The Texas Renaissance Festival, located at 21778 FM 1774 in Todd Mission, saw its second-highest attendance season last year at 644,917 attendees, according to a press release. The same press release said four new performances are joining the other 200 festival performers for the 44th festival: Philnic the Great, a ventriloquist; The Toobadouors, jugglers/musicians; Celtic Mayhem, Irish music performers; and The New Tribesmen, a Norse singing group.

"We really strive to bring new offerings to the festival," TRF General Manager Terre Albert said in an interview. "We want to make sure our returning patrons have a reason to keep coming back and also show our new guests why they should keep coming to the festival."

Albert said in addition to four new shows, this year TRF added a second floor to the Museum of Cruelty, which appeared at TRF for the first time last year. The Museum of Cruelty shows guests the torture devices used in medieval times, but the second floor will be for ages 21 and older. Albert said the first floor is a more child-friendly walkthrough museum.

"The second floor is just more gruesome. We'll have guillotines and other torture devices up there that no child really needs to see," Albert said in an interview. "It'll cost an extra fee to get up there, but it's worth it. It's an interesting place to peruse."