The Maryland Renaissance Festival through the years

Kim Hairston, Baltimore Sun photo
Jenna Mahem, of Windsor Mill, at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.
Doug Kapustin, Baltimore Sun photo
Jim Frank is a longtime jack-of-all-trades and performing/teaching fixture at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.
Karen Jackson, for The Baltimore Sun
Holly Okeefe and Terry Brukiewa of Glen Burnie walk through the crowds at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.
Amy Davis, Baltimore Sun
A group of friends who work at the Virginia Renaissance Festival in the spring meet up for period fun at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.
By Paul W. Gillespie / Baltimore Sun
A black knight named Sir Otto Von Nurenburg, left, jousts against Sir Sam. Thousands of people came out for the opening day of the 39th season of the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville
Kim Hairston / Baltimore Sun photo
Left to right, Mandy Stafford, Baltimore; Jonathan Hawk, Glen Burnie; Dustin Blottenberger, Portland, Ore.; Patricia Moore, Woodbridge, Va.; and Beth Boudra, Pasadena, attend the Maryland Renaissance Festival on the opening day.

PUBLISHED: August 24, 2016 at 3:37 p.m. | UPDATED: June 24, 2019 at 12:04 p.m.

This year marks the 40th annual Maryland Renaissance Festival, where for nine weekends in the fall, maidens, wenches and tosspots alike don their finest 16th-century attire to eat turkey legs, take in some sword swallowing (and maybe get muddy). Here, a look back at some Renn Fests of yore.