Fantasy in Texas…

Thanks to Dave for suggesting us the Renaissance Festival: a huge event in Todd Mission, about 1 hour and a half from home. According to the organizers, each year over six hundred thousand people attend to the fest: my first concern when I hear these numbers is always: ‘how about the parking?’. Followed by other ‘how about’s, that surface spontaneously as a legacy of my previous life in Italy (and Europe more in general). So let’s see how a USA Festival (hey! Texan Festival!!) compares to an Italian Fest, mainly the Lucca Comics in Tuscany, but it can work for many other fairs.

1) How About the Parking??

The Texan guys have a pretty impressive parking lot: over 200 acres or twice the area of the Vatican City. That’s just for the parking. And it’s free, 100%. Once you get there, several flag man make sure you drive safe to your parking spot, quickly and effortlessly you’ve parked your car. Your parking lane is numbered, clearly, you just need to remember a simple number to get back to your car.

The Texan guys have a pretty impressive parking lot: over 200 acres or twice the area of the Vatican City. That’s just for the parking. And it’s free, 100%. Once you get there, several flag man make sure you drive safe to your parking spot, quickly and effortlessly you’ve parked your car. Your parking lane is numbered, clearly, you just need to remember a number to get back to your car.

The typical Italian parking spot is: narrow, far from the venue, expensive, easy to forget unless you mark it on the google map.

Bottom line: Texas 1 – Italian Fairs 0

The choice of food, in this part of Texas, is either presented as a take-away street food or the same food served (self served) at the table. I might have been unlucky but out of 2 times I’ve been there, I got a hardly eatable pork sandwich and, the second time, a salty pretzel so salty that if I think at it now, I have to drink to wash away the memory of that thirst. In Italy several years in prison would be given to whoever organizes a fair having a restoration service anything less than great.

Bottom line: Texas 1 – Italian Fairs 1

3) How About the Show?

I leave it up to you to solve the dilemma on who’s got the best fairs between Texas and Italy. You can compare the show of the Texan fair with the similar subject in Italy: check out the links above, try and visit Lucca Comics and the Texan Renaissance Fest if you can, but most important, have a look at the pictures I’ve taken last week and let me know what you think!!

All pictures taken with the Canon 5D Mark III and the Canon EF-85 f/1.2 L (Fat Boy) which consistently travels 6 feet ahead of anything else when it’s time to deliver astonishing portraits! Post pro in Luminar 3 has been fun, quick and easy, and now we wait for the new Luminar 4 to be released.