After concluding a weekend of tech and dress rehearsals, the Ohio Renaissance Festival is set to open once again in Harveysburg for its annual, eight-weekend run.

On a any given day, thousands of people will come to experience this 30-acre, recreated Elizabethan village where they can watch more than 100 shows on 11 stages, drink some regionally brewed mead (or Bud Light, for those who aren’t quite as “renaissance” as they thought) and interact with the village’s many denizens.

“Several of our actors have a theater background, but several don’t, but were just interested in the festival,” said entertainment director David Smith. “But then some of (the latter) discover they have an acting bug. We train them in improv because they have to interact with people off the cuff. Those who don’t find it as much to their taste will basically like extras. They’ll have the accent down, but won’t do anything grandiose, just support the performers. A queen without subjects doesn’t look like much of a queen.”

Smith said, aside from a few variations, Renaissance festivals are fairly standard throughout the country.

“We do the Elizabethan period, whereas some festivals will do Henry VIII, her father,” he said. “Some are more adult-oriented, some are more family-friendly. We’re pretty middle of the line. If you’re in the pub, there might be some innuendo, but not on the streets.”

One unusual attribute of the Ohio festival is the Full Metal Joust, the festival’s most popular attraction, Smith said.

“I go to a lot of festivals to scout, and a lot of the jousts I see are choreographed,” he said. “Ours is a full competition joust. The knights are really trying to knock each other off.”

Other popular attractions include the Mudde Show, which features a trio of actors doing comic recreations of historical literary classics such as “Beowulf” in a mud pit.

“It’s fun, it’s lively, and it’s messy if you’re sitting in the first few rows,” Smith said. “You will take some of the show home with you.”

For those who plan on wearing white, there are plenty of other interactive activities, such as storming a castle, climbing Jacob’s Ladder or launching woodcut frogs from a catapult onto lily pads in a pond.

“The only problem with (the catapulting frogs) is that some people have similar games on their phone,” Smith said.

There will be several themed weekends, devoted to Scottish Highland culture, Irish culture, romance, families or barbarian invasions. Sept. 27 is Education Day, where all grade-level students are invited to experience the festival from a strictly educational standpoint.

“All our historical characters will be there,” Smith said. “Shakespeare, and Leonardo Da Vinci will explain the science of the time, to give kids an idea of what people thought back then.”

Kids can also attend a very different kind of school during Pirates Weekend, where they’ll discover that pirates aren’t as bloodthirsty as popular culture would have them believe.

“Pirate ships were floating democracies,” Smith said. “The captain had to be voted on. There was no fighting, or else you were marooned. When they attacked ships, they invited the press gangs to sign up with them, because at least they would get a vote and an equal share of the plunder. Sir Francis Drake actually had a letter of marque from Queen Elizabeth, where he had permission to harass the Spanish and split the gold with her.”

If none of the themes strike your fancy, then you can always get married. The festival offers full wedding services, and Smith said they performed a dozen weddings last year.

“It’s not uncommon,” he said. “Some people just like the fantasy of it, the romance. We had one couple that was renewing their vows, and the guy wore a full suit of armor.”