Holly - There's a place not far from here, where you can time-warp back to the 1500s, speak in Old English and bump elbows with a queen. Where swashbucklers, Vikings and fairies greet you at every corner. A place where kilt rolling and flaming-torch juggling are commonplace.
Every year, thousands of visitors flock to the Michigan Renaissance Festival, a 15-acre wooded lot transformed into a 16th- century village, to experience day-long fun - Renaissance-style.
From stage shows to seemingly never-ending eating and shopping opportunities, the festival can be an escape from reality for visitors and festival workers.
"Here within these walls, all the cares of the world we know are gone," said Caroline Jett, an actress who plays Queen Elizabeth Glorianna.
"We are able to escape."
Dancing and skipping around trees in the entrance courtyard, wearing fairy wings and spreading pixie dust, Lucretia Williams greets visitors as her character, Twig the Tree Sprite.
"You can't act like a child anywhere else but here," she said.
Most festival workers stick to their roles, speaking in accent and never breaking character no matter what, making them quite different from your average town carnival workers.
Every weekend of the festival, hundreds of regular folks forget about their day jobs, don their Renaissance-period costumes and transform themselves into characters such as Rob the Thief or The Zucchini Brothers.
Fashion at the festival is eccentric, to say the least, with some men sporting skin-tight velvet pants and some women doing their best to boost their busts.
"Where else can you get away with this much cleavage?" patron Amy Brock, 20, of Lathrup Village, said pointing to women wearing tight, corseted dresses. "Nowhere else but an atmosphere like this."
The festival, in its 24th year, always draws a large handful of die-hard fans. Some wear Renaissance-period threads, interacting with the festival's characters to join in the fun.
"I'm a big goofball, and I like coming in costume," said 20-year-old Reggie Crown, attending his 16th renaissance festival dressed as a musketeer. "I don't look like a freak here when I dress up."
Other visitors, who might not have as much interest in dressing like peasants or wenches, stick to their sneakers and fanny-packs, trying not to be seen by loud-mouthed characters who roam the festival and make fun of those who don't participate.
Some festival workers say they like seeing more of the enthusiastic visitors.
"The participatrons are amazing," said 20-year-old Macomb native Jennifer Bloss, acting as a peasant. "They come dressed in outrageous things that we can't."
But first-time festival-goers might want to watch out - looking like a tourist might bring you some unwanted attention. Festival characters have been known to play tricks on Renaissance rookies, screaming, "We've got a virgin here," or making silly jokes while dragging visitors to the restrooms.
At the festival, food is very important. There's everything from apple dumplings and pickles out of a barrel, to soup in a bread bowl and deep-fried Twinkies - but who could forget the giant turkey legs?
"You can find any food you want to at the Renaissance Festival - on a stick," said juggler and member of The Zucchini Brothers duo, Todd Key.
Those looking to down a good brewski head to the Guinness Pub, where it's not uncommon to break out into Irish drinking sing-a-long songs while wenches pour your beer.
Sipping a Guinness in the outdoor patio pub, Scott Dambacher of New York reminisces why he attends the Michigan festival every year.
"You can just let your imagination go crazy," he said.
Dambacher and his girlfriend proudly showed off their certificate at the pub after participating in a mock wedding, or "handfasting."
"You can let down all your defenses and bring out the kid inside," he said.
But the festival isn't all turkey legs and sword fights. In recent years, the festival seems to have crept a bit into the present, with events such as "Medieval Idol," a comedy skit mocking the television show "American Idol." Many of the stage shows incorporate improvisational comedy and use volunteers from the audience.
Some acts, such as the Washing Well Wenches gain extra attention. The wenches are a duo of boisterous ladies putting on a sort of comedy performance meets wet T-shirt contest.
Another fun stage show is the down-and-dirty comedy of the Muckmasters, three guys wearing not much more than burlap sacks who center their skits around jumping into a large mud pit. But be careful: Watching the muddy men from front row seats is like sitting in the splash zone at Sea World.
And let's not forget ladies' man Manoléte, a buff, half-naked, tights-wearing tap dancer who gets numerous cat calls from the audience.
Visitors who want to try their hand at Renaissance activities can participate in archery, glassblowing and knife and ax throwing.
For patrons with a thick pocketbook, hundreds of artists line the festival borders, selling everything from lace tights and leather corsets to miniature harps and bagpipes.
Sitting on a stool in front of his pottery shop, Steve Taggart carefully molds a hunk of clay on a spinning wheel into a dense pot, which he shapes into a piggy bank.
Taggart, of Port Huron, has been sculpting ceramic crafts at the festival for 22 years, creating and selling items similar to those of the 16th century.
"It's my life, not my livelihood," Taggart, an elementary school art teacher, said. "It's getting to be a lost art."
Sprinkled throughout the festival village, street performers playing instruments and speaking poetry can be found at every turn.
"This is the place to be if you wanna hang out all day and have a good time," said bagpiper Caleb Gilbert of Trenton, known to festival-goers as "the wandering piper."
"There's a definite subculture here that most people don't see outside," he said. "It's amazing. Every year I have the best time."
Sarah Frank can be reached at franksa2@msu.edu.
