“My lords and ladies, introducing Lady Amber, Lady Cristen, and Lord James,” the court crier, resplendent in red velvet, called out as we entered the Crystal Garden for the Capulet feast at Castle Carnevale on Feb. 27.Castle Carnevale is a huge party on the grounds of Castle McCulloch in Jamestown, aptly called the “Mardi Gras of the Carolinas.” It lasts for one evening every February.

We chose seats facing the stage that filled the center of the room. Sitting down, senior Cristen Kennedy grinned and said she’d never eaten on gold plates before. That’s right – for a mere $60 we were royalty for a night, eating off gold plates with gold silverware.

While we ate our salads, chicken, wild rice, and vegetables, women came out and danced for us. Then a man dressed in a tattered black costume did a ballet routine with hoops. We finished our dinner and watched the other lords and ladies, commenting on their attire.

One of the more interesting costumes belonged to a man and woman dressed in black leather bondage outfits. The woman held a whip and a chain attached to a collar around the man’s throat. It was just one of the many outfits the guests sported that night.

After dinner we walked down the path to the first tent. Lady Cristen and I had our faces painted, and Lord James (my husband) bought a new mask to replace the worn-out mask he’d purchased two years ago at Castle Carnevale.

The three of us wandered through the rest of the tent, eyeing the belly dancer sashes and necklaces on sale. When we reached the back of the tent, a man in a leather thong asked if we’d like spankings for one dollar. We laughed, politely declining. On the bridge, which spanned the castle lake, we paused to watch fireworks.

Reds, greens and golds filled the night sky as the fireworks were ignited. Some of the gold fireworks rained like a fountain of fire over the lake. After the smashing finale, we continued across the bridge to the second tent, where we found a live African drumming band playing while belly dancers and hula-hoop girls danced to the rhythm.

The pirate tent was much more raucous, complete with drunk pirates swaggering across the stage, yelling across the tent to their compatriots. A mermaid sat on the stage having her picture taken with the many swashbuckling patrons who had wandered in with us.

Crossing the drawbridge over the castle moat, we got our first glimpse of the inside of the castle. The walls were stone, darkened by age; the stairs, narrow, gloomy, and dark. Tables were set up in the castle basement for those weary of walking.

After stopping in the basement for a spell to sip drinks, chat and point out interesting, nice or weird costumes, we began searching for an exit. Lingering on the path outside, we watched, mesmerized, as fire dancers leapt, twirled and danced together with their fiery batons to music. Some of the dancers wore flaming dragon headdresses.

“They were holding and twirling flaming leather batons and performed choreographed sequences of passing the lit batons back and forth,” Kennedy said. “They also had flaming hula-hoops that were pretty sweet too.”

As the night drew to a close, we lingered, for alas, we did not want to return to our normal lives and midterms and schoolwork. For one evening, we were royalty, trading the demands of being college students with people bowing and curtsying to us and being addressed as lord and lady. Oh, well – back to being college students.