, Matt Siegal, says with thousands attending each weekend, the economic benefits stretches well beyond the fairgrounds.

- We have heard from area businesses, from hotels, from local travel and tourism boards that it is substantial, that we are attracting a very large amount of our attendees from outlying areas where they are staying in hotels, staying for the weekend, exploring the area, exploring metro Charlotte and enjoying themselves, spending money at restaurants and bars in addition to attending the festival.

On an annual basis, the festival typically hosts over 200,000 attendees, time travelers as we like to call them, coming out to enjoy this wonderful storybook village setting.

- [Narrator] Achieving that storybook setting takes months of planning and plenty of work behind the scenes.

(engine revving) - This is an armory where they talk about weapons.

It is a year round planning effort.

The work does not stop.

- [Narrator] The work involves all types of tradespeople and performance groups to put the finishing touches on everything, from the sound system to the jousting arena and more.

- Landscaping, grounds crew, maintenance on a lot of the cottages that you see here.

All that starts coming together over the course of the summer.

- [Narrator] During the final weeks leading up to opening day, one of the busiest places on site, the custom sign shop.

Ask artisan Brent Jones what he does here and he'll give you a simple answer.

- Oh, I don't know.

I smear paint on things.

- [Narrator] He's being a bit humble.

Festivals nationwide hire Jones for his skills with a brush and a bit of paint.

- Originally in the seventies I started in theater and, you know, as theater painting you kind of pick up on that type of art, you know.

If you produce a set for a stage, it's gotta have the look of, you know, if it's Shakespeare, it has to look like that.

You know, you try to be informative and you try to keep some kind of an old world look to things.

- [Narrator] At the Carolina Renaissance Festival, there are hundreds if not thousands of custom hand-painted signs, and sometimes they need a little TLC.

- This was damaged by a storm, so we had to rebuild portions of it.

This is just the final touches, and it will get reinstalled back up on the building.

- [Narrator] Throughout the grounds, various vendors sell their wares, and Jones says it's important to collaborate on their signage.

- They might like a certain look that matches their product.

So every job is a a new challenge.

Everything changes.

Every show is a little different.

Every sign's a little different.

This is the best part of the job when you just kind of have your own little nook to paint in, you know.

(jovial music) - [Narrator] While the vendors, games, rides, and the turkey legs are big draws to the Carolina Renaissance Festival, it's no secret the crowds come here for the shows.

Many of the performers travel from festival to festival, performers like Savannah Mansour of the professional performance jousting troupe called The Jousters.

(crowd cheering) - [Savannah] I work with the joust.

I am Countess Cordelia of Suffolk, or the Lady of Chivalry.

So I'm kind of like the referee and scorekeeper for the show.

- [Narrator] Each day of the festival, the troupe puts on several shows for the packed crowds.

- Jousting, it's two knights fully armored up, riding their horses and charging at each other with lances and shields.

It's a very historical sport.

We put on a whole tournament for Her Majesty.

We'll start off with some tests of skill, doing some bullseye, like some ring targets with lances, or taking a block with a spear and trying to impale it and parade it all, showing it off.

And then we move into the joust as well to bring like the heavy-hitting action sport too.

(performers calling indistinctly) - [Narrator] While Mansour is a skilled equestrian, she says jousting itself isn't for her.

- I have not personally jousted.

I've done some of the games like the rings and the blocks and sorts, but I much prefer talking about the guys as they joust.

I'll do all the words for you on the side.

- [Narrator] The troupe spends months on the road each and every year.

- [Savannah] I love to travel.

It's very ingrained now, since I've been doing it for so long, that it's nice to change scenery every two months.

- [Narrator] Performers find their way into this line of work in various ways, but Mansour's path was pretty straightforward.

- I was actually born into it.

My dad jousts as well.

It's really fun.

I feel really fortunate to get to work with a really great group of people and our awesome horses.

It's a really fortunate life that I live.

I'm very grateful.

We are a couple of families in a very tight-knit group to form our joust company, and so I got really lucky and was able to grow up surrounded by horses and the whole atmosphere of traveling and renaissance fairs, and I wouldn't choose any other way.

I love it.

- Where's the chivalry?

