Saturday, May 25th, unfortunately, a washed-out day for us. While the day started a little overcast with a chance of rain, after we got inside and started walking, it became very dark and it poured. Stages already had entertainers performing and then the lightning started. That immediately drove them off the stage. We rode out the rain inside of the vendor’s shops (thank you Georgia Renaissance Festival for having physical buildings), but after it let up the grounds were a muddy mess. Some of the attendees didn’t seem to care as they sloshed through muddy puddles. We walked around for a bit enjoying the shops, the dueling arena, and checking out the reptile conservatory before calling it an early day and re-trying again tomorrow. Camera gear and mud doesn’t mix very well.

Sunday, May 26th was a perfect festival day! We started off getting there early so we could enjoy gate opening where King Henry VIII welcomed people to the Village of Newcastle. Various entertainers came out to speak and perform to the crowd about their acts. And it was Pirate Invasion weekend so many people dressed up in pirate garb ready to have a phenomenal day. As the gates opened there was a loud cheer and people made their way through the gates to the festival grounds.

The moment you walk into the Festival you are greeted by multiple cast members wishing you a good day. And throughout the day there are opportunities to interact with the cast members as you travel through the festival grounds. You may meet Iggy the Gargoyle who has been a resident of Newcastle for many years. You might encounter Queen Amina and her Court Aminatu. The warrior Queen leader of the Hausa tribe and her court traveled from Western Africa to visit the village of Newcastle. And you might even encounter the Hounds of East Fairhaven with their sweet and lovely hounds. Interacting with the cast of a festival always provides a more immersive experience.

As I said last year, the Georgia Renaissance Festival has a wonderful location. It is large (you will walk a lot to cover the festival) and they have physical buildings for all of their vendors. It provides a more realistic feel to the festival instead of seeing pop-up tents. It is a wonderful atmosphere to enjoy. There are so many different shops from clothing to jewelry to weapons and even gaming dice. One of my favorite stores sells handcrafted stuffed fantasy animals. The problem on the festival grounds is the lack of cellular signal. It’s so weird since there are residential homes right across the streets from the grounds. The Festival does notate on the website and tickets you might not have cell signal inside. This can cause some issues when trying to find your friends who have split from the party.

Much like last year, the food and drink options were incredible for the festival. There were so many different items to choose from including massive turkey legs, giant hot dogs, and my personal favorite the Steak on a Stake! The meatballs on a stake were also quite yummy along with the corn on the cob. Drink options were plentiful between your sodas and waters and so many varieties of IPAs and ciders. One of our favorite non-alcoholic drinks ended up being a cherry slushie. It was so tasty!

One of the truly fun things about the Festival are meeting other attendees, especially those in cosplay. There were so many cool costumes that day and a few people were kind enough to pause for some photos.

But, let’s talk about some of the entertainment we saw at the Festival this year. Several of them were repeats from last year because they were very enjoyable and happened to be back again! First was the Birds of Prey show. Steve Hoddy the founder of Earthquest educated the attendees about birds of prey and showed off his ambassador birds. This included an Arrow Harris hawk, a great horned owl, a peregrine falcon, and an Andean Condor named Storm. His falcon decided he didn’t want to stick around for the show and flew off into the trees and did not return (don’t worry, they’re all chipped and easily tracked). One of the great things he taught people was about the Merlin Bird ID app created by Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology. The app can identify over 400+ different species of birds by their singing calls. Steve highly recommended attendees to download it and go out into their own neighborhoods to see what birds live there. Earthquest is a non-profit organization dedicated to conservation and environmental education. You can check out their site at https://earthquest.org.

Also returning was Cast in Bronze. Charlie St. Cyr-Paul is a Carillonneur who performs music on the only existing mobile carillon. The carillon weighs 4 tons and contains 35 bronze bells ranging in various sizes. The carillon is played like a piano and the keys are pressed using both Charlie’s hands and feet. As he presses the keys, the bells attached to that key will ring. Charlie takes some classical and modern-day music and re-creates them on the carillon. Some of my favorite songs he performed were the Game of Thrones theme song, Hedwig’s Theme from the Harry Potter franchise, and the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song. My daughter and I truly enjoyed his version of the classic “O Fortuna”.

And we couldn’t go without seeing one of our favorite acts in the daredevils of Barely Balanced. The trio of Small, Medium, and Large entertain the fans with their humor and acrobatic performances, feats of strength, and incredible balancing stances. I’ve seen them many times and would never pass an opportunity to see them again. They’re absolute crowd pleasers and the show we attended was packed! Every seat was filled plus the people standing to enjoy the show. Plus, you could also purchase from them their 5E Dungeons & Dragons adventure they created beating up monsters with giant turkey legs at a Renaissance Festival!

