Des Moines Renaissance Faire 
set to open Labor Day weekend

For three weekends in September, the permanent Tudor village of Canterbury-on-Sherwood, located adjacent to the Sleepy Hollow Sports Park in Des Moines, will showcase an enhanced line-up of entertainment and edu-tainers from all over the United States for the eighth annual Des Moines Renaissance Faire.

The Des Moines Renaissance Faire will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 4 to 6, 11, 12, 18 and 19. With three different weekend themes — Scottish Highland, Romance & Revelry and Buccaneers & Pirates — visitors can experience the eight show stages, two living history exhibit areas, a children’s realm, a Sherwood Forest glen, 40 quaint merchant shops, two pubs, a wine villa, a faerie treehouse, a pirate cove, a knife-tossing and archery shooting gallery, an open field battle zone, a large equestrian jousting arena, hand-powered rides, two feasting halls, additional food merchants in the expanded food court, a gem mine, various demonstration booths, a children’s soft-sword dueling ring, a children’s jousting tilt, landscaped gardens, a royal pavilion for the queen and one of the biggest castles in the Midwest that features a dungeon tour on the inside. A floor on the grand feasting hall and a roof on the Guild Hall was constructed in 2009, and the castle town, called Canterbury-on-Sherwood, is the new high adventure history immersion on the Pleasant Hill side of Des Moines.

Besides the regular cast of 250 costumed characters, strolling musicians, singers, dancers, faeries, comics, jugglers, fire-breathers, mimes, acrobats, story-tellers and historic personas, the festival showcases about 25 professional performing troupes and solo acts that present as many as 80 shows a day in the various staging areas.

New this year will be the re-designed jousting shows, three authentic Renaissance-styled weddings, the “Warwick” living history camp, “Sons of the Mist” Scottish knights, “Guardians of the Black Forest” medieval German sword battles, Jeff McLane’s national touring “Comedy Hamlet” play, “Paul the Gooseman” and his costumed geese on parade, Danza Mystique belly dancers, the Royale Pirates of Tortuga, the Bawdy Buccaneers and several additional comedy street-theater groups.

Tickets may be purchased at the gate or in advance at metro Hy-Vee stores. Admission is $16 for teens and adults and $8 for children ages 5 to 12, with tots admitted for free. A two-day pass is $23, and a full season pass is $30. Learn more at www.dmrenfaire.com. Event inquiries can be made to greg@festint.com or (641) 357-5177.