By Misty Cryer
The third annual Cavern City Renaissance Festival will be 4-8 p.m. September 27 and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. September 28 in the Carlsbad Beach Park area. This event has been popular since its inception with offerings of armored combat, enchanting entertainment, and revelry. Destry Divine will add a touch of excitement to the event as a theatrical storyteller performing a fire act that reveals a magical creature as the grand finale on both nights of the festival.
“I am an author,” Destry said (persona name Destry Divine). “I have a 900-page book that tells about the adventures of my life—those are about the magical creatures that I have collected along the way.” She said the magical creatures include angels, dragons, fairies, elves, and many other creatures. “They do things like spin fire,” she said.
Referencing the upcoming Cavern City Renaissance Festival performance, Destry said, “One of the acts is going to be a multi-level costume change. I did costume design for Cirque du Soleil for seven years. Some of my costumes were as big as 25 feet around, so a lot of the performers were on stilts or were required to swim in water with a silicone mermaid tail. I incorporate elements of costume into my performances.”
Destry shared a long-term goal. “One day, I hope to accomplish the Guinness Book of World Records for the most costume changes in a show, but it won’t be this one,” she said.
“This one is geared towards fire. I will probably have four costume changes in the very first song. It will be a dance and roller skate skit. That skit transitions into a collaboration with the Carlsbad Rockhounds…an awesome group I found where we go out and find crystals outside of Artesia. They found the magic stone that is going to bring the dragon to life, who has been asleep since we got to Carlsbad,” said Destry.
The show features the seven trials of dragon mastery, Destry said. “This includes props like a dragon staff, and I do a skit where I do a headstand, and I hold that staff—on fire—between my toes, and then I spin into a series of contortion poses while balancing the fire.”
As newlyweds, Destry said her husband is part of the troupe. “My husband will be dancing with a beautiful, renaissance-medieval-looking tool, which is called a sparkle toy. This is why we need the stone from the gem society because this actually lights up and it spins charcoal embers while we dance on stage. It gives the effect of Tinkerbell throwing magic like glitter in the movies,” she said.
Next is the finale, which is a surprise. Destry encourages the audience to cheer to help with a unique transition.
Destry is excited about performing at the festival. “It is a performance opportunity. I found them just literally through neighborhood word of mouth because the people of Carlsbad are freaking great. It has only taken me like four months to find family here, and I love that,” she said.
In addition to the fire performance, Destry Divine dedicates her days to building skills. “Those skills range from sewing to flowing—what flow arts are, they are things like juggling, dancing, and balancing, which offer a balancing of your nervous system. I’ve worked a lot with special needs groups, and I have also had a performance troupe before. I prefer working with women, but I definitely work with boys and men as well. I love watching them blossom into a performer. They learn a skill, whatever that skill may be—juggling, dancing, or theater. And then we watch them take it through a three-month process all the way until it makes it on stage,” she said.
Destry recently established a non-profit organization that aims to support local performers and provide healing through performance arts. “I have been here for four months, and I would like to go where the community wants me to be,” she said. She said she is open to all opportunities and that she is following a call. “I just want to be of service to the community in a theatrical way,” she said.
Tickets for the Cavern City Renaissance Festival are available online at https://caverncityrenfest.com and can be purchased at the gate. Shay Gregory, an organizer of the event, said, "We just hope that everybody enjoys our continuous additions to the festival, and we look forward to bringing it to our community for years to come!"
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