Hazzah! is the word of the day at the Utah Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire, which continues today in Weber County.

The six-day, two-weekend event is a chance to escape from boring everyday life of school, office or chores.

"You get to live out a different time — be someone else for a day," said Carolee Bowen, 47, of Evanston, Wyo. She was performing in a Celtic music group called Cranachan.

It's as fun as Halloween, festivalgoers said Saturday. You can dress up and pretend to be someone else and live in another era.

"It's a travel through time," said Ada Penrod, 45, of Cedar Hills, who performed belly dancing at the event.

This is the fourth year of the festival, which typically attracts 10,000 people, said festival director Sue Bodily.

"It's a way of showing that history is not as boring as you might think it is," Bodily said.

The event is at Millcreek Hollow, a working 52-acre farm with woods, ponds, creek and meadows in Marriott-Slaterville.

For more information, go to www.utahrenfest.com.

Festivalgoers are greeted with a sign reading "Ye be welcome." Volunteers are all in character and don't let up with their old-time English accents.

Richard Arnold, 43, of Ogden, dressed as a jester in black and purple checks and bells, greeted — and heckled — guests as they walked along a curving dirt road leading to the festival.

"I entertain everyone by being the greatest fool there is," Arnold said, adding his character is Richard Tarlton, the favorite jester of Elizabeth I of England.

There are myriad shows and musical performances at the fair.

"It's an escape," said Shanna Futral, 34, of Layton, who is in a gypsy band called Yomalhab, which she said is Arabic for "Sunday afternoon." It started out as a drum circle and evolved to include violins, guitars and dancing.

The joust is a huge draw, however.

"I like hitting the other guy really hard with my lance — either knocking him out or knocking him off his horse," said jouster Charlie Andrews, 35, of Eagle Mountain, from atop his horse named Jagermeister.

Andrews' jousting group, Knights of Mayhem, performs nationally.

"That's America. We're a bloodthirsty nation. We watch NASCAR to see the wrecks. We watch football to see the hits. We see hockey to see the fights. We watch jousting to see someone get mangled and knocked off their horse," he said, adding his armor weighs 150 pounds.

Giant turkey legs were a popular item at the food booths. Other venders sold everything from fairy costumes and armor to jewelry and medieval tapestries.

A few booths encouraged participants to try their hand at knife throwing or juggling sticks. Other displays showed how baking and blacksmithing was done in medieval times.

Many people attending were dressed in medieval garb, such as Thomas Turney, 24, of Sandy, who wore a tunic and brought his peregrine falcon, Tiger.

Other people who volunteered for the festival were dressed as fairies, complete with face paint, glitter and flower headdresses.

"You get to run around and play all day long," said Ariel Platt, 18, of Woods Cross, whose stage name is Peace Blossom. She said she had been practicing Shakespeare for days to get the speaking right.

"Being in character is fun. You can be totally crazy," said Alia Platt, 14, of Woods Cross, who is known as Cobweb.

E-mail: astewart@desnews.com