So, I went to the New York Rennaisance Faire this weekend:

[Janx]

Sounds like Texas has better ren fairs.

TRF is huge, and has gotten a pretty good jousting show

Nowadays, your always going to have some yahoo dressed as a stormtrooper or a star trek officer. We ignore them.

Scarborough Faire is also good. It's a smaller faire, but the site is nicer.

I haven't seen the other fairs in Texas to commment on them.

 

[jaerdaph]

I've been to the Ren Faire in Sterling (in the 90s) and the Ren Faire in Manhattan at the Cloisters (in 2007). Had a great time at both.

Now that I live upstate, I need to check out Sterling again.

Edit:
Thinking back on my very first Ren Faire (which was in the late 80s, IIRC) at Sterling I believe (definitely upstate New York), I remember the local residents not being all too thrilled about it happening at the time. They put in as much effort into their protest as many of the Ren Faire participants did, including tons of clever protest signs (with Medieval style caligraphy) and the neighboring farmers piled up cow and horse manure along the outskirts of their property that bordered the Faire. Fortunately we were up wind the day we attended.

 

[jaerdaph]

I saw way too many people dressed in the wrong costumes (more on this later).

Creative Anachronism. That's part of the fun of the Ren Faire! I've seen everything from pirates, courtesans from Louis XVI's court, to Star Trek/Star Wars.

Come to think of it, the next time I go, I think I'll dress as the Fourth Doctor.

 

[Pbartender]

Come to think of it, the next time I go, I think I'll dress as the Fourth Doctor.

I've got to remember that one...

We went to the Bristol (WI/IL) Ren Faire for the first time last year. The anachronisms didn't bother me -- although the lack of effort in costuming sometimes did -- as much as the fact that we paid to get in, and then had to pay to do anything and everything once we were there.

Except for a few street performers (and granted, some of them were VERY good), it seemed like everything required additional admission, even after buying the tickets. We spent half the day walking around in circles, looking at really expensive souvenir shops, and then went home.

Terribly disappointing.

 

[Deset Gled]

We went to the Bristol (WI/IL) Ren Faire for the first time last year. The anachronisms didn't bother me -- although the lack of effort in costuming sometimes did -- as much as the fact that we paid to get in, and then had to pay to do anything and everything once we were there.

Except for a few street performers (and granted, some of them were VERY good), it seemed like everything required additional admission, even after buying the tickets. We spent half the day walking around in circles, looking at really expensive souvenir shops, and then went home.

What was it that you wanted to do that cost money? I've been to this fair for many years (this is the first year I've missed in a long time) and never paid admission for a show. Many performers send around donation baskets at the end, but that's not exactly the same charging for admission.

 

[Umbran]

Except for a few street performers (and granted, some of them were VERY good), it seemed like everything required additional admission, even after buying the tickets. We spent half the day walking around in circles, looking at really expensive souvenir shops, and then went home.

Terribly disappointing.

That's unusual for a Ren Faire. I'm sorry you didn't have a good time.

Near Boston, King Richard's Faire doesn't have that. You may pay to play games, or for food or merchandise, but all the shows are free. The Faire is still a bit pricey, but worth it if you take an enthusiastic 5-year-old boy, ready to suspend belief somewhere up in the clouds...

 

[Relique du Madde]

I've got to remember that one...

We went to the Bristol (WI/IL) Ren Faire for the first time last year. The anachronisms didn't bother me -- although the lack of effort in costuming sometimes did -- as much as the fact that we paid to get in, and then had to pay to do anything and everything once we were there.

Except for a few street performers (and granted, some of them were VERY good), it seemed like everything required additional admission, even after buying the tickets. We spent half the day walking around in circles, looking at really expensive souvenir shops, and then went home.

Terribly disappointing.

Wow.. that sucks, though I'm used to walking around in circles because how all the decent shows at the SO CAL fair are so widely spread that by the time you leave one show and make it to the next all the seating is gone and if you do manage to see the show your stuck standing/sitting in the sun.

 

[Pbartender]

What was it that you wanted to do that cost money? I've been to this fair for many years (this is the first year I've missed in a long time) and never paid admission for a show. Many performers send around donation baskets at the end, but that's not exactly the same charging for admission.

I, oh understand that... Although I think part of it was the "begging for money" feeling I got from it. Every performance was preceded and followed by a speech that amounted to, "They don't pay us. Give us money or we'll starve."

Wow.. that sucks, though I'm used to walking around in circles because how all the decent shows at the SO CAL fair are so widely spread that by the time you leave one show and make it to the next all the seating is gone and if you do manage to see the show your stuck standing/sitting in the sun.

And that might be a part of it as well... All the shows seemed to be juggler... juggler... musician... juggler... acrobats... juggler... juggler... juggler... musician...

It was disappointing that all the rides cost extra (and a LOT extra, at that), because it left us little to do between jugglers. It's the same reason we don't often go to carnivals or county fairs anymore.

 

[Relique du Madde]

That's also what cheeses me about the Ren Faire. I mean seriously, $5 to go on a small wooden dragon swing that is pushed back-and-forth by a carnie dressed in period clothing? At least when I go to the county fair and do that there's a chance I might die, so at least the excitement if factored into that $5 dollars.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

The one in Texas (Plantersville I think) is really good and I have enjoyed myself the two times I have had the chance to go.