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A review of the Maryland Faerie Festival
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Don't miss next year's Maryland Faerie Festival, www.marylandfaeriefestival.org, a two-day festival featuring live music, vendors, workshops, activities for the kids and grown-ups alike. The cost was only $10 for adults and $5 for kids 3-11. You got $1 the price of admission if you arrived in costume, so my daughter and I strapped on our wings and took to the air. OK, we took to Saturday morning traffic on I-95, but we were in high spirits.
By Guest Writer, Vanessa Leavitt |
When we pulled into the parking area, we saw a faerie astride a unicorn sauntering toward the front gate. My daughter and I quickly vacated our utterly mundane mode of transportation, (Toyota), and headed for the entrance. As we passed through, my daughter was given instructions for a quest by none other than the Faerie King and Queen. The quest was to find the nine pieces of treasure hidden among the activities and vendors at the festival, then to go through the labyrinth to receive the final prize.
We hit the kid's area first, where there was a sign stating, “This is a run about wildly making lots and lots of noise zone!” Indeed it was! Kids, grown-ups, faeries and even a dragon pranced about in the field. The air was filled with thousands of bubbles as the sun finally broke through the overcast sky. Suddenly, we weren't dorky suburbanites dressed as faeries...we WERE faeries and we were among friends.
Kaia and I made our way over to the wishing tree where there were several strips of cloth laid out. Another fae lady invited us to write our wishes on the cloth and then tie it to any of the trees in the small cove. After we were done, we stayed for a spell and created a faerie house out of found objects in the woods. Sticks, leaves, rocks, moss...all came together nicely for a sweet little faerie home.
But we dare not linger, after all, we had a quest to embark upon...
There was some difficulty figuring out where to start the quest, as there are with most quests, from King Arthur on down, but as my daughter got her face painted with stars and sparkles, we were informed that we had arrived at the starting point. A pair of flags would mark each location where another piece of treasure was to be found. We were able to stretch the quest out for the better part of the day, being side tracked by belly dancers, bubble wands, vendors galore and crafts. At the crafts table in the kid area, one could, for a small fee ($1-$5) create your very own take home craft. These included, faerie dolls, treasure boxes, tote bags and of course, wings!
After a very brief lunch break, we continued our quest, which lead to more pieces of treasure, and more belly dancers, balloon animals and a sea turtle. Yes, a sea turtle with a house on her back. She was quite a sight and the kids who surrounded her enjoyed opening little windows on the house to reveal everything from a kissable frog prince to jokes and other surprises.
We would see the sea turtle's fae companion later in the day at the Acorn Stage for the Dragon Scales and Fairy Tales show. We had returned to the kid's area to continue our quest when it was announced that the dragon egg would soon be hatching. Naturally, we had to be a part. We pulled up a toadstool and sat with an eager group of other faeries, while we waited for the egg to hatch. The Queen Faerie informed us that we needed to help the egg hatch by saying the magic words. Abra-cadabra? No. Presto-Chango? No way. Please? Out hatched the “baby” dragon! Incredibly precocious, the dragon and faerie traded jokes and then told a story about how we should be nice to everybody, even if they are different. Great lesson and one the kids all enjoyed.
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My daughter and I continued our quest, but the day was coming to an end, and after Kaia's fierce first attempt at a Maypole dance, we decided to get an ice cream cone and head back home.
There was a ton we didn't get to, the workshops, many of the musical acts, which we heard and were excellent, but didn't actually sit down and watch, but it was a full day. Had we not had plans on Sunday, we would have gone for day two; it was just so much fun. At one point, Kaia looked at me and said, “Mommy! We're in a fairy tale!” And we definitely were. We did have to go back to our mundane lives, but so far we've been able to hold on to some of the magic and are already making plans for next year.
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