A trip to the Bristol Renaissance Faire offers unique cuisine -- from steamed artichokes to garlic mushroom stew to Sassafras -- and serves up a visual feast for people watchers. (Can thou sayst "cleavage?")

But the "Ren Faire's" finest feature takes place when festival-goers meet at the end of the day (around 6:15 p.m.) in the heart of the fairgrounds for a drum circle.

Approximately a dozen drummers bang on bongos and congas, led by a small, masked Tibetan man playing the tympani, blowing a whistle and leading a call-and-response chant over the drumming.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people -- most clad in Renaissance clothing -- writhe and chant to the beat for a primal dancing extravaganza that surpasses yesteryear's Grateful Dead concert scene.

Not everyone dances; instead, many folks stand around the drum circle and observe the merry mayhem: A long-haired man with a parrot on his shoulder dances next to a woman dressed like a gothic belly dancer who dances next to a "wench" wearing a wreath of flowers who dances next to a "spider lady" spinning a web from string ...

It's a freak show, yes, but it's also quite magical or, at the very least, definitely not something you see every day.

"I think it's the spiritual side of the fair," says Will Jameson, who travels from Peoria to Bristol every year with his two young sons. "It's a way to connect with the earth and to put closure on a very unique day."

The Renaissance Faire is on every weekend through Labor Day in Bristol, on the Wisconsin/Illinois border. For more information, call (800) 395-7773.