Review: Ohio Renaissance Festival 2010

Located a short drive from Cincinnati, the Ohio Renaissance Festival faires well as a recreated 16th century English village. My husband and I experienced our first Renaissance faire there this weekend.

Ohio Renaissance Festival Review: Food

The Ohio Renaissance Festival offers a variety of comfort foods served by friendly peasants in Renaissance period dress. The menu includes traditional items like the fried turkey leg and steak on a stake, but we selected the chicken pieces with curly fries and a steak sandwich washed down with flavorful Woodchuck hard cider. Lines for lunch were short, but the lines for the funnel cakes were infinitely long. We skipped the lines and opted instead for an apple dumpling. A wooden picnic table provided a nice respite while we ate. Entrees, ales and ciders are about $5-$6 each, and Pepsi products are $2.50 a cup.

Ohio Renaissance Festival Review: Shopping

Crafts people from around the country share their wares and knowledge at a variety of interesting booths. Beeswax candles, handmade soaps, bags of herbs, hand carved walking sticks, chain maille, leather armor, swords, custom handmade boots and quality Renaissance costumes, among other unique items, grace ye olde shoppes lining the walls of the town.

Ohio Renaissance Festival Review: Faire Activities

Visitors can take a break from shopping (or browsing) to attend their choice of shows: a joust between a prince and a knight in full metal armor on horseback, a pirate stunt show, theatre in a mud pit, glass blowing demonstrations, and a variety of musicals and/or comedies. A museum of medieval torture devices ($3) gives insight to a dark period in history but might be too disturbing for children. The little ones might better enjoy a human powered merry-go-round or a flying dragon ride while the young at heart can take a go at throwing swords or try another game of skill. Those who tire of walking can hire a couple of young peasants to wheel them around the streets while the lads shout, “move aside,” to pedestrians and then question, “have you noticed that common sense is not so common anymore?”

Ohio Renaissance Festival Review: Atmosphere

A cheesy amount of fun gives those with imagination a glimpse into 16th century life. The Ohio Renaissance Festival brings out Renaissance period vernacular along side a bit of a fake English accent in all but the most immune townspeople and visitors. All service workers and shopkeepers and several visitors dress in Renaissance costumes of various degrees of authenticity, although many of us risk a trip to the stockades for running around in our underthings (jeans and a t-shirt), or so I was told.

Ohio Renaissance Festival Review: Overall

The Ohio Renaissance Festival might not appeal to everyone, but those who are interested in living history, who enjoy unique shops, or who have a sense of humor should enjoy a day at this thirty-acre “village” in Harveysburg, Ohio, about a 45-minute drive from Cincinnati.

Source: Personal Experience