Renaissance Faire Returns to Smithville This Weekend

The New Jersey Renaissance Faire ensemble was just what Wendie Fitzgerald was looking for.

“We went to a Renaissance Faire and Wendie approached them,” Wendie’s husband, Ed Fitzgerald, said Monday afternoon, May 7. “She had been looking for something like that. She said you’re a big group, and we have the perfect spot for you.”

The Fitzgeralds own the Village Greene portion of Historic Smithville.

So the ensemble introduced the concept of the to last spring, a concept that was well received.

“They loved it here,” Ed Fitzgerald said.

“It was really great,” said Tracy Walsh, Ed and Wendie’s daughter. “ … It was very entertaining. It was like a living history of the Renaissance.”

Walsh added that first year festivals are difficult to put together in Smithville, and the Renaissance Faire was one of several first year festivals assembled in 2011.The Renaissance Faire will be back in 2012, specifically this Saturday, May 12.

The schedule for the event reads as follows, with descriptions found at http://colonialinnsmithville.com/blog:

All day: Archery, Paddle Boats, Train, Carousel, Face Painting

10:30: Opening Ceremony (Gazebo Stage)

11:00: Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon (Gazebo Stage): a one-man, audience-interactive, comedy that is also educational and entertaining

11:30: Four Pieces of Eight (Lakeside Stage): described as three daughters driving their step-father to madness

12:00: Adamo Ignis  (Gazebo Stage): this group has a passion for dance, the danger of the flame and other stunts and tricks

12:30: That Magic Guy (Lakeside Stage): a magician holds the audience captive with illusion

1:00: The Lords of Adventure (Gazebo Stage): Two Man Comedy Sword Fighting Show

1:30: Four Pieces of Eight (Lakeside Stage)

2:00: That Magic Guy (Gazebo Stage)

2:30: Peasant Dance (Gazebo Stage): Come learn the traditional dances of the Renaissance times. 2:30: The Amazing Gibil (Lakeside Stage): a magician who “delights using amazing tricks with various items from clubs to boxes of knives.”

3:30: Shakespeare, the Band of Avon (Lakeside Stage)  

4:00: Adamo Ignis (Gazebo Stage)

4:30: The Amazing Gibil (Lakeside Stage)

5:00: The Lords of Adventure (Gazebo Stage)

5:30: Closing Ceremony (Gazebo Stage)

Admission is free and the rain date is Sunday, May 13. The ensemble will be offering discounted tickets for its faire held at Liberty Lake June 2, 3, 9 and 10. Greene

Additional information is available at http://colonialinnsmithville.com/blog/

For more information on the New Jersey Renaissance Faire, visit www.njrenfaire.com.