Festival of Legends Report

This weekend is the 3^rd annual Festival of Legends in south Chapel Hill, NC. I went for the first time, and enjoyed the afternoon. This is sort of a mini-Rennaissance fair, with booths setup selling jewelry, costuming, personal and house décor of all sorts. Also food trucks – reasonably priced. And performances of everything from jousting (which I missed by minutes, apparently), to musicians, to armed combat (mostly sword-fighting).

The real fun is walking around and seeing all the wonderful costumes! Everything from fairy and fantastic to medieval armour to Rennaissance styles. And of course the simply far out.

My favorite events of the day were: 

The Bird Man, moving around the Festival on a large ball and juggling everything from eggs to flaming torches	The “monks” – which reminded me very much of the spirits in Spirited Away

Wendy Mehndi’s henna pavilion, where a friend and I enjoyed getting henna’d

Seeing so many familiar faces! There is a lot of crossover between the sf/f convention crowd and the ran faire crowd. I went solo, but immediately ran into friends and enjoyed migrating from group to group through the afternoon.

Tasting a "flight" of five different meads from the "heavenly" Starlight Mead: My favorites, the Traditional Semi Sweet and the Meadjito (I bought a bottle!), the interesting sweet peach and spicy apple, and the slap-your-tongue Kickin' Cranberry Orange (with jalapeño).

A familiar discussion with many of my friends is the introvert/extrovert balance. For years I considered the debate about being an “extroverted introvert” or an “introverted extrovert”, and I think I finally found my answer. It has to do with whether being social fundamentally charges or drains you – no matter how much you enjoy it.  I enjoy these social events immensely, but they drain my energy reserves. So, I confidently claim my role as an extroverted introvert.

The Festival continues on Sunday, April 27^th, so if you’re inclined, I wholeheartedly recommend it!

Time writing	20 minutes
April word count	12,070