Welcome to Medieval Times!” shouts wench Jessica, straining to be heard in the large, loud room. Maintaining both a smile and throat-shredding volume, she bellows out instructions: Eat your roast chicken with your fingers since no utensils are provided, and be sure to boo the Green Knight, ‘cause he’s bad.
Throughout the Medieval Times dining room —- 1,100 seats arrayed in an oval around an arena of sand —- other serving serfs and wenches are yelling out the rules to their own cloisters of customers.
Despite rough economic times and a steep price tag, Medieval Times is more than 90 percent full on a recent Saturday night, as families and church groups pack into the faux castle at Discover Mills Mall in Lawrenceville for an evening of sword-fighting, jousting, stunts on horseback, falconry, blasting music and messy eating. You’re either the type of person willing to wear a cheesy cardboard crown for a couple of hours or you’re not, and this crowd is full of folks who can sustain such a hit to their dignity.
Attendance is down about 20 percent from a year ago, says marketing and sales manager Katrina Stroup, but promotional deals on tickets have kept crowds coming. “We’re the escape from reality, from all the bad news,” she says.
The Lawrenceville Medieval Times opened in 2006, the ninth in a chain that started in Spain in 1973. The Gwinnett castle recently switched over to a new show, one that adds more of an overall story, with some extra romance. There’s now a newlywed prince and princess, the prince gets kidnapped, and everyone is fretting over whether he will return.
