Age of Chivalry to bring knights, days to remember

For the second year, the Age of Chivalry Renaissance Festival is scheduled to fill Silver Bowl Park, while its usual venue, Sunset Park, is undergoing renovations.

"We're hoping to bring it back to Sunset Park next year," said Brian Saliba, special events supervisor at Clark County Parks & Recreation. "The renovations are coming along, and everything is looking good."

The event survived the temporary move last year with only a few minor hiccups and many vendors praising the ample parking and less dusty venue. This year's 19th annual event will use about two-thirds of the space it did last year, making for a more compact festival. Last year many of the guilds of re-enactors ended up needing less space than the county provided, which resulted in a large, unused open space in the middle of the venue.

"The joke we kept hearing was that we'd left room for the lake," said Saliba, referring to the lake at Sunset Park, the banks of which many of the guilds set up on. "This time we've got a better idea of the space we need."

Renaissance tunes

Newcomers to the festival, who might expect only jousting, swordplay, pageantry and giant turkey legs, might be surprised at how much live music the event offers. Among the musical acts set to perform are Lexington Field, The Mahones and Uffington Horse.

Beth Mullaney will be performing with two groups at the festival, Killian's Angels and the not coincidentally named band Mullaney. Both groups have performed at the faire previously, although this is only the second time for Killian's Angels.

"All four members of Mullaney are also in Killian's Angels, and people might get the wrong impression that they're going to sound the same, but they're very different," Mullaney said. "They're both very fun bands, and we can get silly, but Mullaney is playing more acoustic music."

Mullaney said her self-titled band plays neo-traditional Irish music and Killian's Angels is more raucous and more rock 'n' roll. The band includes violin, keyboard, electric bass, tuba and traditional Irish instruments.

"There aren't a lot of bands with a Celtic rock 'n' roll tuba," Mullaney said.

Mullaney came to Las Vegas in 1994 to perform with an Irish duo at the Excalibur. She played with the duo for seven years and then worked as a solo act, putting in 13 years on the Excalibur's Jesters Stage. She was one of the last people to leave the dressing room when the hotel closed the stage and the wandering entertainment.

"I shut out the lights and walked away ," Mullaney said. "It was a very emotional time."

Killian's Angels originally was built around a core of performers from that stage, although the roster has changed several times since the group formed in 2001.

"Our second gig was the day after 9/11," Mullaney said.

The band had a song, "The High Reels," featured in the video game "Grand Theft Auto IV." It recently found out that it will be featured in the new television series "Elementary, " a contemporary reimagining of Sherlock Holmes starring Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Watson.

"When I found out, I told the music manager at CBS that we've got a lot of other songs," Mullaney said. "She told me that if the show is successful and the Irish pub ends up being featured, they're going to need a lot of songs."

Dinner drama

For fairgoers looking for a show and dinner, the Boars Head Feaste is scheduled to return for the fourth time this year.

"We did the show for over 20 years at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in (Southern) California," said the event's organizer, Terry Knisley. "I'm keeping the tradition going because it's been such a part of my life for so long."

The Boars Head Feaste is set in a renaissance pub and the servers and actors portray members of the family that own and operate it.

"We play off each other," Knisley said. "We throw insults at each other. We sing. We try to get the customers involved."

The show is on the ribald side, peppered with double entendres and thinly veiled innuendo.

"This show is not for the faint of heart or anyone who will be offended by suggestive, primitive and immature humor," the event's listing on the Age of Chivalry website notes. "Parents are warned."

Like the naughtier bits of Shakespeare's works, the group treads on some frisky territory without resorting to offensive words.

"We don't use any bad language, but it definitely leans towards the adult," Knisley said. "We have a good time with it."

This year the group is adding adult beverages to the adult humor.

"We're doing something a little different and offering a beer tasting," Knisley said. "It's a flight of five beers, all the ones they're offering at the festival."

For more information, visit lvrenfair.com.

Contact Sunrise/Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.