One of the crowd-pleasers returning was the Italian band Rota Temporis. The drum band had the crowd completely amped up and rocking the stage. Rota Temporis is loud and then get louder. You can hear them playing from the joust field, which is on the other side of the festival grounds! They truly are a fun band to watch and I suspect they’ll be back next season.

One of the new acts for the Georgia Renaissance Festival this season was The Reelin’ Rogues. I had the opportunity to see them at another Renaissance Festival. The trio performs a variety of Celtic music singing songs of Irish history and folklore. They are very energetic and the three are very talented musicians. It’s amazing how beautiful their music using only a guitar drums and a flute or bagpipe. They’re one of my favorite acts and the crowd also enjoyed their performances.

The staple of every Renaissance Festival is the Joust. The troupe working the Georgia Renaissance Festival is known as DeBracey Productions. They ran three shows a day as part of their storyline. I’ve seen them multiple times and they always provided some different aspects to the joust including a lot of trick riding between four knights. This show I saw only had two knights performing. The story was good though I miss seeing the cast I’ve seen in the past. I will say DeBracey Productions does put on entertaining shows and this year if you were in the front row you had the chance of getting sprayed with joust blood!

Another new act this year was the belly dancers of Boom Boom Shake. I’ve seen them before at our local Renaissance Faire and they’re so much fun. Their music is great and both women are very talented belly dancers. The crowd enjoyed their performances and I suspect we will see them back at the Georgia Renaissance Festival next season.

One of the fun and surprising acts for me was Juggling Geoff. His show is what you expect of him juggling various things and even balancing a stack of items. But, it was his interaction with kids was great. And the fact he got them to get a spinning plate line where they started passing the plates down to each other was fantastic. You could see his facial expression showing his enjoyment. I really enjoyed his show and was glad I got to see it.

Our visit to the Georgia Renaissance Festival will filled with fun and lots of laughs. I truly love this festival and look forward to returning next season when they celebrate their 40th Anniversary! I’m sure it will be a special season.

The post REN FAIRE TRAVELS: GEORGIA RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL – FAIRBURN GA – MAY 25-26, 2024 appeared first on The Ren Faire Traveler.

I was forewarned the Festival gets very busy early in the morning and luckily we were staying about 6 minutes away. We arrived around 10 AM ET (30 minutes prior to opening) and the lots were already filled with cars. Luckily, we weren’t parked too far from the entrance, but we got caught up in a line that was stretched quite far from the actual entrance. When the gates opened, it would take a few minutes before we could even see the entrance gate. Above the gate on an archway was King Henry VIII and members of his court greeting the guests. They were quite jovial and engaged the crowd often to keep them distracted from the long lines to get inside. Once we got through the gates, I was literally stunned by what I saw.

There were physical buildings inside the Renaissance Festival creating the Village of New Castle. While to some this may seem commonplace, but I never had the opportunity to attend a Festival that contained physical structures on the grounds. It truly provided a completely different atmosphere. They had a great fountain right inside the front gates with frogs splashing out water from their mouths too. The mass amounts of people meandering through the stores and posing for photos was amazing. And the vast amount of people in cosplay made me smile. Within a few feet of the entrance, you’d meet a cast of characters including Iggy the Gargoyle, Mother and Father Goose who had geese you could hold and pet, Captain Sillybeard, The Lady Victoria (amazing musician) the Washing Well Wenches (who have a fantastic show to see), and so many more.

Looking out and seeing just how large the grounds were was a little overwhelming. The map alone made me wonder how I would try to catch as many things as possible during the Festival weekend. It was interesting walking the grounds as it is built on hills, so on certain roads you’re heading on a steep incline up while others are slight. But, from entrance to end, you’re for the most part on a climb. Though, these hills do provide a beautiful view of the festival, especially over the joust field. Fantastic view from the hill down to the joust.

The food and drink options were incredible. All of the pubs were busy serving various meads, beers, and other alcoholic beverages. There were so many food options to try as well. One of my favorites was the Steak on a Stake, which was quite tasty. The Meatball on a Stake was very good too. Though, I regret not getting the opportunity to try the fried ice cream (though my daughter said it was yummy) or the fried peanut butter and jelly! Either way, food and drink wise there was something for everyone.