- [Narrator] While the knights and horses demand the attention of large crowds in the arena, up the way a bit, things have just gone to the birds.

Meet falconer Kevin Gaines.

- I usually start with an Australian laughing kookaburra.

(kookaburra chirps) It's that laugh and that noise, is it's just exciting and fun, gets everyone's attention.

Then we move on to, I have a Harris's hawk that I fly right over the audience up and down the aisles.

We have a giant Eurasian eagle owl.

It's just impressive.

A vulture that can be quite mischievous during the program.

Actually a black vulture.

And usually end the program flying the falcon, zooming right overhead, and that's what she's right now saying, "Hey, we're on stage.

Aren't we gonna fly?

You've had me waiting for so long."

Falconry itself is just a rich history of working with birds.

In fact, raptors are said to be potentially in some cultures the second oldest animal humans worked with, second to only the dog, predating horses and camels in some civilizations.

- [Narrator] During the show, Gaines and his feathered co-stars dazzle audiences with their flying abilities, interesting facts and, well, sometimes scavenging abilities.

- You know the funny part is over the 20-plus years of doing this, they're the performers.

They're what everybody is here to see.

I'm the vector to deliver that.

I mean, I'm as much part of the presentation as the birds are, but just it's that excitement when the audience is excited and wants more and wants to learn, or they're enjoying it, smiling it.

Or I get people walking away saying, "Wow, I didn't know that about a falcon," or "That vulture was incredible."

And then coming back asking for the birds by name.

And so, you know, that's very fulfilling, valid.

It means I'm making a mark on the individuals that I'm trying to.

(crowd cheers) - [Narrator] If the excitement of jousting knights or raptors whizzing over your head is a bit much, perhaps you might enjoy a simple good story.

- That, of course, is by spilling white cheers.

You may remember him as the immortal Bard of Avon.

I am Zilch, the Tory Steller.

You want the spelling on that one too?

Why would you go outta your way to come find me?

I do about eight months of the year on the road.

Three's a crowd, so as long as I get three people, I'll do a show.

And that's pretty much my usual schedule.

Arizona, Texas, Sioux Falls, South Dakota for one weekend, Colorado, Minnesota, North Carolina.

I started it in 1975 as a hawker for an archery game.

So this is my 50th year of doing renaissance festivals.

- [Narrator] Now, before there was Zilch, the Tory Steller, there was Zilch, the grave digger - I had a knotted rope, that was my measuring cord, and I'd walk around behind people going, you know, "Hello, my name is Zilch.

I dig graves.

How do you feel?

Oh you're one of them joggers, ain't you?

I hate this good health kick.

It's making me go in the hole."

And assorted other bad puns like that.

- [Narrator] Zilch, whose real name is Terry Foy, learned at an early age that he had a gift.

- I'd always had this ability to teach people how to leak in a spifferent language or to catch my Swanson, its fac and borth off the hop of my Ted.

I've been doing that since I was 12 to entertain my friends, and I did it backstage for a party and somebody went, "Why don't you do that for your show?"

I'd always been Tory Stelling, which is kitchen your Swanson's its fac and Borth at the lead of spights.

It's called Spoonerisms.

The reason we call them Spoonerisms is because of a real life dead guy.

His name was Reverend William Archibald Spooner.

Well, Reverend Spooner was an Anglican priest.

He was an Oxford don.

Now that one I think we could safely translate as college professor.

And he had this little quirk of occasionally looking out over his flock or his class and saying things like, "The Lord is a shoving leopard," or he's famous for "Mardon me padam, but this pie is occupewed.

May I sow you to another sheet."

Supposedly he once closed a wedding with, "It is now kisstomary to cuss the bride."

He did this sort of thing so often his students coined the term a Spoonerism.

And she said, "Ow, I'm taking this gasket of booties to handma's grouse."

Now handma's grouse is in a wuther nart of the pud.

- [Narrator] His shows draw large crowds under the trees and bring lots of smiles, unless, of course, you're a sign language interpreter.

- But I once broke an entire school of sign language interpreters when I was doing Scarborough Fair in Texas.

They brought the whole class, sat them in my audience, and one would start interpreting for me and just give up, walk away.

The next one come up.

