7/6/08 the family took a quick trip to Bristol.

And why is a Renaissance Faire getting a Trip report?

The Rides of course.

Seriously, a couple of vendors mentioned that they compete directly with the regional theme parks. One said, we provide a better value, excellent food and better shows. Lets see how that works.

Premium parking, $3. Adult ticket, $15. Child ticket.. Free for opening weekend. Food and Beverage pricing is about the same as a theme park, but has many more choices, and higher quality. The only additional cost is $3 per ride.

On to the trip. We arrived at gate opening, met up with a friend and headed to the Thrill Ride area.

This is my favorite ride. As you can see, all rides here are human powered. This is their Drop Tower.

Two people push you around and then let go. You spin and drop, then when you hit the bottom, it continues twisting half way back up, and reverses.

You get 4 or five twists by the operators per ride.

The barrel ride is exactly what you expect.

The girls had to get their hair braided.

This boat ride is powered by the riders pulling on the rope through the middle of the boat which is attached to the stationary bar

Davinci's flying machines has 4 people pushing in the middle to rotate the ride. The riders pull on ropes to actuate the boat's wings. Big brother is showing little sister how to do it.

The hurlanator is rider operated too. You push and pull the handle in front of you which engages and disengages a ratcheting device on the middle axis. Depending on how heavy or strong the other riders are, the ride will be totally different

Snack time at Kiddie Kingdom. Here is my favorite food there. Garlic saute'd mushrooms.

Hmmm another bungee ride

Swing! I couldn't get a good picture of the one operator who would hold onto the back bar when pushing, and go about 6 feet in the air on the backswing.

The butterfly ride was too booring for my little girl.

Renaissance roller coaster. You climb on the pegasys, grab your lance and slide down the rope trying to hit the knight on the side

Got to have some jousting at the ren faire.

During the day we saw 5 great shows, ate too much food and beer, Had a discussion with the sheriff of Nottingham, Played with a wood Nimph, and bought some stuff from the vendor.

One last picture is of the last show we saw.

What you can't see here is that one acrobat is on his back, balancing the ladder on his feet. The other two got on top of the ladder without any help balancing the whole time.

Edit: Finished the pictures

Pretty cool, man! Never knew that there were human powered rides such as those. Looks like a great day. I may have to go to a ren. festival and give it a whirl.