It’s that time of year again – Christmas. And with the holiday comes the annual Renaissance Festival, an AHS choir tradition that everyone can enjoy. The Colt sat down with senior choir members Shazad Jiwani, Chris Wolf, Jenna White and Hannah Flenniken to get the details of this year’s performance.

The Colt: What makes the Renaissance Festival different from other holiday concerts?

Shazad Jiwani: Well, part of it is we get to dress up in really cool outfits that we get from Dusty’s. They provide us with robes, dresses, hats, crowns and all that so I think that’s really cool to be able to dress up for a concert.

Chris Wolf: I think it’s overall a different kind of atmosphere more unique for the audience in general. They get to experience their own dinner as well as a show which puts on a different kind of entertainment almost as if you were having a theatre show except we’re obviously singing songs.

Jenna White: It’s a lot more interactive and it’s more for the audience.

TC: What role do you have this year?

SJ: I play the king.

CW: I play the guy who’s second to the king so if the king were to…

SJ: Like a prince maybe.

CW: …die then I would be king.

JW: I’m a girl who’s noble like if the queen were to die, I’d be the queen…not true. But it’s fine!

TC: Is there anything different about this year’s festival compared to past years?

CW: I mean, there’s new songs.

JW: New people.

CW: The court is a lot larger.

TC: What are some of the traditions of the festival?

SJ: We always have traditional games that we play like…

Hannah Flenniken: Holly Sprig

SJ: Yeah, so Holly Sprig. You’re holding a holly and as the music plays, you’re handing it around the table and whenever the music stops you either hug, kiss, or shake hands with a partner. There’s always two songs I believe that we sing…

HF: “The Boar’s Head” and “Wassail”…and “Men in Tights”.

SJ: “Men in Tights” is usually our funny, comedic act of the night.

TC: What’s your favorite part of the Renaissance Festival?

CW: I like eating. That’s definitely my favorite.

SJ: The officers do a potluck thing so each one gets to bring something in particular like one person can bring rolls, the other person can bring corn nuggets and since there’s sixteen of us we end up having a lot of food to eat.

JW: I think my favorite part is getting to show off because we’ve been working on it forever so finally we build up to this night and it’s like here we are and this is what we’ve been working on.

CW: I really like the costumes. I think it looks funny on some people and it really shows their ranking. I just think it’s such a great thing to look at.

TC: How does it feel for this to be your last year participating?

JW: It’s really upsetting, not upsetting… I just know Friday and Saturday night I’ll be valuing it a lot more than I would normally because I’m like well this is the last time I’ll be getting ready. Like setting up is a pain in the butt, but it’s like well we don’t get to do this again next year so you just value every moment as a senior.

TC: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

SJ: In general, I just think it’s a lot of fun. It’s always hectic in rehearsals and a lot of people get stressed out. In the moment you’re probably like ugh I can’t wait for this to be over and when it actually happens you’re just like man, this was so much fun; I can’t wait to do it for the second night. Then you do it and you’re finished and you’re just like you know I might go through rehearsals again just to do that one more time.

JW: I think the best thing is that as a freshman I was always told hey Renaissance Festival is really fun and so freshman year was fun, sophomore year was even more fun, junior year was ten times more fun and then I can’t imagine how great Friday and Saturday night are going to be. I think it builds up throughout the years and that it’s something every choir kid looks forward to.

CW: It’s definitely the largest concert we hold; we actually sold out Saturday.

HF: I think it really makes you appreciate all the work that goes into it because there is a lot, like our Booster Club works their butt off for it, our directors work their butt’s off for it and we work our butt’s off for it. It’s just all this work and all this love is being poured out into this one concert and it’s really great and it’s glorious to experience.