The smell of smoked turkey legs and sweet frying funnel cake wafted over gypsies with jingling skirts, young girls in Renaissance costumes and men in pirate outfits armed with half-drunken brown bottles.
The annual Hoggetowne Medieval Faire began Saturday and will continue this weekend.
Saturday, pine trees shaded a village of vendors while more than 14,000 people wandered through the fairgrounds.
Vendors sold cow horns, wooden wands and fairy wings. A harp’s notes floated over the chatter of the crowd.
“It’s a complete cultural immersion,” said Mead Bowen, a UF alumnus and an actor in the fair’s afternoon show.
His show depicts a school for medieval heroes and a school for villains battling to pick a king. A crowd five people deep surrounded the semicircular stage to watch the actors fight with dulled swords.
Bowen, who played the chivalry instructor for the heroes school, said the fair itself isn’t historically accurate, but it wouldn’t be as much fun if it was.
“It’s half Arthurian studies and half pop culture,” he said.
Bowen wore a burgundy costume-store tunic, black pants and a handmade white shirt with frilly sleeves because his character is “kind of a girly guy.”
He said the fair is a great way to let loose and be another person for a while.
“If that isn’t helpful sometimes, I’m not sure what is,” he said.
Raina Brown, 16, thrust her arms forward and pretended to cast a spell on a friend. A man dressed as King Arthur walked by.
“Oh, King Arthur!” she said and bowed as low as she could.
Brown’s job is to be a sprite: a high-pitched, energetic, “annoying” magical creature.
Her first year as a fair volunteer was a year she’ll never forget, she said.
“Oh my goodness, it’s so much fun,” Brown said with a smile.
Stella Humphlett, 5, is a product of Hoggetowne. Her parents, Christine and John Humphlett, met while working at the fair 11 years ago.
Dressed in a daffodil-yellow dress and tiara, Stella said she wasn’t afraid to get on Judy, an elephant that gave rides to visitors.
“It’s great,” said Christine Humphlett. “We come every year.”
