The Faire opens at 11:00 . I arrived just as the gates were opening. On the stage outside I saw one of the new additions…bagpipers!
No mournful wailing for these pipers, the music was lively and the performers even more so as they jumped up and down as if to emphasis what they were playing.
I took my time wandering around outside. I spotted falconer talking to a group of faire goers. As if on que the bird on his shoulder spread her wings. 
I gasped out “Beautiful” and his reply was “Thanks. The bird’s not bad either.” Good comeback ! 🙂
Inside the gates it was very shady and dark.
Just in the door was a young woman with a cage full of rats. The sign on the rats’ cage read Cirque de Sewer. The Cirque de Sewer show was at the “Mud Pit” and she was there to promote it. A lot of people we giving her a wide berth but I thought it was kind of fascinating. There was all this noise and confusion going on around her and the rats seemed to be completely un fazed. There was a little chair in the cage and one of the rats sat there quite calmly.
Only a few steps further 2 entertainers were circling in a dueling circle.
Before they got down to serious business they rounded up the kids in the audience to be their “seconds”.
The costumes of the faire goers rivaled some of the actors.
This section of the grounds has a lot of shops.
People were renting costumes and souvenir shopping as the made their way over toward the tournament field.
The first show of the day would be at 12:00. It’s important to get to each of the shows at the tournament field as they tell a story that continues through the day. If you miss one of the shows you won’t fully understand what’s going on in the next show.
I had been stalling by the duels but they were still just warming up their audience. I decided I’d seen enough of that and began to move on.