So whenever I have an interpreter, I make sure that I have a fire extinguisher and you know.

(crowd laughs) And then I sped up.

(bright music) Next thing you know- - Joking aside, with five decades of performances under his belt, stepping onto a stage is old hat for Foy.

- You're looking for.

(crowd laughs) I never, ever experienced stage fright.

So it's one of those things.

When I'm at my home show in, dare I say Minnesota, it's like a high school reunion.

So there's always somebody I know or I'm related to or went to school with or dated in the audience, and it's getting to be that way here as well.

I walk in and there's all these familiar faces out there that have been watching me grow up or age.

- [Narrator] For performers like Foy, what seems to keep them coming back year after year is the atmosphere that's created at the Carolina Renaissance Festival.

- You rub elbows with the entertainers.

They're not just that guy on the other side of a screen or on the stage that you never connect with.

We walk out in the audience and we're talking to you individually.

So it's a unique type of community, and community adds performance.

(crowd cheers) - [Narrator] The Carolina Renaissance Festival at its core is a fantasy event, but several years ago, one group of passionate enthusiasts suggested creating a living history area.

- Different people have different interests, and some people are just into the revelry and frivolity.

But there are some patrons that are very much interested in the history of the time.

- History is always important.

And then there are patrons who have no clue what Renaissance really is and it gives them a little more information as background.

- [Narrator] Meet Carol Salloum and Nancy Gaines, members of the Lord Mayor's household.

- And we now have this troupe where we demonstrate how things might have been in the time period.

We have a gentleman who alternates depending on the season.

Some years he's done an armory.

Some years he's done a barber surgeon.

Some years he's done a woodworker.

I have the display of gowns that I've made for myself.

So I talk about the history of the clothing.

We have a lace maker, we have a weaver, we have a spinner.

The reason we call ourself the Lord Mayor's household is because the Lord Mayor is the wealthiest person in our village.

So he's the only one who could afford to have all these artisans and crafts people on his payroll, so to say.

We refer to ourselves as the edutainment center of the festival because when you come to see us, you're going to learn something, but it's gonna be in an entertaining fashion.

It's not going to be something out of a textbook.

But to actually see things being done and to have somebody talking about them, it's a whole different way of learning and it seems to appeal to quite a few people.

- [Narrator] Gaines and Salloum see the festival as a chance to share their appreciation for history.

- True there's some people who come and come see us and then go do the other stuff, and then come see us again.

Because history is fascinating.

Historians debate about what the period of the Renaissance is, but it's a time period between the medieval period and the modern period where things really changed.

It was the rise of the middle class.

It was great advances in scientific discoveries, great advances in art, advances in thinking about leadership roles.

(engine roars) - When not working at the festival, the duo help run a store in Salisbury that also feeds their passion for history.

- [Nancy] Our store is Southeast Mercantile Cooperative and we are a collection of artisans who have always done historic crafts.

- [Carol ] We have all sorts of accessories for the reenactor.

It's a rather eclectic mix of historical things.

- What you find here, you're probably not gonna find anywhere else.

- [Narrator] It's the kind of place one might shop to find the little things they need for their period-correct attire to wear to the festival.

Salloum, a former engineer, enjoys creating the very clothes she wears for her part at the Lord Mayor's household.

- I've done a lot of research into how the clothing was constructed.

I try to use a lot of the construction methods that were used in the time period.

I started doing a lot of sewing on the machine, and the construction methods, when you're doing it by hand, are so very different.

And now I'm doing much more by hand than by machine.

Doing this is my creative outlet.

I have fun at it.

You know, where else does a 60-year-old woman get to go out and play dress up and nobody raises an eyebrow?

(jovial music) - [Narrator] The Carolina Renaissance Festival means something different to each person who comes through the gates, but one thing most will agree on are the incredible memories being made.

(jovial music continues) (Jess laughing) For photographer Jess Smith, owner of Nadia Images... - This is actually great.

This background behind you right now is very, very pretty.

- [Narrator] The festival is literally her happy place.

- All right, are you ready?

One, two, and three.

I call myself the photo fairy 'cause I've got my wings and I try to go around and immortalize the magic that is at the fair.

Perfect.

One, two, and three.

