Bringing back the Renaissance Festival to Hammond Castle
Abbadia Mare Renaissance Festival
Bringing the Renaissance festival back to Hammond Castle
By: Gia Volterra de Saulnier
You don’t have to imagine an amazingly beautiful castle against an ocean view; you can actually go visit a real one in Gloucester, Massachusetts called Hammond Castle (http://www.hammondcastle.org). Hammond Castle was created by John Hays Hammond Jr. who built this incredible medieval style castle according to the website: “in between the years 1926 and 1929 to serve both as his home and as a backdrop for his collection of Roman, medieval, and Renaissance artifacts”.
John Hays Hammond Jr. was one of America’s premier inventors who patented over 800 ideas with 400 inventions. One of the most famous today is the Remote Control over radio waves (so ladies, yes, you can thank John Hays Hammond Jr. for the Remote Control). He also was a bit of unconventional person that loved throwing parties at this Castle of which were sometimes Renaissance themed, where people dressed in Renaissance or Medieval attire to come to these parties.
To describe what a Renaissance Festival entails is difficult to put on paper, but mostly it is live interactive theater with some live Medieval or Celtic music, a little history, magic with some demonstrations of how things were done in that time period. However, don’t expect Historical accuracy, as most Renaissance Festivals are done with a lot of humor and puns all around.
There you will see actors dressed in full attire of that time period as they greet you and your families. You can watch magic shows or see live fire eaters while perusing many hand crafted goods from art, fiber, pottery, stained glass and much more! You can also have your small ones join in on the fun as they watch Knights battle it out with swords or Fairies wandering around with glittery wings. For this festival, you can expect to eat fantastic food from Nourish Lexington (http://www.nourishlexington.com) who will have chicken wings and ribs, and some vegetarian choices as well. There will also be snacks available such as delicious brownies from Cucina Dolce and Kettle Corn.
To bring back the Renaissance Festival it is important to keep the history alive for Hammond Castle, which is why they contacted Phinn Volt Enterprises to create Abbadia Mare Festival. Phinn Volt Enterprises consists of Richard and Gia Saulnier, a husband and wife team, along with an remarkable crew of about 30 people, have been busy at work getting ready to put on a fantastic show called Abbadia Mare Renaissance Festival, Abbadia Mare was the original name of the Castle that John Hays Hammond Jr. came up with to reflect the “Abbey by the Sea” buildings in Europe.
According to the website http://www.abbadiamarefestival.com “The Abbadia Mare Festival is a fundraiser for the Hammond Castle Museum. On July 23rd and 24th of 2011, we welcome you to please come and support our festival. Perhaps you can be a part of our Human chess Match, or cheer on our knights as they do live steel combat.”
So far, they have 20 wonderful performers such as Misfits of Avalon (http://www.misfitsofavalon.com) , The Neville Companye (a Knight troupe that does hand to hand combat) (http://www.rainasmind.com/neville/index.shtml) , Diabolis In Musica (http://www.diabolisinmusica.com/index.html) a Medieval instrumental group that plays authentic medieval type instruments (very engaging as well) along with so many others.
There will be many arts and hand made crafts from such vendors as: Ironwood Artisans http://www.ironwoodartisans.com, Parrish Relics http://www.parrishrelics.com, Wulfemoon Studios http://www.wulfemoonstudios.com and PupDog Pottery http://www.pupdogpottery.com to name just a few.
There is plenty of lodging available and if you go to http://www.abbadiamarefestival.com you can find a couple of hotels that have deals for this festival.
Abbadia Mare Renaissance Festival will be from 11 am to 5 pm per day and tickets are $12.00 for adults and $7.00 for kids from 5 - 12. Kids under 4 will be free. Tours of the castle will also be available.
For more information about this Renaissance Festival, please visit their website at http://www.abbadiamarefestival.com