The Arizona Renaissance Fair held its 36th annual festival this year, and I attended.
The Arizona Renaissance Fair, featuring an artisan marketplace, is held in Gold Canyon off Highway 60. It is an outdoor amusement park, marketplace, circus, and adventure rolled into one! Held from 10 am to 6 pm every weekend (Saturday and Sunday), the Renaissance Festival runs from February 3rd to March 31st this year.
That said, I knew upon hearing of the festival months before its opening, that I had to buy a ticket and drive to the it myself to see if it lived up to my expectations.
After dragging along one of my friends and driving down to Gold Canyon, I arrived at the Arizona Renaissance Fair.
My first impression: The free parking! Yay.
Kidding!
While It was nice to know that after driving for about fifty minutes at least there was one thing I wouldn’t have to pay for. However, the parking was not my actual first takeaway. My first takeaway was the village-type setting in which the fair was set up. Out in the middle of the Arizona desert was a medieval city designed so convincingly I was surprised a full-sized castle had not come with it. Even just by seeing the front entrance, I knew I was in for a treat.
After parking, my friend and I headed to pay for our tickets. Tickets are $34 per adult and can be bought either in person or online, but there’s no discount either way you pay.
Once inside, I was surprised by how many people dressed up for the Renaissance fair. It was a cold and slightly rain-filled day so me and my friend had only worn warm clothes, but we saw plenty of people wearing costumes that looked straight out of a storybook. Knights, bards, elves, you name it- we saw it. Not to mention, most of the costumes seemed well made and elaborate, not the typical “medieval dress” you would see being sold at Party City for Halloween.
After adjusting our eyes to whatever wonderland we had stepped into, we were handed a map of the entire fair. Even though it was slightly confusing to navigate with, it came with a list of events and their time slots that were helpful for us to plan our day.
One of the events we attended was the Lynx Comedy Sword Swallowing Show. Yes, you read that right. Sword swallowing. The sword swallower, Lynx, was hilarious and frightening as he told the crowd jokes in between swallowing swords. Actually, not just swords, but a Chick-fil-A ladle and balloon as well. Dressed as what I assumed was a jester (I am not a huge medieval history buff) his act was hilarious and slightly creepy to see. It’s not often you see someone confidently hold a sword in their mouth.
The rest of the day my friend and I spent the time looking at the shops with over 200 artisans in the marketplace. Most of the items in the shops are unique (from swords to tissue boxes with eyes) and hand-crafted. Being in college, I did not have much extra cash to spend, but just looking at the variety of handmade items was entertaining in itself. The only thing I ended up purchasing was a gorgeous hair clip adorned with metal flowers and gems. The shop in which I bought it was also selling crowns. Even though they were out of my budget, my friend and I took lots of fun pictures which I obviously posted to Instagram.
Even though I was not able to see, do, and buy everything at the fair, it was still a great adventure for a Saturday afternoon that I would recommend to anyone with spare money and a car. The staff was kind and helpful, and with the numerous events and activities, you could spend days there and still not have experienced it all. All in all, I will definitely be returning to the fair during my next year at Grand Canyon University.