Blog: I Went to the Rennaisance Festival After a Four Year Hiatus. I Have Some Thoughts.

I have always been a Renn Faire fan and have been going to my local Renn Faire with my family ever since I was a toddler. Because my dad’s a medieval history nerd, we would always go at least once or twice a year…until the p(l)andemic happened in 2020. We went once in 2019 then took a three year break to go camping and hiking. That changed this year when we went last weekend and wow it’s changed.

#1: Ticket Prices

Rennaisance Festival tickets have always been somewhat on the pricey side, but they have gone up a lot in the past three years. For an adult ticket it used to be about $20 or so. Now, they’re $25. What might’ve once cost about $70 or so dollars for all of us to get in now cost a whopping $86 for me and my family. While part of this may be due to inflation, I also think that it could also be the faire owner knowing that he can charge higher prices for things because people will pay it. Just from seeing the massive traffic jam from people trying to get into the festival, I would say that he’s right.

#2: More inflation

While everything at the Renn Faire has been for the most part overpriced (especially the swords that they sell there), prices have gone up a lot. Once again, I do think that a lot of that can be chalked up to inflation, but while we were browsing some of the stores, a small mug that would’ve cost about $15-$20 dollars in 2019 now costs 2-3 times more. I can understand that getting materials to make the stuff you’re selling costs a lot (especially since it’s all handcrafted), but I would like to know what the markup rate is.

This meme sums it up pretty acurately.

#3: The People

One thing I knew going into the Renn Faire was that there were going to be people there that looked like they were addicted to at least five different types of illegal drugs and decided that clothing was optional…and I was right. It’s always been that way and it’s kind-of fun watching the freak show walk around you. However, amongst those people were a lot of other people that looked even worse.

First of all, while there were significantly fewer fur lined bikinis than in previous years, there seemed to be an influx of women who had decided that ye olde undergarments were optional. At least half of the women I saw walking around had decided not to wear a bra, which meant that not much was left to the imagination. Most of them also looked like the angry feminist types who had done away with traditional, healthy beauty standards long ago, meaning that the no-bra phenomenon just accentuated their ugliness.

Don’t worry men; at least you have a good idea of who to avoid asking out.

Another thing that increased greatly was the number of men in skirts and girls with beards. When I say “men in skirts” I don’t mean they were wearing the manly skirt known as the kilt. No. They were wearing full on princess dresses that were more modest than what the actual women were wearing. There were several kids there between the ages of 8-10 who were obviously being groomed by there parents for clout. While I feel bad for the kids who obviously were identifying as trans/non-binary/whatever-else, I’m angry at the parents who encouraged it and I’m angry at the late-20’s-early-30’s men wearing women’s clothes. You will never be a woman; stop fetishizing actual women!

There were also a lot of Wiccans/Satanists there, a lot more than I had seen in previous years. So many people were wearing shirts or costumes with pentagrams on them that I was wondering if they were wearing those symbols because they thought they were cool or because they are actual Wiccans/Satanists. Even a lot of the jewelry stores I was browsing in had neckaces, braclets, earings, rings, etc. with pentagrams on them. I’m pretty sure that had I brought an actual person from the 1500’s to the Renn Faire, they probably would’ve exploded on the spot from seeing how many witches there were.

On the bright side, there was a pack of Trekkies there, so not everything has changed. There weren’t any D.C. Comics characters, either.

With that said, would I go again? Yes. While the Renn Faire has become a lot more crowded and has a lot more – shall we say – interesting people, it still holds a lot of happy memories for me and I can respect the artistry that goes into many of the shops there. While the performances are cheesy a lot of the time, the craft that goes into their shows is awesome, and I’m happy to support it.

Until next time,

M.J.