In 2006, we went to the Blackbeard Pirate Festival in Hampton, VA. It was a solid afternoon of entertainment. Luckily, we were there for two days. Now, two years later, its…
Blackbeard’s Revenge: The Return to Hampton!
Huzzah! (Not ours)
Our family loves any place you can dress up. Renaissance festivals, Scottish festivals, the whole shebang. We could outfit a whole cut-rate medieval movie out of our basement. We’ve made enough swords, knives, cat-o-nine tails, shields, and armour to hold our own for months if the Nazis ever attack again (I’ve also stockpiled food, but that’s unrelated. Damn Nazis). Point is, we loooove this stuff. Well, the guys do, anyways.
Ian also looooves pirates. He’s got tons of books on ‘em. A Brief History of Pirates, the Complete History of Pirates, hell, even the Not Way Too Short But Not Terribly Long History of Pirates. He’s got ‘em all. And although he admires Bartholomew Roberts and likes Captain Morgan, his favorite is, of course, the infamous Blackbeard! So when he finds out there’s a Blackbeard Pirate Festival only an entire morning drive away that he can drag the entire family to, off we go!
The Arrrrival
The first thing you notice when you get to the Blackbeard festival is how authentic everything looks. From the authentic plastic swords to the authentic lemonade and rootbeer stands, authentic pirate magazine dealers and the authentic airsoft guns, not to mention the authentic asian food On a Stick! stands, it was an authentic pirate extravaganza! I liked the bagpiper.
Overall, really, it was very nice. It’s not a big event. In fact, it’s a rather teeny event, as such events go, but they have a nifty pirate camp set up by Blackbeard’s Crew, and they show off things like how to make rope ladders. And rope sandals. And rope dongles. And rope navigation instruments. And rope tents. I think there were rope contraceptives. Pirates were good with rope.
So this is a pirate festival, right? What makes an awesome pirate festival? That’s right, the COSTUMES:
Side note: It’s not pictured, but Jack Sparrow has really defined pirate fashion in the past couple of years. There were like, 1/2 dozen Jacks at the place.
Dear God: I love corsets. Thank you for corsets. I wish more women wore corsets. Please let corsets come back into style corsets. I like the oriental ones.
I’m bored with this post. Part Two: Tomorrow! I might even fix the formatting!
