Re-creation of medieval times delights fans of Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival

Vendors peddled wares of the times as food on sticks and other delicacies wafted past dueling matches, sing­alongs and a jousting tournament Sunday at the annual Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival in South Huntingdon.

Scott Walton of Blairsville was among the dozens of actors and performers draped in medieval garb for the festival, which runs through the end of September on a 22-acre site featuring outbuildings designed to replicate 16th-century England.

Playing out a festival storyline, Walton, in the role of King Henry VIII, spoke of how he’d spend the next month turning his heir away from his fascination with a buccaneer’s life.

“Our annual progress came to a stop here for a festival they have with the peasants, but I have a problem with pirates,” he said while surveying his kingdom. “My son, Fitzroy, wants to be a pirate and not a knight.”

Kristy Ekiss, who has served as the festival’s operations manager for the past 15 years, said interest in medieval times has grown over the past decade.

“This is an idea that started in the 1970s, and now these festivals are in every state in the country. Most are independently owned,” Ekiss said.

Actors and performers aren’t the only ones in costume. Visitors, too, dress up to fit in with the theme.

Sadie Adams, 24, of Finleyville and her friend Avea Karmann of Pittsburgh’s Greenfield neighborhood came dressed in period garb.

“It’s one of only a few times, other than Halloween, we can dress up,” said Adams, who described her costume as Sleeping Beauty “during the first half of the movie.”

Josh Brubaker of Bellevue was in full regalia dressed as a forest wizard.

“This is the right time and the right place. I can’t imagine coming here and not dressing up,” Brubaker said.

His hand-sewn outfit started out as a green costume and evolved over the years to include capes and a walking stick covered in flowers. During the week, Brubaker runs a beer shop. On late summer and early fall weekends, he’s a wizard.

“I try to get out here once a weekend while it’s running,” Brubaker said.

Walton has performed at the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival since its start more than a decade ago and as the king for the past five years.

He became a performer after first attending the festival as a patron, he said.

When not portraying the king, Walton, who grew up in Greensburg, acts in community theater and has had roles as an extra in movies shot in the Pittsburgh region.

He said his involvement has grown over the years, and he now helps to craft the king’s plot that serves as the story for each year’s festival.

“The best thing ever is to see children light up when realizing they will be a knight,” Walton said.

Montreal native Etienne McGinley is making his first appearance this year at the festival. McGinley’s acrobatic routine includes balancing tricks, knife juggling and other shows of dexterity he said he learned while working as a circus clown and performing on cruise ships.

McGinley has worked at other renaissance festivals, including one operated by the same owners in Colorado, and said he was looking forward to the Western Pennsylvania crowd.

“Everyone is so laid-back here,” McGinley said.

Across the village, Mike Hauser of Indiana, along with his wife, Christine, and their 11-year-old son, Devon, dressed as peasants from the medieval period and marveled as horse-riding knights jousted before the king and queen.

“I’ve always been into this period,” Mike Hauser said.

His wife added: “Sometimes you feel you were born in the wrong time.”