I love Renaissance Festivals and I realized what makes them magical

The allure of the Renaissance Festival has always held me captive like a damsel in a tower. Like many others, it’s hard to deny the mouth-watering turkey legs the size of your head or the vendors selling tantalizing trinkets. Plus, there are death-defying jousts happening and entertainers around every corner.

What’s not to like?

But there is more to the Renaissance Festival than all of the aforementioned. Yes, they are all part of the experience and contribute to the festival’s immersive theatrical nature, but after experiencing multiple Ren Fests, I have learned something.

There’s a special kind of magic that lives within the makeshift walls of Renaissance festivals across the country. As a kid, I was enamored with real-life knights walking about. As a teenager, the live shows captivated me. Now, as an adult, I realize that the reason these kinds of events are so special is because of the people.

Yes, it is every one of those workers, whether they are cooks making those turkey legs, workers keeping the grounds clean, or actors dripping in finery and never breaking character to keep the magic alive.

It is the people who work there, both behind the scenes and in costume, that make the Renaissance Festival so magical.

My 1st Renaissance Festival

My first experience with the Renaissance Festival was when I was in middle school, when we took a field trip to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival before we got out for summer break. I remember being so overwhelmed by all the magic and whimsy. I proudly came home and showed my mother the rubber prosthetic elf ears and elven diadem I purchased as souvenirs, wearing them in secret well into my teens.

I didn’t return until 2013.

I had just graduated from high school the day before, and all I wanted to do to celebrate was return to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival. Too shy to dig my elf ears and crown out of the box in the back of my closet, I entered the canopy of trees that acted as a portal into another realm in just my jean shorts and soon-to-be college’s T-shirt.

Inside, fairies roamed, knights fully armed to the teeth casually strolled, and the Queen herself could be found chatting with us commoners. It was even more magical than I remembered.

I took in every show I could that day. I met Robin Hood after his performance and toured the real-life fairytale Castle Gwen (where Taylor Swift famously shot her “Love Story” music video) before sadly shuffling back off to the real world.

I continued to go back year after year, still never brave enough to don a costume, but always thrilled to see everyone else dressed up and interacting with the actors and each other in character.

However, I never could quite pinpoint what exactly the allure was for me, why I never tired of the same schtick year after year.

‘For those brief moments … they forget everything else’

Back in 2017, I was a junior in college working for the student newspaper and was given the assignment to write a story about the Tennessee Renaissance Festival. I was able to interview a few performers about what it was like working there, and the enthusiasm with which they discussed their roles was infectious.

Flash forward to 2024, where I’m once again speaking with performers, but this time at the Arizona Renaissance Festival. It was my first festival season since moving out west, and while I hadn’t yet experienced this state’s festival yet, talking with the performers reminded me so much of my beloved Tennessee Renaissance Fest.

The fervor with which they told stories about the people who come back to see them year after year, or how they lived in a yurt so they could travel around to perform in other festivals, made it obvious this gig was more than a routine paycheck.

Performer Tony Miller, his alter ego being Shamus the Insulter, told me one of his greatest joys in life is to bring laughter because “for those brief moments when people laugh, especially out at a festival, they forget everything else in life — their worries, their stresses, their cares.”

And it’s true. I love going to the Renaissance Festival because for a day, I’m truly able to leave the world behind. Which is no small feat, especially these days.

But that’s only possible because of the amazing people who put these festivals on. No matter if you’re in Tennessee or Arizona, the Renaissance Festivals are made up of people dedicated to making the world a little more magical, even if it’s just for a day. Because it might be one you may never forget.