Wichita Renaissance festival encourages costumes

The last thing anybody wants is for a Renaissance festival to get old. That’s why organizers of this weekend’s Great Plains Renaissance Festival are putting an emphasis on “cosplay,” which is sort of a revved-up costume contest.

“We’re trying to be hip,” festival director Richard Cathey said with a chuckle. “We’re using a term that’s big on TV.”

A cosplay contest with a $100 first prize will give participants points for costume accuracy and craftsmanship, stage performance and overall audience impact (for a complete list of rules, see greatplainsrenfest.com).

Even if attendees don’t want to take part in the competition, Cathey hopes as many as possible will come in costume. It’s not required, he said, but “when they come in costume, they enjoy the experience all the more.”

The festival takes place Saturday and Sunday at Sedgwick County Park. It’s the 15th incarnation of the fall festival – there’s another each spring – and this one has a pirate theme in addition to the usual assortment of knights, jousters, jugglers and fair maidens.

“We’ve brought in several different pirate entertainment and re-enactment groups to give it more of a pirate flavor,” Cathey said. Those include Pirates Inc. and the Musical Blades, two musical groups well-known on the Renaissance fair circuit; Bawdy Buccaneers, a troupe that specializes in staged combat; and the Scallywags, whose forte is comedy.

The Newton-based Wags have taken part in every Great Plains festival. “Pirate John” Horn said he’s looking forward to a little piratical company this weekend.

“We perform all around the Midwest, sometimes around the country, and we know each other’s jokes pretty well,” he said. “The idea of all of us in one place getting to be rowdy – I think it’s going to be a real good time.”

The Wags do several stage shows each day during the festival, Horn said. They also host a more adult-themed comedy show at 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. It’s held in a closed tent and costs an additional $5 to attend. “And we’ll be out messing around with people” between performances, Horn said.

Other entertainers include fire-breathers, falconers, belly dancers, magicians, musicians and what Cathey calls “one of the most beloved characters we’ve ever had” – Blackbear Bright, a bear impersonator from Oklahoma.

Bright was chopping wood this week to get ready for his arduous performance as “Byron T. Bear.” Bright said his black bear costume weighs about 90 pounds and includes a hydration and cooling system. “It’s more like a spacesuit. It’s really quite complex.”

What festivalgoers will see, though, is a faithful re-creation of a black bear, an animal Bright has devoted his retirement to. Ten years ago, he formed a nonprofit that rescues orphaned black bear cubs, takes them to one of two rehabilitation centers where they can grow up in the wilderness, then returns them to their native ground.

Bright performs to raise money for his organization. He said the Wichita festival “has been a very good source” of donations in the past.

Now 64, Bright said his first gig as an animal impersonator came nearly 40 years ago, when he needed money for his young family and answered an ad for a radio station mascot.

“I was a fox,” he said.

In his bear costume, Bright has performed across the country and also has done TV commercials. Bright said he was named after his great-grandfather and that bears have always played an important role in his American Indian culture.

“It’s become an important aspect of my life. I identify with bears very closely.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2014 at 3:33 PM with the headline "Wichita Renaissance festival encourages costumes."