I talked my family into going to the Tennessee Ren. Fair. I primarily wanted to go because the Free Lancers were performing jousts.

The lances looked a little skimpy compared to my expectations. However, several participants had noticeable dents and wear on the armour as it was. Although I am the only "medieval geek" in my family, they all agreed that it was worth going to see an actual joust.

I took some photos (today, the championship round on May 29, 2006.) I thought some might enjoy seeing a couple.

This first one shows how much the lances were bending. I would guess these were about 1.5 inches (37 mm) diameter.
There are some tips broken (up in the air) in a couple photos.
The last one I am attaching because it was spectacular to see "parade like" fluted and ribbed armour being utilized for the benefit of the show to the crowd.

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This pic shows how much the lances were bending.

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This was another impact with lance bending... [ Download ]

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This image was taken just before an impact. [ Download ]

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Another image from just before impact. [ Download ]

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Crowd seems small.

Where is this faire at in The Volunteer State?

Nice photos! I was there yesterday, but was unable to get any quality photos of the joust. :(

Googled it and found this:

http://www.tnrenfest.com/

Some pictures of the castle there. Its apparently called Castle Gwynn and looks like tis one heck of a structure. Unfortunately they don't tell much about it.

I am a member of the So Cal Ren Faire geeks, and I am a member of the Bankside Schoole of Defence. I have always loved jousting no matter how cheesy it is.

However, I have come to find fault in many of the companies that preform them over the years. Many of the tourney companies have gone to the high theatrical "medieval Times" style of show and the true art of jousting has taken a back seat to the performance. Although this fills the stands and brings in the money...I admit I am a purist.

We once had a troop that practiced real jousting. They played for 3 points of the lance in the French style, but if knocked from horseback, they engaged in full foot combat.

There was never a "choreographed fight and the winner was never pre-determined; even for the Queen. The audience loved that the anticipation of a solid hit on target and that their favored knight may loose. Dressed in period reproduction armour and each knight had a choice of weapon once on foot. Often there was a mismatching of weapons: mace, flail, quarterstaff, or long sword and even then, all bets were off.

Yes there were injuries at speed and with full combat ready armour and weapons. There were even two occasion the paramedics were called to the field for a broken collar bone and heat exhaustion resulting in him passing out in the middle of a sword blow. Yet the crowds loved it even more. Yelling "Blood and guts !!" was a favorite cheer of the revelers pushing the knights to wining the electricity atmosphere of a "real battle" with each knight trying to win, no matter how ugly it got.

Due to workers comp. and medical costs, this troop was let go, but I have never seen that environment in a joust since. This proves to me you can he historically accurate, and fill the stands if done correctly.

I was sitting at a far corner of the stands, almost at the farthest possible point. I wanted a perspective from the back side of one combatant of how it appeared head on with the opponent about to hit. This was the best I could do while tending to a small family at the same time.

Pictures were difficult to take, and all of these were cropped to elminate peoples' heads, etc. I tried to present the best 6 or 7 images of over 30 camera shots (shutter delay of about 0.5 seconds, so each shot was a guess.) This was something roughly like an American highschool football stadium in terms of seating capacity. It was packed about 10 minutes before the 1 hour long joust demonstration. I would say there was something on the order of 1000 spectators there.

I too would appreciate some serious momentum lance impacts, but understand that this was performed over approximately a 1 hour period, three times per afternnoon (11:30 morning, 1:30 PM, and 3:30 PM) in relatively hot and humid weather for three days in a row. There were only something like 14 to 16 performers, but I had well over 30 camera shots of individual passes and did not take pictures each time as people were sometimes in my way. One of the merchant's told me that a performer had been knocked off the horse in at least one of the earlier shows. Newspapers promoting the event stated that one regular member (sorry, have forgotten the name) could not be able to attend due to a broken bone.

I figure these people gave a good show and deserve appreciation. I spke with others at work today. The joust was a highlight event of the fair for them as well.

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Very nice pictures. I had no idea Tennessee had a ren fair. Oh well.

I've only been to one (Southern California) and enjoyed it despite the heat and dust. I bet two small boys would have liked to have seen this as much as their dad would have. At least I made the core for my sword's scabbard this weekend.

I didn't go this year but I had some friends who made the trip. They brought back pictures and I was exciting, expecting to see horses. Unfortunately they weren't very smart and skipped the jousting altogether. I don’t understand why anyone would do that.

Thanks for the pics!