Maryland Renaissance

The Maryland Renaissance Festival returns to its sylvan setting in Crownsville Saturday, set to dazzle, delight, challenge, and entertain on Saturdays, Sundays, and Labor Day through Oct. 16. Elizabethan music, crafts, imagery and history are there for the sharing, off I-97 between routes 450 and 178.Admission to the Renaissance Festival is $11.95 for adults under 62, and $9.25 for those over. Children 7 to 15 are $4.95, and those under 7 are free.Information: 266-7304, or (800) 296-7304.

The Maryland Renaissance Festival opens Saturday to the delight of bikers and crafters, Ph.D.s and preschoolers, bachelorette partiers and IT geeks, period-music scholars and mead guzzlers. If it seems hard to figure why a pretend 16th-century English village draws such a diverse crowd, try separating the professional pretenders from the amateurs. Even the people who put on the annual event in Crownsville have trouble with that one since so many patrons come in costume or rent Renaissance get-ups at the fair.

Fred Nelson was sweating. He had 15 minutes to catch his breath, change into royal garb and prepare to make the biggest entrance of his life: as King Henry VIII at the annual Maryland Renaissance Festival, which opened yesterday in Crownsville. "The only thing that has me nervous is my shoulder," he said. "It's twitching, and I have a sword fight later. " The festival, which started 25 years ago in Columbia and moved to Crownsville as it grew, is one of many such fairs throughout the country that pay homage to Shakespeare's era with costumes, shows, craft vendors and general revelry.

For someone who spends so much time indulging in fantastical merriments, Paula Peterka sure has her feet on the ground. During the past 17 years, Peterka, a Crownsville wife and mother, has played ever more elaborate roles in the annual medieval pretend-a-thon known as the Maryland Renaissance Festival: wayward juggler, camp follower, a social-climbing countess named Margaret Donnington, even Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. But when it came time to be wed in her own life, she was as real as a leg of mutton.

For someone who spends so much time indulging in fantastical merriments, Paula Peterka sure has her feet on the ground. Over the past 17 years, Peterka, a Crownsville wife and mother, has played ever more elaborate roles in the annual medieval pretend-a-thon known as the Maryland Renaissance Festival: wayward juggler, camp follower, a social-climbing countess named Margaret Donnington, even Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. But when it came time to be wed in her own life, she was as real as a leg of mutton.

In the basement of Oella Mill - through the chain-link fence and down steep, rickety steps, beyond the gaping concrete doorway and just around the corner from the half-finished walls - is a fantasy-fed factory where jousting and dragons are part of daily life. But the brothers who run it don't deal in dreams. They deal mostly in weapons. Inside, in the damp, stifling heat, Kerry and Matt Stagmer hammer swords from sheets of steel, wrap rapier handles in leather, forge medieval-style armor and piece together intricate jewelry from platinum and gold.

If ye desireth to dine on turkey legs or see noble knights joust on the field of honor, get thee to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Today marks the start of the 30th anniversary of the event, which runs weekends in Crownsville through Oct. 22. If you go The Maryland Renaissance Festival opens today and runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekends and Labor Day through Oct. 22. Tickets are $17 for adults, $15 for seniors, $8 for those ages 7-15 and free for...

AT THE ENTRANCE to the Maryland Renaissance Festival, the sign above the gaping arches reads: "Prepare thyself for merriment." Would-be sorcerers and wizards adorned in capes, gowns and hats lose their urban identities for a day as they arrive to admire minstrels, dance in the square or try their hand at ax throwing.And this weekend, as on all others, after a day spent mingling with actors dressed as knights, ladies, lords and beggars, visitors also will pass sign that says "Until another day, fare thee well."

When Nick Roberts went to his first Maryland Renaissance Festival four years ago, and took up the mallet for the "feat of strength" known as Thor's Hammer, he could barely drive the metal disk halfway up the tower toward the bell. Sunday, the Centreville, Va., native, who goes to the fair every year, heaved and grunted like a woodsman felling trees, ringing the bell eight times out of 10 as his fiancee, Tasha Harris, looked on. "I've been working out a bit," said Roberts, sweating under the afternoon sun that shone on about 13,000 boot- and bodice-clad revelers on Day 2 of the annual fair, which opened Saturday in Crownsville and runs every weekend through Oct. 25. "It helps you raise your game."

Fred Nelson is beginning his sixth season portraying King Henry VIII in the imaginary village of Revel Grove at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. The festival runs weekends through Oct. 21 in Crownsville. Outside of Revel Grove, Nelson has acted in several other venues, most recently in the title role of The Nerd at Baltimore's Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre. He is a Glen Burnie-based video editor and voiceover announcer for several national TV networks and corporate clients. His PBS documentary 9 to 5 No Longer airs nationally this fall.

