Portals to New Worlds

A couple of weeks ago, I got to check something off my bucket list—I visited a Renaissance Festival for the first time. Even better? The experience was with my family, and it was a complete surprise! Plus, the costume theme for the weekend (this festival does several) was Fantasy and Folklore, featuring dragons, fairies, giants, and hobbits.

Naturally, I had to dress as a hobbit—mostly because of the last-minute surprise. 😂 It was the one thing I knew I had all of the components for, and where they were at.

We didn’t spend a whole day at the festival, partly because my sister had to work in the morning, and partly because we knew it would be a lot for one day. But the entire thing was extremely fun and awesome—and so many people had intricately amazing costumes!

For now, let me welcome you to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival, one of the only U.S. Renaissance Fairs to have a real castle!

Castle Gwynn is probably one of the biggest draws for this particular festival, and, although it’s not a real medieval castle, it’s built in the same style. What surprised me most about the castle is that it’s a private residence. I mean, how many of us have dreamed of living in a castle one day?

Mike Freeman made it a reality. It had been a dream of his since high school, when he first sketched the plans for the castle. Construction began in 1980, about four years after the purchase of the land. 28 years later, construction is ongoing to finish bringing the castle to full realization. Several craftsman have worked on it, over many hours, painstakingly placing each brick or mosaic tile in the different rooms.

Freeman has also purchased and made several suits of armor, created a custom House Crest for the Castle based on medieval crests, and opened up The Great Hall portion of his home for public viewing. The architecture is stunning, and I love seeing that someone’s dream of living in a castle became a reality built from the ground up.

After visiting the castle, most of our day consisted of finding food (they have huge turkey legs, another big draw for this particular festival!), viewing some of the events, and roaming around the festival just checking everything out. We enjoyed seeing all the craftsmen and craftswomen brought to the fest (I, of course, got a dragon or two), and ended the day with a jousting tourney!

I wish I’d taken some pictures of the tourney, but it was just so fun to watch and I was enthralled by the different challenges each contestant had to complete before the actual jousting began. Alas, our knight didn’t win, but we had fun all the same, and I’m very much looking forward to visiting this faire again next year!