The Renaissance movement spanned a few centuries, spread into several countries, and contained a vast spectrum of ingredients—from bejeweled maidens, merriment, and rhythmic prancing to darkness, imprisoned lovers, hellish deaths, and just about anything else you could imagine. And recently in Bonney Lake, the Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire celebrated the living shit out of all of it.

If you missed it, go next year. The annual event is crammed with jousting knights, dirt roads, plastic skeletons, smoked turkey drumsticks, hay-bale seating, endless duetting lute-lyre jams, fake accents, and good times. Many attendees wear spotlessly replicated medieval ensembles, while others pair Renaissance basics with neon feather boas or athletic toe shoes, presumably to make their looks more "now." Watch for tapestry unicorns encrusted with pearls, tri-corner hats, laces threaded through eyelets, knee-high boots with floppy cuffs, and raw leather tunics. Peasant blouses are a big hit, too. The men leave them untucked, while the women layer theirs under corsets that simultaneously cinch their torsos and shift their breasts, causing the latter to flatten into strange shapes or bubble vividly upward.

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