- [Narrator] When she found the event several years ago, it sparked her creativity.

- You photograph everything at the fair from fairies to pirates to vikings to fire shows.

It's just magic everywhere all the time.

I have photographed you in front of this building 'cause you look so cool.

- [Narrator] Each day of the season, Smith makes her way through the crowds seeking out her subjects.

- Making sure that people are comfortable having their photo taken is really important.

So you just always wanna go up and make sure that you tell them that their garb is incredible or that they did a great job on their makeup, and then ask them permission to take their portrait.

And then if they're comfortable with it, that's awesome.

- [Narrator] She's even had the opportunity to capture a wedding.

- The bride was sweet and she had gone through a lot of strife and struggle in her life and a lot of loss.

So making sure to celebrate it here where she had made so many memories with her family over the years was really special.

And then, of course, you know, the gown that she had painted all beautiful colors inside and then her maid of honor was dressed up like an elven warrior to protect her.

And then just watching her and her husband get introduced by the queen out in front of the joust, it's a whole experience unlike anything else when you're shooting a wedding.

- [Narrator] The craft of photography mixed with meeting the people at the Carolina Renaissance Festival feeds the photo fairy in more ways than one.

There's no charge for her candid shots.

Smith views her pictures as a way of giving to others.

- [Jess] Photography means the world to me because it's my way of being able to show people how incredible I think they are.

(jovial music) - [Narrator] There aren't many people that can say they've attended the festival each and every year since it began in 1994, but Wanda Harward is one of them.

- I've been going every year for 31 years.

- [Narrator] She says that on her very first day at the Carolina Renaissance Festival she knew it was special.

- Some people we just immediately gravitated to right off the bat.

You know, that you just like, ay, these are my people.

I don't even remember everything we did that day 'cause it was just wonderful.

And then that was like, "Nope, we're addicted.

That's it.

We're going back every year."

- [Narrator] Over the year, she held onto pictures and keepsakes, eventually compiling everything into a scrapbook.

- The oldest picture I think I have in here is '96.

For like the first section, I've got pictures of my child growing up through the Renaissance Fair every single year.

I think a really special memory was with the first time we walked in to the front gate, just before we got in the front gate, the first person we met was was Miguel of Don Juan and Miguel, and Miguel passed away this past year, as we loved seeing him every year.

To my child, he was Uncle Miguel and he adored that man, and so did we.

He was just a wonderful human being.

Everyone who's in here is not with the fair anymore.

Some people have passed, some people have retired, some people have gone over other things.

But I have this to remember them by.

The pictures are like triggers for memories, you know.

And I can remember the moment and what it felt like and the smells and the sounds and just meeting different people, and it's just triggers for memory.

So they bring them back up and make them fresh for me.

I can't imagine never going back.

That wouldn't just be in my brain.

I got a walker because I have some disability just so I could go to the Renaissance Fair.

And if it ever got to it, I would buy a wheelchair.

And if it ever got to it, I would buy a scooter.

'cause we are going to the Renaissance Fair.

Period.

That's it.

However, I have to get there.

- [Narrator] Founder Jeff Siegal has no regrets in building the festival into the annual tradition it's become here in the Charlotte region.

- Metro Charlotte, of course, as you know, is exploding in growth.

So I feel grateful that we were here early on to be a part of that growth of the community and be something new and different at the time we came and now very well established as a good member of the community.

And of all the places I had looked around the country, I'm so grateful that I ended up in North Carolina.

- [Narrator] The actual Renaissance period took place between the 14th and 17th centuries.

Famous art such as "The Last Supper" and the "Mona Lisa" can be attributed to the time.

But the Carolina Renaissance Festival offers far more than just a glimpse into a time period.

- The magic of a renaissance fair is the ability to leave the reality of your life behind for a while.

- The magic of the fair to me is getting to watch grownups embrace their inner child again and just escape into that for a while.

- [Narrator] And a bit of advice for first time patrons.

- For somebody that's never been to a renaissance fair, what you need to do is suspend disbelief.

Just go in and allow your mind to not think that you're in 2024 and just go with the flow.

(crowd cheering) - We thank you for watching this episode of "Trail of History," (upbeat music) (bright music) - [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.