Full Sail Hosts Renaissance Festival

Published May 02, 2025

Full Sail Hosts Renaissance Festival

The on-campus festival was sponsored by the International Student Society.

Several students dressed in costumes including a mushroom, a goddess, a viking, and a king stand in a line. Orange tents surround the crowd of students.

On April 23, magical energy filled Full Sail University’s Backlot as more than 80 students gathered for a Renaissance Festival, wearing fantasy costumes ranging from fairies and maidens to wizards and warriors.

Hosted by the university’s International Student Society (ISS), the event featured games, crafts, food, and a costume contest, aiming to recreate and celebrate the activities, art, and culture of the European Renaissance period, while incorporating elements of fantasy and entertainment. ISS members played various roles to enhance the immersive event, including a king, a queen, a jester, a wizard, and knights that performed a joust.

Two students wield lances and shields as they joust. One wears blue armor and the other wears orange armor.

Two students dressed as knights compete in a jousting event at the Renaissance Festival.

The queen and king judged the costume contest and, with the crowd’s applause guiding their decision, chose a student elaborately dressed as a viking as the lucky winner of a Starbucks gift card.

Additionally, students visited an array of activity booths at the festival, where they could play chess and backgammon, recite poetry, and contribute to a paint-by-numbers mural of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.”

Attendees also participated in a trivia scavenger hunt, where they searched for answers to Renaissance trivia questions found on various posters throughout the Backlot.

Several students in costume stand in front of a table. One student behind the table holds a deck of cards and another student is picking a card from the deck.

Students enjoy the array of activities available to them at the booths scattered throughout the Renaissance Festival.

With each activity they participated in and trivia question they answered, students earned tickets they could spend to get a tarot card reading, craft flower crowns and potpourri sachets, and make crystal necklaces.

“The Renaissance Festival provided a unique and immersive experience for students to step back in time and get a taste of the culture, arts, and lifestyle of this historical period,” shared Sandi Foncannon, the International Student Coordinator at Full Sail. “This [event] allowed all students, both domestic and international, to learn about some of the history of the Renaissance period in Europe, which influenced advances across the globe.”