To wrap up my series on King Richard’s 30th anniversary faire, I leave you with a few more images.
One of my favorite costumes…Puss – In – Boots
My Favorite Jousting Picture. I think it captures the speed and movement.
Pensive knight
Stilt People
Now where did we put those beer steins?
Spock’s little Sister?
Kitty Kisses?
Snowy Tiger
And that’s a wrap for another year.
Well I can’t just end the tales from the Court without telling you about the last joust of the day.
This was the Joust to the Death. I have no idea why all four knights had to joust when the challenge had been issued just between the two main characters but when I arrived at the field for Part 3, all four knights were present and accounted for.
No wooden rings or jousting dummys this time. The knights and their steeds squared off, lowered their lances and charged. 
There were several glancing blows before the first knight was unseated.
That’s when the fighting moved to the ground.
That’s also when it got really confusing.Something happened that I missed because the “Bad Knight” was winning when all three of the other knights came after him. 
There was much yelling and I couldn’t make out what they were saying but as the scene wound down it became clear that the “Good Night” was cleared of the accusations and that the real thief (surprise, surprise) was really the “Bad Knight”. He was dragged off to be put in chains.
The Good Knight took his bows and no one died. The crowd began to disperse and make its way to the exits. It was a really good day.
Well that about wraps up my posts of my day at King Richard’s Faire. I have a few more images to share and then it’s on to the next adventure.
The Knights and Jousting at King Richard’s Faire certainly follows the most ritualistic formula. 
The “ring master” announced the King who mounts the viewing stand,
then announces the Knights who gallop in and take a run around the field before lining up in front of the King to pledge their loyalty. Then the King commands the games to begin and each Knight heads to his place in the field.
On command they race full tilt at a jousting dummy or spear rings that are thrown in the air by their squires. These are the games and sort of set the stage for the last meet in the afternoon when the “real” joust takes place.
Every year there is a back story to the jousts. It is played out in 3 parts. The morning games lay the groundwork and determine the “champion.” Usually it is also when you find out what the thing is that went wrong. Maybe it’s two Knights vying for the same Maiden or this year the Gold Prize for the games was missing.
Since I was lingering at the Tiger Stage so I could get the picture with the hawk, I missed this show which was called “The Challenge of the Champions”.
It was now 2:30 and I was ready at the field. The title of this installment was “The King’s Tournament”. This was when I was brought up to speed with the story.
When the Knights were introduced the “villain” Knight was argumentative and accusatory. It was pretty clear he was the “bad guy” but he was also the most popular. He got loads of cheers.
Two other Knights seemed to be there just to fill out the cast. They rode and performed the stunts but with little banter.
The last Knight to be brought in was announced as the Champion. I assume he must have won the morning Challenge to earn the title. It was clear the Bad Knight had it in for the new Knight even accusing him of stealing the prize.
As the Tournament progressed the war of words intensified and “Bad Knight” was disqualified for cheating. Finally “bad Knight” accused “Champion” of the theft and challenged him to a fight to the death.
The King allowed the challenge and everyone was to return to the Tournament field for the last installment of the story the “Joust to the Death.”
The dismissed Knights galloped out of the arena but not before Bad Knight attempted to engage Good Knight (yes, I know, bad pun) in some hand- to -hand.
As the crowd began to disperse the squires returned with the horses, now unsaddled. Immediately each of the horses picked out a favorite place and dropped and rolled. You could just tell how good that felt to them. 🙂 Nothing like a good dust bath to get ride of that sweat.
I’d seen as much as I wanted but I was curious about the afternoon joust so I wandered back to the picnic area where I spent the afternoon watching the crowds until it was time for the last installment.
After lunch I made my way back toward the Tournament Field.
It was still early but I wasn’t that interested in the Mud Wrestlers or the Cirque de Sewer. As I walked by the Tiger Stage a lone performer was calling to the crowd to come and watch “Jacques” zee Whipper. We would not be sorry..or so he said. So with time to spare I slipped into a seat to see what this was all about.
Turns out that “Jack the Whipper” was a show using whips. My first thought was a medieval Indiana Jones but no. No adventure here. It was a very basic but silly show. “Jack” had a handlebar mustache drawn on his face and spoke with a very heavy fake french accent…when he remembered to use the accent . His lapses were deliberate, I’m sure. 🙂
He explained the difference in whips and cracked the various ones so we could hear the different sounds. He wrapped himself up in them and managed to break uncooked spaghetti that he held in his own mouth. When he was speaking and had to refer to himself, he had an audience member honk a horn…Jack zee Whipper (honk honk).
