Each festival day begins with the entrance of Henry VIII and his entourage:
He is followed closely by the necessary clean-up crew.
Once he has gone inside the gates, the merriment begins. This year one of the characters dons a variety of costumes representing animals (and in some cases the rider). This one is is a dragon named Wasabi, I suppose because of his color. Some kids loved it and would come up to pet it. Some little ones had a screaming fit to get away. It just didn't compute in their memory banks of acceptable creatures.
Later s/he changed into a caterpillar with a butterfly floating above his head. Talk about something difficult to photograph! Again some children came up to shake one of its "hands" and some wanted NOTHING to do with it! The butterfly was referred to as "Mother" by the caterpillar. Three photos--complete outfit, top, and bottom of the costume.
The willingness of the royalty to associate with and engage children is impressive. I seriously doubt the real Henry VIII would have gotten down to this level to talk to a child.
Mimi and her children are most often found parading around in white costumes, walking on stilts and connected to one another by long white strands of cloth or ribbons, but occasionally they come down to earth. Here she and what I presume is her eldest, Zizi, are blowing soap bubbles using their hands to form the soapy globes.
Obviously I was having WAY too much fun with taking way too many pictures, so I'll stop here, and if you are interested in more of the photos, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/ejoyce2/RenaissanceFestivalSeptember6#
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