King Richard’s New England Renaissance Fair is super cool.

Yes. One happens on Mother's Day weekend. There are also others in surrounding New England states that go on throughout the Summer.

If you are just casually interested, or don't want to devote a lot of time, you are perfectly able to just show up at ren fairs when they happen.

If you want to get more involved, I would look up a local chapter of Society for Creative Anachronism

This was what I was gonna say. Been there for a long time, my sister worked there and I went as a kid (25+ years ago). Wicked fun, clean, and very well done, not campy or cheaply put together. Plus the turkey legs….oooh the turkey legs. I have few memories from childhood, lots of head injuries, but I clearly remember those turkey legs!

The Black Swan Inn in Tilton had a small one each summer, although that may have stopped with COVID.

Alton, ME has one twice a year

There’s a pretty cool sub for faires

https://www.reddit.com/r/renfaire/

Get into, like participate? Attend? NHRF is held in May in Fremont. If you want to be a performer or vendor, you'll want a digital portfolio of your work before you teach out to the sites.

There's on in Kingston. Never been but they do it every year.

Not exactly sure but just been thinking it looks like a lot of fun to dress up and participate however possible.

It’s a hike, but the one in Tuxedo, NY is worth the travel. There’s budget accommodations in the area and it runs from late summer to early fall. Highly recommend, but def would try to steer to cooler weather.

Do you mean Acton?

Me too! But I always ended up feeling scared to go.

Yes haha. It's very close to NH

Anyone can dress up! It’s really fun and you don’t need a professional level costume either. Just if you plan to have edged weapons (like a sword) as part of your costume it needs to be sheathed and peace-tied, which means zip-tied into the sheath so it can’t be drawn. And no crossbow bolts or arrows. Bows with no arrows are ok. My advice is bring a bag with water and money in and stay all day! We went to king Richard’s faire near Boston this year and it was really fun!

Dressing up is always fun. If you want to "get your feet wet", the SCA holds a winter market on Jan 28-29 in Manchester. Period dress is required for attendance, but they also have a small lending closet for folks who are in need.

I love king richards! Every weekend has a different theme like a game of thrones weekend or a cleavage themed weekend

It’s very small and is only 2 weekends in may. Something to note is maine has one at the acton fair grounds in late July. It was very busy when we went

You can go without dressing up. One way you can do it is to put your costume together over time from things you get at the fair itself, so the costume itself is a memento of your visits.

You can also always dress up as Deadpool because Deadpool goes anywhere, or as the Doctor from Doctor Who because time-travellers are always period-appropriate.

Not a renaissance fair but maybe similar is the New Hampshire Highland Games every early September. It’s good clean fun.

Highland Games seem to be the big festival of that nature in NH. Tickets aren't cheap and I think you have to order them pretty far ahead.

The NH Ren Faire is cool, bit small as others have said. King Richard's is an institution but pricey with scammy food tickets. I really like the VT ren faire. It's not huge but has great craft beer/mead/cider and has a good variety of vendors and food trucks.

Maine is fine, but also a clusterfuck. You can get costume stuff at faires or websites like Calimacil.

That Vermont one sounds great

The Franklin Lions Club hosts one, I think annually. It was a month or so ago in Odell Park in Franklin.

Birka!

There's also one in central Massachusetts called Mutton & Mead. Lots of fun!

It's definitely my favorite of the ones, even if it is a bit of a drive. Groenfell Meadery is an organizer for it and their shit is amazing.

We used to go to the renaissance festival in Sterling NY when i was a kid, it was alot of fun. My sister worked there as a cake wench one summer. Looks like it's still in operation.

I went for a few years while I was in high school, and it was always so fun and welcoming. And the staff were always so fun to roleplay with too!

I think there’s one in a field in Fremont or Epping

It was in Kingston, but I think it was held somewhere else this year.

Love the Ren Fair, sadly I haven’t been able to go in a while. King Richard’s is probably the closest around here in Carver MA

I don’t live far from the Moonlight Meadery and know a guy who makes really good mead at home. Always down to try a new place!

market day at birka

We've gone to the NH Ren Faire many times and have always had a blast.

We went to King Richard's Faire for the first time this year, and we'll never waste our money again.

Now, we're, once again, eagerly awaiting the NH Ren Faire in May. Highly recommended for all ages.

Franklin has a small one I’ve been to once. It’s fine.

Just curious why do you feel that way about king Richards? I used to go almost every year but haven’t in a long time.

I used to work there. The newer owner Bonnie is so bad. Doesn't care about the actors or booth owners. So much drama. It's really gone down the drain and the price jack doesn't help. It started before covid.

It was basically a day of standing in line after line for anything we wanted to do. We expected a long line to get in, of course. But then there were lines to buy tickets for food, lines to buy food, lines to buy drinks, lines for rides, etc. Each line was 20-25 people long, and the employees seemed to have no desire to be fast and efficient at getting the lines moving.

Trying to get food and drinks was especially ridiculous. After standing in line for tickets for food, we stood in one line for a burger, had to go to a different line for chicken fingers and yet another line for a pretzel, even though all the windows shared the same kitchen space behind them. The person at each window would only sell what their window advertised, even though they had to walk past the other items to get it. Between tickets and food, we were in line for nearly 90 minutes, just to have lunch.

There was also no real happiness coming from the actors. Everyone just seemed in a bad mood, giving off negative vibes, and completely unhappy.

We actually sat with a woman who worked there in through the 90s but hadn't been back until this year. She said it was completely different and she'll never go back again.

It has gotten massive and expensive. The NH one is smaller, cheaper, and more accessible.

I know a lot of the jousters, and worked for a couple booths. Just to give you an idea of how bad it's gotten. The new owner at one point was refusing to let the booth owners and jousters stay at the fairgrounds. People would drive hours to work there. After about 5-6 booths said if you don't let us stay we're pulling out for good. It was pretty damn bad. The jousters said you can either pay for our horses to stay at a barn for the faire season or we're done. It was so bad. The head of security Norm was telling me that the owner was scrambling and almost closed because she was a dimwit. I haven't gone in a couple years but to be honest it's not what it was.

I love the NH Ren Faire, so I was excited to finally go to King Richard's Faire after hearing years of hype, but I'll never waste my money going back again. Very disappointing.

How is the new Hampshire faire? How big is it?

Worthy of mentioning is last time I attended the NH Ren Faire there was no alcohol allowed or offered at the event. Not sure if that's changed as someone mentioned a venue change.

And here you go - the NH Renaissance Faire!

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nhrenfaire

Seconding this one. And going in September is ideal.