Of course he had a volunteer come up and hold a piece if spaghetti and he whipped that too. Between you and me I think that audience member volunteer was a “plant”. The liability would be too much if it was a real audience member. It was all entertaining but I was anxious to get to the Tournament Field.
Just as I was about to leave “Jacques” brought out a bucket of gasoline. He had a whip soaking in it. As he babbled on about the danger he lit a lighter and whoa! The whip was on fire! That made us all sit up and take notice. His antics with the flaming whip were impressive to say the least. Everything was moving so fast that it was hard to get a shot without motion blur but here’s what I caught.
Quite the finale and now (drum roll please) it’s really time to head to the tournament field for the jousting. This was the original reason for my visit.
I climbed the hill next to the tournament filed for an unobstructed view…Perfect. The king was just arriving. He hadn’t climbed to his viewing area yet. I’d made it in time…just!
There were costumed players urging the crowd to cheer for their champion. 
Each of the 4 quarters were assigned a different knight to cheer for.
The king stepped to the front of the podium, the gates opened and the Knights came galloping in!
Let the Jousting Begin !
I wandered around the grounds At King Richard’s Faire to get familiar with the layout working my way back toward the Tournament Field. Right next to the field was the Tiger Stage. I love this show. They have had it every year that I’ve been to King Richard’s Faire and to me it is the highlight. I love the animals.
Since it was the first show of the day it wasn’t too crowded yet and I was able to get a seat fairly close to the stage. I’ve almost always been in the back before so this was a treat.
The show is put on by a conservation group. They have been featured on all sorts of shows and provide animals for the movies like Dr. Doolittle and Ace Ventura to name just a couple of fairly well known movies. I’ve seen documentaries about them on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic.
This year’s show really pushed the conservation angle more than it has in the past. Although I thought it bordered on being “preachy” I happen to agree with what they had to say.
The name of the organization is T.I.G.E.R.S (The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species.). They have a web page www.tigerfriends.com and they offer opportunities to get up close and personal with their animals at their facility in Myrtle Beach. www.myrtlebeachsafari.com. I had never heard of this being allowed any place except Tiger Island in Australia so to have a place in the US is awesome!
The show started with film clips on a big screen TV which was very interesting and enjoyable. It centered on a heartwarming story about a 6-year-old orangutan and an old hound dog named Roscoe.
Then out came the parade of cats. Bengal tigers, Royal White Tigers, Snowy White Tigers and a couple of very rare tigers that (shame on me) I forget what they are called.
You can see the difference in their markings and coat color.
They had a lively little cat that I think was some kind of rare lynx.
It was easy to see why small children are banned from the first 3 rows.
This little cat was really alert and fascinated by any movement from the audience.
Finally the last big cat was introduced.
It was Hercules a world record size cat. He is a Liger. A liger is a hybrid between a Lion and a Tiger. The father is a Lion and the mother a Tiger. If it was the other way around he would have been much smaller and called a tigon. Ligers, unlike many hybrids, are not sterile so Hercules could father a bunch of little ligers.
He is really huge. 900 pounds and eleven feet tall. All the cats have their claws and teeth so must be treated with utmost respect. One swipe with a paw and those handlers would be toast. These are wild animals.
All of these cats are raised with humans from birth (they are also are well fed) so they have no need to have a human snack, still they have the instincts of a predator so again, small children are not allowed in the front rows where a child’s quick actions could trigger an attack. You will also see that they are being given a bottle when they are on stage. That is milk and the animals consider it a treat. It keeps their attention centered on the trainers.
The show was narrated by none other than my friend the Falconer.
To raise money for their organization, they had books, stuffed animals and DVD’s for sale after the show. As I was considering the DVD they told me about another option, one I couldn’t refuse. Around to the side of the stage they were bringing out the hawk I’d seen earlier and a European Eagle Owl.
For a fee you could have your picture taken with one of the birds.
It was a hard choice but I decided on the hawk. The Falconer told me it is a Harris’s Hawk. He said it is the only hawk that actually enjoys human company.
As I held out my forearm for the hawk to step on she let out a loud sound similar to a caw. Then hopped on my arm. It was almost like she was saying hello. This was definitely the high point of the day for me. After the picture I was allowed to pet her and she calmly accepted my gentle strokes before the falconer took her back to her post.
I missed most of the Challenge of the Champions that was going on at the Tournament Field but I really didn’t care. This opportunity was well worth it.
Tomorrow’s post will be a little break from King Richard’s Faire but I’ll have the rest of that experience for you next week.