For the final weekend of the 2015 Maryland Renaissance Festival season, we dedicated the entire two days as a Celebration of Mind about Martin Gardner.

Hundreds of visitors came and played and heard the story of Martin and math and puzzles. Many also received souvenir copies of the 40-page Renaissance catalog Kate had designed and written in Shakespearean verse to suit the Renaissance theme, with a special page about Martin. Customers also received a special gift, a Buzzbears spinner dexterity puzzle inscribed with Celebration of Mind 2015.

As we like to say, Ye Olde Gamery represents the intellectual side of the Renaissance — an oasis of thinking, logic, math, geometric tilings, the fun of discovery and solving of beautiful conundrums.

All day long, large crowds of visitors engaged in lively play, instructed by the Gamery's well-costumed crew. See a brief video overview filmed by Art Blumberg. Many audience members also arrived in costume, as the Renaissance Festival is not only a historical theme park but a massive role-playing game in its own right.

These two young ladies are college students, studying game design. Here they explored the themes and methods of Void with our intern, Adam, and discussed game philosophy with Kate. See Martin Gardner's Game of Solomon at lower left.

We had the honor of a visit from Queen Juana of Spain (Mary Ann Jung), who congratulated us on the special event and read out loud the Preamble from our catalog with great drama and flourish. See a short video of her performance on Facebook as taken by Art Blumberg.

Happy birthday, Martin Gardner!

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