The 17th annual Valhalla Renaissance Faire has a new itinerary. The opening weekend features music — “the Scottish Invasion” — followed by a pirate theme during the final two days. Both weekends will feature a ubiquitous William Shakespeare struggling with writer’s block.

“I wanted to see something new from one weekend to the other,” said Marti Miernik, the event’s co-producer.

Purists might be surprised to hear the amplified music of Tartanic in the Grand Arena. Miernik said she first heard the Celtic band at a Renaissance Faire in Arizona.

“I was scouring really great talent from throughout the U.S.A.,” she said. “Tartanic is a phenomenal music group. These guys rock. They’re very explosive.”

The band, whose members are from Arizona and New York, are slated to play at 12:30, 2:30 and 5:30 p.m.

Tartanic’s Web site describes the sound as “Celtic music from Scotland, Brittany and original contemporary compositions melded with rhythms from around the world and propelled into the musical world of the future. (It mixes) the time-honored traditions of the Great Highland bagpipes with a bevy of drums featuring world percussion from Arabia, Africa and America.

A traditional Irish music band from Sacramento, Nine-8ths Irish, also will perform throughout the weekend.

The all-instrumental quartet describes its style of music as “Irish and a wee bit more,” the wee bit coming from the bluegrass, old-time country music and jazz the band members had played before coming together to pursue their shared love of traditional Irish music.

Shakespeare will be portrayed by Bay Area actor Don Hardy, a decade-long performer at Valhalla. He will recreate the muse from “Shakespeare in Love.”
Commissioned by the queen to write a play, Shakespeare struggles with writer’s block. Throughout the Faire, he will meet potential actors for his play, characters from various Shakespeare works such as “Macbeth,” “Taming of the Shrew” and “Romeo and Juliet.” Elizabethan language, art and history will be celebrated during the playwright’s travails.

Shakespeare will present a scene from the play on the final Sunday show, June 7 at 4 p.m.

The concluding weekend is themed “the Pirate Invasion.” It will include the deck of a huge ship called “Dauntess.” Claudia McCartney will play the part of Grace O’Malley, the 16th-century “Sea Queen of Connaught.”

The Grand Arena will be the site of the jousting competitions.

Jugglers, minstrels, fortunetellers and more interact and play to the passersby, who peruse the 100-plus merchants’ and artisans’ shops of Market Village. Shoppers can purchase high-quality, handmade, one-of-a-kind crafts like pottery, jewelry and toys to swords, leather and metal works and wood carvings. In many cases these creations will be demonstrated.

The hundreds of festival performers, adorned in 16th-century attire and speaking the Queen’s English, provide color and detail to a Renaissance village that looks to have stepped from the pages of history. Four stages with live music, storytelling, dancing, comedy and magic acts will keep patrons entertained with a variety of acts. Mead aplenty flows during the festival, as does a wide selection of beer and wine.