Photograph courtesy Ohio Renaissance Festival
If you’ve ever attended the Ohio Renaissance Festival, you know the vibe: Hedge knights stroll among time-traveling doctors, bedecked lords and ladies, regal queens, conniving court jesters, not-so-wise wizards, fairies, and a few folks in modern attire.
“Our tagline is Where fantasy and history collide,” says Cheryl Bales, the fest’s marketing strategist. “We’re still holding on to the historical aspects of the Renaissance period, but we’re open to the fantasy side as well, which would be the more popular trends of pirates, Vikings, steampunk.”
This year marks the Ohio Renaissance Festival’s 37th season charming guests, kicking off September 5 and running on weekends through November 1. In March, it was crowned the best U.S. Renaissance fair in USA TODAY’s 10BEST Readers’ Choice Awards. Huzzah!
Located in Warren County—a convenient road trip from Cincinnati or Dayton—the festival was founded by Peter Carroll in 1990. At the time, he co-owned the Georgia Renaissance Festival. (Brimstone and Fire bought that festival in 2015.)
“We have grown from about a 10-acre facility in 1990 to now we’re pushing 40 acres,” says Bales, adding that this pocket of Midwest whimsy boasts more than 100 live performances across 17 or 18 stages. Amble about the grounds and you’ll find hundreds of shops and vendors selling wares, trinkets, and, of course, juicy turkey legs that would have even the most barbaric reaching for a napkin. (Though, if you ask us, you’d be remiss not to try the lavender lemonade complete with fairy dust.)
“We have a team of people who have built it to be immersive,” says Bales. “I think that sets us apart. We have enough land and acreage with an attendance cap that everyone can come and have a great time.”
Ticket buyers have come from every state, including Alaska, says Bales. The fest draws around 285,000 attendees annually, making it one of the largest Renaissance festivals in the country. Despite its growth, there are attendees and performers alike who have been with the fest since the ’90s; The Swordsmen, a witty comedic duo, have been with the festival all 37 years.
How does the festival approach growth? Bales says it’s very purposeful: “We will reach a point where we have no more land, so everything we do has to be an intentional decision thinking about the growth of the property.”
Its last expansion, the five-acre Whimsy Woods, opened in 2023, complete with mushroom statues and fairy houses. True to its name, Whimsy Woods was designed to add an all-ages, fantasy-leaning space to the grounds where people can relax in the shade.
The advent of social media has also shaped the festival. Bales says the fest taps into what’s trending culturally. A few years ago, it was pirate culture, then steampunk, and now there’s more interest in Vikings. During the last two weekends of September, the fest will host viral sensation Jacques the Whipper, a circus performer who holds the Guinness World Record for most bullwhip cracks in one minute, at 298—an act that Bales says festival organizers have hoped to bring to Ohio for the past two years.
Through the decades, the attraction of a Renaissance festival remains, no matter if you’re 5 or 95. “You take all that modern-day stress and in-the-moment instantaneous culture and just close the door on it for a while,” says Bales.
