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Directions: This event is held at Reaves Park 2501 South Jenkins Avenue in Norman, Oklahoma 73072, just 17 miles south of OKC on I-35. The University of Oklahoma Athletic Department will be charging $5 per car for parking at Lloyd Noble Center. Handicapped parking is available on the park grounds IF you have a tag. If you do have a handicap hang tag, have it ready to show for better spaces. Parking is not quite enough, so get there early if you have a hard time parking your chariot. There are six stages with continuous performances, more than 35 food vendors including the giant turkey leg. You can see that mysterious creature called the elephant, and also the camel -- even ride one if you have the nerve. You can see more than 200 arts and crafts booths, most of the vendors dressed in their native period costume. Visitors too are encouraged to don fabriques of Olden Times. Approximately 16,000 students can be expected to attend the fair on any one day - and they too love to play strolling parts. Test your skills with the crossbow or see how true you can throw a battle axe. For your protection police and deputies will be patrolling the grounds relentlessly; some are in medieval disguise.
Games for all ages might include camel and elephant rides a hand-cranked Medieval flying swing carousel, ceramic painting, wax hands, face-painting, candle-making, sand art and a carousel driven by llamas, zebras and ponies. This unique living history fair now features over 200 art and craft booths, food, games for all ages, educational exhibits, craft demonstrations and a vast array of family entertainment. Colorful performers will entertain you in the true style of the Middle Ages with minstrels, jugglers, dancers, puppet theater, madrigal choirs, armored knights in combat and Scottish bagpipes. Witness jousting tournaments with knights on horseback, and Human Chess Games. You can expect the Fair's king and queen and their Court to greet your family and other visitors while strolling amongst the colorful streets. There are countless other INTERACTIVE street characters to wonder at, such as a falconer, beggar, gypsies, King Arthur, mermaids and strolling minstrels. You can walk right up and start talking with any of them. They also interact with each other in impromptu situations sparked by the audience. |
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Medieval weddings are performed in the Enchanted Forest on Saturday and Sunday. Performances are continuous on the Unicorn and Gryphon stages, Gypsy Camp and Enchanted Forest, as well as on the "streets" of the Fair. Demonstrations and activities will be presented by the Society for Creative Anachronism, the Arthurian Order of Avalon, Mummer's Guild, The Realm, Highland Way, and the Medieval Equestrian Guild. Craft demonstrations of blacksmithing, chainmaille making, soap making, woodworking, coin pressing and armor-making will be presented. Educational exhibits and presentations about life in the Middle Ages will be offered by the University of Central Oklahoma Medieval Society.
Food concessions offer homemade fruit and chicken salad crepes, German bratwurst and knatwurst with specialty sauces, Asian pan fry noodles, fried rice, veggie rolls and beef or chicken on a stick, Cajun food, Indian tacos, funnel cakes, cinnamon roasted almonds, roasted corn and bare teeth ripping into succulent smoked turkey legs are a familiar sight all over the fair grounds. Norman's Medieval Fair is sponsored by the University of Oklahoma College of Continuing Education with assistance from the Norman Arts and Humanities Council Hotel Tax Grant Program , the Norman Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Oklahoma Arts Council. The first Medieval Fair was held in April of 1976. Originally it was a forum for the English Department at the University which chose the month of April because it was close to Shakespeare's birthday. This was a small one-day event on the south oval of the campus. The public responded positively, so the fair was continued in the following year. Interest continued to grow each year. After its third year there was not enough room for the many who wanted to participate and attend the fair, so it was moved to one side of the Duck Pond and the event was expanded to two days. Interest from the schools resulted in expanding the fair to a three-day event in 1996 so students from around the state could attend the fair on Friday as part of a unit of study on the Middle Ages. Now, the park is used to its maximum with participants and visitors flocking in from throughout the nation. |
