Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire

Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire
Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire
Genre	Renaissance fair
Dates	August – October
Location(s)	Rapho Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Inaugurated	1981
Attendance	250,000 (average)
Area	35 acres (140,000 m2)
Stages	15
Website	www.parenfaire.com/faire.html

Last updated August 06, 2024

The Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire is a Renaissance fair occurring over 13 weekends from early-August through late-October on the grounds of the Mount Hope Estate and Winery in Manheim, Pennsylvania.^[2] In 1980, the Estate was sold and converted to a winery.

History

In 1980, a two-day jousting festival called the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire was held in the winery parking lot to attract visitors. The event proved popular, and expanded in the following years.^[3]

In 2009, the Faire was held on a 35-acre (140,000 m²) site with 90 shows performed daily on 12 stages, hundreds of costumed characters, and a recreation of a 16th-century English village with authentic Tudor buildings. Musical performances, Shakespearean plays, and other acts were offered, twenty-three "Royal Kitchens" served food and drink, and Renaissance merchants were on-site.^[4] The Swashbuckler Brewing Company was founded on the grounds in 2000,^[5] and its product is available at the Swashbuckler Brew Pub.^[6]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 40th season was shortened to nine weeks from Labor Day weekend-November 1 when similar events got cancelled, however, the 41st season returned to the normal 13 weekend season, at full capacity.

Praise

The Faire's music and storytelling have been praised by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Little Buffalo Performance Center, and, in 1998, the Faire was named one of the top 100 motorcoach-accessible events in America by the American Bus Association.^[7]

Business

As a privately owned business, the faire is not required to report revenues to the public. In a 1998 interview, the owner, Chuck Romito, revealed that "Gross sales for wine purchases and tickets for shows at the Mount Hope Estates--including Christmas, Halloween, Roaring '20s and other theme performances--hover around $4 million," while the faire's expenses were about $2 million.^[3]

As of 2008, American Renaissance festivals were much larger in scale than their European counterparts. Consuming History specifically mentions the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire for its high attendance, along with the Maryland Renaissance Faire, which draws 225,000 visitors over three weeks, and the Bristol Renaissance Faire, which reached a peak in 1990 with 400,000 visitors in seven weekends.^[1]

Related Research Articles

A Renaissance or medieval fair is an outdoor gathering that aims to entertain its guests by recreating a historical setting, most often the English Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michigan Renaissance Festival</span>

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 the visit of Queen Elizabeth I to the English port city of Bristol in 1574. The faire runs for nine weekends from early July through Labor Day.

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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 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. The festival is set in a fictional storybook village of "Fairhaven". The open air village and artisan marketplace contain permanent cottages and bungalows based on 16th century European architecture. Sixteen outdoor stages are used for comedy theater, dance, and circus-like entertainments. Featured, live-action shows include knights on horseback ; presentations of the art of falconry; and live swimming mermaids. The festival is held annually on Saturdays and Sundays in October and November. An average of 195,000 visitors a year attend the festival during its Fall season.

The Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California (RPFS) is a Renaissance faire that takes place at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scarborough Renaissance Festival</span> Annual festival held in Waxahachie, TX

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 200,000 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 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.

Sherwood Forest Faire is an annual Renaissance fair in McDade, Texas.

References

1 2 De Groot, Jerome (2008). Consuming History. Taylor & Francis. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-415-39945-6.
↑ Odesser-Torpey, Marilyn (2008). Insiders' Guide to Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Globe Pequot. pp. 222 to 223. ISBN 978-0-7627-4786-3.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
1 2 "Period fun at the Renaissance Faire doth maketh the bottom line strong". Central Penn Business Journal. 1998-07-03. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
↑ "29th Annual Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire". Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. Retrieved 2009-08-05.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
↑ Bryson, Lew (2005). Pennsylvania Breweries. Stackpole Books. pp. 121 to 124. ISBN 0-8117-3222-3.
↑ "Swashbuckler History". Swashbuckler Brewing Company. Archived from the original on June 8, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-23.
↑ Neville, Erin (2000-09-08). "Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire an educational experience out of class". The Daily Collegian. Archived from the original on 2006-09-04. Retrieved 2009-08-04.

External links

Official website

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[Consuming_History-1] 1 2 De Groot, Jerome (2008). Consuming History. Taylor & Francis. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-415-39945-6.

[Odesser-Torpey-2] Odesser-Torpey, Marilyn (2008). Insiders' Guide to Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Globe Pequot. pp. 222 to 223. ISBN 978-0-7627-4786-3.^{[ permanent dead link ]}

[business-3] 1 2 "Period fun at the Renaissance Faire doth maketh the bottom line strong". Central Penn Business Journal. 1998-07-03. Retrieved 2009-08-05.

[PA_DCED-4] "29th Annual Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire". Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. Retrieved 2009-08-05.^{[ permanent dead link ]}

[Penn_Brew-5] Bryson, Lew (2005). Pennsylvania Breweries. Stackpole Books. pp. 121 to 124. ISBN 0-8117-3222-3.

[6] "Swashbuckler History". Swashbuckler Brewing Company. Archived from the original on June 8, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-23.

[7] Neville, Erin (2000-09-08). "Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire an educational experience out of class". The Daily Collegian. Archived from the original on 2006-09-04. Retrieved 2009-08-04.

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