UTA Libraries Takes Students Back in Time, Brings the Fun with Renaissance Faire Welcome Event

Jousting, fairy gifts, a Welsh snack—these are just a few of the festivities that the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries offered students at its Renaissance Faire on Sept. 2.

This event welcomed students back to Maverick Country in celebration of the beginning of the Fall 2021 semester. The first 200 entrants received a UTA Libraries grab bag featuring a water bottle, stress ball, and sunglasses.

“Our staff have been excitedly preparing for this Renaissance Faire in anticipation of our students’ return,” said Rebecca Bichel, dean of UTA Libraries. “We hope participants enjoyed the opportunity to connect with their fellow Mavericks while learning more about the Libraries—who we are and the types of services, resources, and programming we provide.”

Interim President for UTA Teik Lim even made an appearance, visiting each of the booths and helping with the long line of eager attendees at the beginning of the event.

Ren Faire participants had a variety of activities to explore: a Maverick Kitchen stall featuring a savory Welsh treat called a dry bit; a fairy table, where they could make wands and fairy homes; a hobby horse jousting area; a basketball and console gaming station; a “love potion” table where students mixed “potions” from various juices; a green-screen tent; and an Instagram photo booth featuring a wooden shield made in the FabLab that students could pose with. Each station offered different ticket values for participating, and the tickets could be redeemed for prizes and food.

While she enjoyed many of the event’s offerings, Amrutha Kenchangowdra, a second-year master’s student in computer science, was especially hyped for the social aspect.

“This is very special for us,” Kenchangowdra said. “I haven’t attended any events on campus—this is my first one. I was super excited to meet people, and it’s been awesome.”

Student Jagjot Singh Saini, on the other hand, said his favorite event was the fairy table, where he was able to make a wand to display in his dorm room.

“The event today was really good,” he said. “I would like to support more and more of these events in the future.”

Not everyone at the event had made plans to be there. Priyanka Pendota, a computer science student who has only been in the United States for ten days, stumbled upon the Ren Faire when she was leaving class and knew she had to check it out.

“I’ve been here for three hours,” Pendota said. “I really had fun today.”

Pendota explored all the different booths at the Ren Faire, but there was one facet of the event that kept her coming back.

“Food,” she said, laughing. “I love food.”

Supporting The University of Texas at Arlington and the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan region, UTA Libraries create transformational learning experiences by connecting people to first-class resources, empowering knowledge creation, exploring ideas, and pursuing innovations in learning. The UTA FabLab offers all students access to cutting-edge technology for research in digital fabrication. The dataCAVE provides tools and workshops to support data visualization and management. UTA Libraries Special Collections focuses on the history of Texas, Mexico and the Southwest, and includes one of the finest cartographical collections on Texas and the Gulf of Mexico in the world. To learn more about UTA Libraries, please visit http://libraries.uta.edu.