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.

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The first thing to know is Larkspur is truly a small town, as in I didn’t even see a single stoplight type of town. The drive there is fairly easy coming down (or up) I-25 or they recommend the scenic route off Rte 105 to avoid traffic. The festival has plenty of parking space and an entire section for handicapped close to the entrance. But, if you don’t get there early you will easily find yourself in the overflow lot. I arrived on Saturday at 9:05 AM, 55 minutes before opening and was in the middle of overflow. So if you plan to attend, get there early to be closer to the gate.

Ticket prices for the festival are very reasonable. Adult tickets are $28 at the gate, $26.50 if you buy them online in advance, and $25 if you purchase them at King Soopers. Children’s tickets (ages 12 and under) are $12 at the gate and $11 online or at King Soopers. I highly recommend buying all your tickets at King Soopers are they are good for any one day at the festival and you’ll save yourself a few dollars.

Your first opinion of any Renaissance Festival is going to be the moment you see that entrance gate. How does it look? How were you treated when you entered? What did you first see? At Colorado Renaissance Festival, I was truly blown away by their grounds. The gate is a massive structure with multiple doors. They have a bridge you can walk in from to make it truly feel like you’re in the Renaissance era. And 30 minutes before the opening of the gates, the Royal Court stands at the top of the gate to greet everyone and they send out various entertainers to explain what the attendees should expect. The staff and entertainers truly know how to hype up the ground so the moment those doors open, the attendees can’t wait to get inside.

Once you are inside, it’s an amazing sight to behold. First, the festival is on private land so they have literally built up a village on the grounds. Stores and pubs are within physical buildings that have such wonderful architecture and style. The entertainment stages have stadium-style seating, hold lots of people, and have great views no matter where you sit. The jousting field is massive and wide and you can see it from pretty much anywhere (as long as people are sitting down). The Pirates Pub has a massive pirate ship as part of the entrance to the area. Overall, it is truly a beautiful festival ground. The one to note, the festival is on a mountain, so a good portion of walking is uphill as you make your way deeper and deeper into the festival.

The Royal Court by far are the most prominent people at the festival. Their interactions with the crowd are so critical because someone would always remember if the King or Queen treated you poorly. I can say the entire Royal Court are absolutely phenomenal. I watched over an entire weekend their kindness, compassion, their humor, and ensuring everyone was having a good time. Even I was asked multiple times if I was enjoying myself. The Royal Court hosts a meet and greet, they appear at the Joust, and even perform a Knighting Ceremony at the Chapel, which is a beautiful structure. The King even beckoned me to be knighted, which I truly appreciated. And if you want a truly fun time with the kids and Royal Court, go check out the Princess Tea Party on the lawn by the Joust around 4:30 PM. It’s not a listed event so keep your eyes out for it.

One of the most important events to me at a Renaissance Festival is their Joust. The Joust can be a centerpiece of the story around the Renaissance Festival. At Colorado, the Joust is hosted by The Knights of Noble Cause and they provide three events each day that oversees a story from the start to the end of the day. If you’re looking for a struggle of good vs. evil, chivalry vs. dishonor, this is the event for you. Feats of horse riding, combat, and a cast of characters you’ll love (or not depending on which side you’re on). They truly know how to get you engaged and drawn into the story and sometimes will throw a curveball you don’t see coming. I’ve seen this troupe numerous times and absolutely love their performances.

Of course, no Renaissance Festival is ever without its share of entertainers. And Colorado Renaissance Festival has a killer lineup of entertainers this year. One of the biggest names added this year is Jacques Ze Whipper. If you love Renaissance Festivals and don’t know who he is, you might be the first. His popularity on YouTube and TikTok has been massive and he absolutely fills his stage to overflow capacity. His whip tricks and French-ish personality has the crowd laughing and cheering the whole way through. He puns with the best of them and I’m sure you’ll laugh at them too. I highly recommend seeing his performance.

Sharing that same stage is Cydeshow Cy the Sword Swallower. He pulled a massive crowd at his performances mystifying people with his sword-swallowing ability plus his knife-throwing skills. He thrilled the crowd with his sword-swallowing, which made some people turn away. And he certainly made people gasp with his knife-throwing skills as he traced knives around his assistant Sarah. And then even let her throw knives around him. I loved his personality and his humor during his show and his skills will blow your mind. Another must-see performance while you’re at the festival.

And if that’s not enough to whet your appetite, how about a fire manipulator?! Dragonfire, who goes by Wilsome, does an amazing job with fire stunts from lighting fires off his hands to breathing massive fireballs into the air. I was truly amazed and blown away by these stunts and feel you will be too. If stunts aren’t your cup of tea, maybe comedy is more your style. If that is the case, check out Ded Bob. This ventriloquist act is very humourous, but fair warning, his humor is very mature. But, he is really funny. I gasped and groaned at some of the jokes, but overall really enjoyed his show. Note that Ded Bob is only at the festival for two more weekends only!

Of course, you can’t have a Renaissance Festival without musical entertainment and the Colorado Renaissance Festival has some fantastic performances to see. CRAIC is one of the most popular performers with their rock-style that absolutely has the audience moving and cheering them on. Their last performance of the day is epic and not to be missed. For some more traditional music, check out The Reelin’ Rogues with their storytelling and music which is very entertaining. I really enjoyed their music and personalities. And for a flavor of both, check out Celtic Legacy with their mixture of rock and Celtic storytelling.

If you are a parent and wonder if your kids will enjoy the festival, they are plenty for them to do. There are a bunch of kids rides, a maze for them to go through, but one of my favorite groups kids seem to love is Unicorn Hugs. Lady Brittany and Lady Raven are there to introduce to you to their live unicorns. The unicorns are absolutely adorable and Lady Brittany and Lady Raven have the perfect personalities working with children. And even if you don’t have kids, give them a visit. They are so sweet.

And if you just like to walk around there is so much to see between the food vendors, which has a wide variety of things to eat, drink vendors, who also have a wide variety options, and merchants for your shopping pleasure. One of my favorite things to see that weekend was the Parade. A whole cast of characters from the Royal Court, the Joust, merchants, and more. Definitely a worthwhile event.

Besides all of this, there is something special about this festival. It took me a bit to figure it out, but it’s the people. The attendees are hardcore fans of the festival. You can see their eagerness waiting for the gates to open. You can see their enjoyment during the performances. And how much they enjoy dressing up in appropriate period garb or cosplay. The fans make the atmosphere of the festival feel more jovial and alive.

This festival feels like a huge celebration no matter where you are going or what you are seeing. Though, if you want a party, stop by the Pirates Pub to be entertained with some fun songs from The Crimson Pirates and naughty songs from Chaste Treasure. Both were very entertaining and memorable.

Overall, should you attend the Colorado Renaissance Festival? Absolutely! The Festival grounds are beautiful, it is very reasonable price-wise, entertainment for all ages, and a really fun time. For more information, visit the Colorado Renaissance Festival’s website at https://coloradorenaissance.com/.

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