Renaissance Festival returning to Callaway

Jugglers show off their skills at the 2015 Renaissance Festival at Boster Castle in Callaway County.
Jugglers show off their skills at the 2015 Renaissance Festival at Boster Castle in Callaway County.

Mike Allen, owner of Kilt Kountry (formerly Midwestern Kilt Company) in Kansas City, might not have a Scottish brogue.

But he knows his tartans.

"My family tartan would be MacDonald," he said. "I actually carry MacDonald; we didn't when I bought in."

The company will be at the 11th Central Missouri Renaissance Festival next Saturday and Sunday in Callaway County for the second year in a row.

"I like the uniqueness of this fair," Allen said. "So often these ren fairs are so close to flight patterns and things like that. This one's out in the country. It's kind of this nice event all of its own in a place you wouldn't be expecting."

Allen recently took over his business from its former owner, a man with a broad Scottish accent.

"He's just one of those people who has to have something going on in his world," Allen said. "Though he was retired, he had to do something."

The former owner moved to Kansas City from Arizona, where he'd sold cowboy hats. Missouri called for a change of pace.

"'As Scottish as I am, I might as well sell kilts,'" Allen quoted him as saying.

Allen is an IT project manager by day and is kept even busier by raising three kids, but by night he and his employee Bill Warren are busy filling orders and researching new projects.

Demand is high.

"It's enough that I'm thinking of leaving my day job and doing this," he said.

Allen said the popularity of the TV show "Outlander" is partially responsible. Customers will request a tartan in a certain color, not so much caring about the pattern's history.

"We kind of encourage that," Allen said. "People get so hung up on the family tartan."

Not so many years ago, there were only 1,500 tartans. But now, online tools allow anyone to design and register a tartan, making it increasingly hard to discern which have history and which were simply designed on a whim. The number has grown to more than 5,000, Allen said.

Also very popular, Allen has found, are utility kilts.

"A lot of rock bands are performing in utility kilts," he said.

The store offers a utility kilt style with tartan fabric in the pleats, and Allen said they fly off the shelf as fast as he can get them in.

New at his booth at this year's renaissance festival: Mexican firefighter tartans, MacDonald formal wear and those popular utility kilts.

Allen encourages fair attendees to check out the Brotherhood of Steel, a "live-steel" group that demonstrates medieval sword fighting techniques.

"You don't see those kinds of things at most fairs," Allen said. "Usually it's just the jousting tournaments."

The fair will be held each day from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at Boster Castle, 4274 County Road 220, west of Kingdom City. Popular bands will include Pictus and 3 Pints Gone, a coronation, horse rides and more. Pirates, Vikings and storytelling pixies will be on hand, as well as the Shamrock Irish Dancers, magic acts and food.

Visit centralmorenfest.org to learn more and purchase tickets. Find Kilt Kountry online at facebook.com/KiltKountry.