A Renaissance fair, Renaissance faire or Renaissance festival is an outdoor gathering open to the public and typically commercial in nature, which purportedly recreates a historical setting for the amusement of its guests. Some are permanent theme parks, while others are short-term events in a fairground, winery, or other large public or private spaces. Renaissance fairs generally include an abundance of costumed entertainers or fair-goers, musical and theatrical acts, art and handicrafts for sale, and festival food. Some offer campgrounds for those who wish to stay more than one day.
The Michigan Renaissance Festival is a Renaissance fair, an interactive outdoor event that focuses on recreating the look and feel of a fictional English village called Hollygrove during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in the latter half of the 16th century. A large number of patrons also regularly attend the festival in costume further fleshing out the streets with nobles, pirates, Vikings, wizards, rogues, wenches, and an assortment of fantasy characters. The festival also includes many nationally known Renaissance festival stage acts, juggling shows, sword fighting shows, lane acts, a two-hour feast performed twice daily, three full contact joust shows performed daily, and activities and games for children of all ages. The festival is owned by Mid-America Festivals.
The New York Renaissance Faire is a Renaissance faire located in Tuxedo, New York off New York State Route 17A. In 2022, the faire celebrated its 45th season. The 65-acre (260,000 m2) faire comprises permanent structures and has twenty stages and more than 100 shops. The fair runs seven weekends beginning in late August, plus Labor Day Monday. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2020 fair to be cancelled.
The Bristol Renaissance Faire is a Renaissance fair held in a Renaissance-themed park in the village of Bristol in Kenosha County, Wisconsin. Its 30 acre site runs along the Wisconsin-Illinois state line west of Interstate 94. It recreates a visit of Queen Elizabeth I to the English port city of Bristol in the year 1574. The faire runs for the nine weekends from early July through Labor Day.
The Maryland Renaissance Festival is a Renaissance fair located in Crownsville, Maryland. Set in a fictional 16th-century English village named Revel Grove, the festival is spread over 27 acres (110,000 m2). It is open from the last weekend of August and runs for nine weekends.
The Minnesota Renaissance Festival is a Renaissance fair, an interactive outdoor event which focuses on recreating the look and feel of a fictional 16th Century "England-like" fantasy kingdom. It operates during seven consecutive weekends, from mid-August until the final week in September on a site near the Minnesota River in Shakopee, a suburb of the Twin Cities.
The Louisiana Renaissance Festival is a renaissance fair near Hammond, Louisiana. The festival takes place on a location that emulates a historical 16th century village (Albright) in England during the 1565 fall harvest festival. Renaissance fairs began in the 1960s in California. The Louisiana Renaissance Festival started in 2000 and explores Subcultural movements in Renaissance art, crafts, music, and theatre. Cast members are dressed as people would have been dressed during the 1560s.
The Carolina Renaissance Festival is a 25 acre renaissance themed amusement park and one of the largest Renaissance fairs in America. The Festival is set in a fictional storybook village of "Fairhaven" and nestled within 325 acres of autumn woodlands. The open air village and artisan marketplace contains cottages and bungalows of 16th century European architecture. Inside the village gates are over 140 merchants, crafters, and artisans. Sixteen outdoor stages are used for theater, comedy, music, dance, magic, circus entertainments, swimming mermaids, and live falconry demonstrations. Hundreds of costumed villagers and fantasy characters roam the lanes offering additional interactive entertainment. The Festival's premier attractions feature knights on horseback jousting three times daily inside the Queen's tournament arena, Falconry presentations, and Swimming Mermaids. The Festival is held annually on Saturdays and Sundays in October and November and three consecutive week dates in October as a field trip destination for area schools. The Festival is located just north of Charlotte, North Carolina between the towns of Huntersville and Concord near the intersection of 73 and Poplar Tent Road and with equal distance access to I-77 and I-85. An average of 195,000 visitors time travel to the Festival during its fall season.
The Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California (RPFS) is a Renaissance faire that takes place in Irwindale, California. It opened in the spring of 1963 and has been an annual event since then. Presently owned by Renaissance Entertainment Productions (REP), it is a commercial reenactment of a 1580s market faire at Port Deptford, a waterfront town in Elizabethan era England. The Faire is generally open from the first weekend of April through the weekend before Memorial Day.
The Seattle Knights is a stage-fighting and jousting acting troupe, specializing in Medieval Fantasy. The troupe was founded in 1993 by current Director Dameon Willich.
The Texas Renaissance Festival is an annual Renaissance fair located in Todd Mission, Texas, about 55 miles northwest of Houston.
King Richard's Faire is a Renaissance Faire held in Carver, Massachusetts, which recreates a 16th-century marketplace, including handmade crafts, foods, musicians, singers, dancers, minstrels, mimes, jugglers, whip artists, magicians, comedians, puppeteers, acrobats, animal acts, mud beggars, stilt walkers, knights jousting on horseback, a royal court, and the fictional King Richard. King Richard's Faire is the largest and longest-running Renaissance Faire in New England.
Scarborough Renaissance Festival, more commonly known as Scarborough Faire, is a renaissance fair in Waxahachie, Texas.
Sterling Renaissance Festival is a Renaissance Festival that operates in Sterling, New York. Since 1976, it runs for seven consecutive weekends through July and August and features music, comedy, and interactive theatre performances as well as the work of artisans and craftspeople.
The Kansas City Renaissance Festival is a Renaissance fair held each fall in Bonner Springs, Kansas, United States, next to Sandstone Amphitheater. Each year the fair begins on Labor Day weekend and continues for seven weekends, open on Saturdays and Sundays as well as Labor Day and Columbus Day. The faire began in 1977 as a benefit for the Kansas City Art Institute, and became a stand-alone event in the late 1990s. Presently, the fair has 165 booths and 13 stages, entertaining 180,000 patrons annually on 16 operating days.
Mount Hope Estate is a National Register of Historic Places-listed property in Rapho and Penn Townships, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The original estate was the center of operations of the Grubb Family Iron Dynasty during the 19th century and included over 2,500 acres (1,000 ha), a charcoal iron furnace, a grist mill, housing for employees and tenants, plus supporting structures such as a post office, a general store, a railroad station, a school and a church. The existing mansion and grounds remain from what was once a thriving industrial headquarters complex and small village.
The Alabama Renaissance Faire is a Renaissance fair held annually in downtown Florence, Alabama on the fourth full weekend in October each year.
The Northern California Renaissance Faire, owned by Play Faire Productions is a Renaissance faire in California located in Hollister about 90 miles southeast of San Francisco. The Renaissance Festival typically runs on weekends from mid-September to mid-October. It consists of five or six weekends depending on the year. It is set in the fictional village of "Willingtown" in Derbyshire, England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in the mid-late 16th Century.
