‘A great family event’: 28th Las Vegas Renaissance Festival draws big crowds — PHOTOS
Jon Snow was lying in the grass checking his cellphone.
Well, it wasn’t one of the main characters from “Game of Thrones,” but it looked like him.
Same outfit too. But this was hot and sunny Las Vegas, not the brutally cold Winterfell as seen in the popular HBO series.
“Yeah, it was the easiest one to do,” said Alexis Nunez, 29, a local with similar features to Snow, or rather, the actor who played him, Kit Harrington. “It was a no brainer.”
Nunez, who joked that he was dressed as “Juan Snow,” was one of thousands of people to descend on Sunset Park for the 28th annual Renaissance Festival on Sunday.
The park, which had been turned into a medieval community, was full of attendees dressed as elves, wenches, fairies, trolls, plague doctors, royals, knights and more.
Larry Owen, 37, of Las Vegas, was dressed as a large, scary goat-like character that had children gathering beside him for pictures. Owen tried to explain the appeal of the fest.
“I think it’s a little bit of time to escape from the normal Las Vegas experience, probably,” Owen said.
Alex Adair, 27, of Las Vegas, was dressed as a fairy.
“I love it. It’s really fun. The vendors are great,” Adair said. “The heat is the hardest part, I think. Trying to get through it.”
Accompanied by a group of about 10 fairies, Adair was trying to enjoy the day after an emotionally difficult, traumatizing week in which her friend Maris DiGiovanni was killed in Thursday’s stabbing spree on the Las Vegas Strip.
“We’re kind of all here trying to shine light and bring joy and be with friends and celebrate and not just be sad,” Adair said.
Tipsy McCracken and Bawdy O’Dare performed their self-described “inappropriate pub sing” in the beer tent, replete with lyrics and adult-oriented innuendo that made the grownups laugh and, thankfully, went over the kids’ heads.
McCracken, whose real name is Kelly Sheehan, 50, and O’Dare, whose name is Michelle Jackson, 45, perform what they described as “very old pirate shanties” with lyrics that they sometimes alter to make people laugh.
“This has been great. I think it’s the busiest I’ve seen. I don’t know since when, but it’s been a while,” Sheehan said. “Yesterday especially was crazy, and we were surprised today when we came in, how many people were here.
“We always want the fair to succeed,” Sheehan said. “It’s a great family event and we just don’t have enough of those here in Vegas.”
Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson @reviewjournal.com or 561-324-6421. Follow @BrettClarkson_ on Twitter.