As much as I was loving this festival, there was one thing that is hard to overlook; the lack of cell service. The festival even says when purchasing your tickets to have either a printed ticket or screenshot on your phone of your ticket because the cell service is lacking, and they’re not kidding. For two days, I couldn’t get a signal except at the very front of the festival. It’s definitely an inconvenience when you have multiple people in a group who separate and have no good way to communicate with each other. The grounds could truly benefit from a cell tower or two on the grounds. Would I call this a showstopper from attending this festival? Absolutely not! While this is an inconvenience, there are so many great things about this festival, especially the entertainers.

I got to see a bunch of entertainers over the two days and each one was entertaining in their own way. Sir William of the Free Juggling School took time to educate those who feel they never could juggle. 30 years of being a juggler he was confident he can teach anyone to juggle. It was interesting to watch his technique and class. His classes are every hour in the Old Towne area.

Birds of Prey was a truly fascinating and educational show learning about the nature of birds of prey. Steve Hoddy the founder of Earthquest had a number of birds including a hawk, falcon, eagle owl, and a condor to show off these amazing animals and why they’re important to our environment. Steve is a fantastic storyteller and shared great stories about these birds and even some truly humorous ones. This is definitely a worthwhile and, to me, a must-see show. Also, check out Steve’s website at https://earthquest.org.

Surprisingly, one of my favorite performers was at the Georgia Renaissance Festival this year. They are Cast in Bronze. Charlie St. Cyr-Paul is a Carillonneur that plays on a mobile carillon that weighs 4 tons and contains 35 bronze bells. And played much like a piano those bells ring as he pushes on keys with his hands and feet. What makes his show unique is his take on modern music performed on the Carillon. He has a guest vocalist with him when he plays Evanescene’s “Bring Me To Life”. But, I truly love his performance of the Game of Thrones’ theme song and Hedwig’s Theme from the Harry Potter franchise. Charlie is a very talented musician, don’t miss his performance.

Barely Balanced Acrobatic Daredevils is a show filled with humor, stunts, and breathtaking feats. Small, Medium, and Large have performed together for many years and they have implicit trust in each other as they perform these stunts. And their skill in performing these stunts is truly spectacular. But, it’s their hilarious antics as they perform these stunts that grab the audience and keep them in their seats. I truly laughed hard watching them perform and cheered as they successfully pulled them off. And after the show you can purchase their Dungeons and Dragons 5E adventure they wrote!

And then we have The Puppies of Penzance. An adorable show filled with dogs performing tricks along with comedy. Jumping, trick walking, see-saw balancing, the pups did amazing athletic feats while providing the audience with laughter. If you’re a dog lover, this is a show you don’t want to miss.

If you’re looking for a more immersive experience at the festival, go to Wilwood Pavillion where you can catch an audience with King Henry VIII and Queen Catherine and Queen Amina and her court from the Hausa tribe. It was really cool to sit down and listen in on their conversations. The courts are always willing to take pictures with visitors and more than willing to have conversations with their guests to Newcastle. This was a personal favorite over the weekend.

One event I literally stumbled upon over on the Jousting Field was a Costume Contest. Anyone dressed up in costume could enter and the field of entrees was quite large. There were witch hunters, Shrek and Fiona, mushrooms, The Owl House, and so many more. The whip-cracking Indiana Jones cosplay was impressive as he truly had some great whipping skills. But, to me, the Sunflower Princess was very impressive. The winner that day went to a bishop and a group of monks.

But, what’s a Renaissance Festival without a Joust?! The Georgia Renaissance Festival hosts DeBracey Joust Productions three times a day in an ongoing story throughout the day. Everything from ring catching to trick riding, the skill these knights show is absolutely incredible. And when it comes down to the fighting, it gets down and dirty and sometimes downright crazy! The jousting is fun to watch, but the hand-to-hand combat is where things get gritty (watch out for blood sprays!). They put on an excellent showing and they are a must-see event. You won’t regret it.

My truly favorite event from over the weekend was the special guest of Dragoonis Flame. The trio of Lady Pyromancer, Chrystal, and Cat of Staves perform with all various items lighting them all on fire! Lady Pyromancer blowing kisses and running flames up and down her arms was insane. Chrystal made flames look beautiful with her umbrella dance. And Cat of Staves decided to go wild between the two staffs and the bullwhip. The visuals from their performances are truly out of this world and you won’t be disappointed watching their show.

All in all, the Georgia Renaissance Festival is a fun time for everyone with great entertainment, fabulous food and drinks, and a loveable cast of characters. June 3rd and 4th is the last weekend of the season. Go to https://www.garenfest.com/ to get your tickets. And if you can’t make it to their festival this season, plan to go in 2024. I will definitely be back.

The post REN FAIRE TRAVELS: GEORGIA RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL – FAIRBURN, GA – MAY 27-28, 2023 appeared first on The Ren Faire Traveler.