For someone who spends so much time indulging in fantastical merriments, Paula Peterka sure has her feet on the ground. Over the past 17 years, Peterka, a Crownsville wife and mother, has played ever more elaborate roles in the annual medieval pretend-a-thon known as the Maryland Renaissance Festival: wayward juggler, camp follower, a social-climbing countess named Margaret Donnington, even Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. But when it came time to be wed in her own life, she was as real as a leg of mutton.

When Nick Roberts went to his first Maryland Renaissance Festival four years ago, and took up the mallet for the "feat of strength" known as Thor's Hammer, he could barely drive the metal disk halfway up the tower toward the bell. Sunday, the Centreville, Va., native, who goes to the fair every year, heaved and grunted like a woodsman felling trees, ringing the bell eight times out of 10 as his fiancee, Tasha Harris, looked on. "I've been working out a bit," said Roberts, sweating under the afternoon sun that shone on about 13,000 boot- and bodice-clad revelers on Day 2 of the annual fair, which opened Saturday in Crownsville and runs every weekend through Oct. 25. "It helps you raise your game."

Fred Nelson is beginning his sixth season portraying King Henry VIII in the imaginary village of Revel Grove at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. The festival runs weekends through Oct. 21 in Crownsville. Outside of Revel Grove, Nelson has acted in several other venues, most recently in the title role of The Nerd at Baltimore's Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre. He is a Glen Burnie-based video editor and voiceover announcer for several national TV networks and corporate clients. His PBS documentary 9 to 5 No Longer airs nationally this fall.

If ye desireth to dine on turkey legs or see noble knights joust on the field of honor, get thee to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Today marks the start of the 30th anniversary of the event, which runs weekends in Crownsville through Oct. 22. If you go The Maryland Renaissance Festival opens today and runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekends and Labor Day through Oct. 22. Tickets are $17 for adults, $15 for seniors, $8 for those ages 7-15 and free for...

David Duvall volunteered from the audience for what he thought would be a harmless stunt at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. He let a member of a flame-throwing act put protective gel on his shaved head and light it on fire. Just an act. But the flames singed him and somehow jumped to the face of his 2-year-old daughter, Autumn, who was standing beside him. The two were rushed to a nearby hospital, where they were treated; Autumn suffered second-degree burns. Yesterday, the Anne Arundel County Fire Department opened an investigation into the incident and ordered the festival to stop using any fire in performances at the Crownsville grounds, said Lt. Frank Fennell, a spokesman for the county fire marshal.

Fred Nelson was sweating. He had 15 minutes to catch his breath, change into royal garb and prepare to make the biggest entrance of his life: as King Henry VIII at the annual Maryland Renaissance Festival, which opened yesterday in Crownsville. "The only thing that has me nervous is my shoulder," he said. "It's twitching, and I have a sword fight later. " The festival, which started 25 years ago in Columbia and moved to Crownsville as it grew, is one of many such fairs throughout the country that pay homage to Shakespeare's era with costumes, shows, craft vendors and general revelry.

Rogues, wenches, monks, fair maidens, outlaws, squires, princes and princesses -- all oblivious to the heat -- sashayed about the muddy, straw-covered streets of the 16th-century Tudor English village as a group of peasants danced with abandon near the town square.Visitors to this temporary land of merriment and mayhem, re-created in Anne Arundel County, were respectfully addressed milady, milord, lass or lad yesterday -- as Maryland Renaissance Festival tradition dictates -- by decree of the king and queen.

David Duvall volunteered from the audience for what he thought would be a harmless stunt at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. He let a member of a flame-throwing act put protective gel on his shaved head and light it on fire. Just an act. But the flames singed him and somehow jumped to the face of his 2-year-old daughter, Autumn, who was standing beside him. The two were rushed to a nearby hospital, where they were treated; Autumn suffered second-degree burns. Yesterday, the Anne Arundel County Fire Department opened an investigation into the incident and ordered the festival to stop using any fire in performances at the Crownsville grounds, said Lt. Frank Fennell, a spokesman for the county fire marshal.

In the basement of Oella Mill - through the chain-link fence and down steep, rickety steps, beyond the gaping concrete doorway and just around the corner from the half-finished walls - is a fantasy-fed factory where jousting and dragons are part of daily life. But the brothers who run it don't deal in dreams. They deal mostly in weapons. Inside, in the damp, stifling heat, Kerry and Matt Stagmer hammer swords from sheets of steel, wrap rapier handles in leather, forge medieval-style armor and piece together intricate jewelry from platinum and gold.

Tis time for all fair maidens and handsome gents to gather round ye old village to toast the grand old days of yore. And if thou lovest to speak like this, clothe thyself in complete garments befittin' the occasion or simply stick a plume in your bonnet and carry thee down to Crownsville.Thou wilt be in good company, for the Maryland Renaissance Festival 'tis the place to be.M'lady Beth Fabel is a regular at the Renaissance Festival, for she has been coming for many a year. She is one of the Thrir Venstri Foetr dancers and was twirling to melodious melodies as fair onlookers clapped their approval.