A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine in Janesville reached out to let me know about a small Renaissance Faire in Wisconsin: the (not surprisingly) Janesville Renaissance Faire (JRF). You may wonder what differentiates small and large Renaissance Faires; most comparisons will be to the Bristol Renaissance Faire (Bristol), since that’s the only other one I’ve attended recently. Primarily, the differences are affordability and permanence.
At the JRF, parking is free and, if you arrive early enough, fairly close; admission was a mere seven dollars (six if you brought a non-perishable food donation). In contrast, Bristol parking is five (general) or ten (preferred) dollars, and admission is up to a whopping forty dollars this year.
In terms of permanence, most vendors at Bristol display their wares in actual buildings at a location dedicated solely to the faire. In contrast, JRF vendors work out of pop-up tents at the Traxler Park, occupying it for just one weekend a year. Scrolling through the JRF’s sizable vendor list, I half expected a larger location, but the vendors made good use of their space.
There was, of course, entertainment, spread across four different stages. One, conveniently, was located in the midst of the food vendors, which was perfect while patiently waiting for lunch or dessert. As expected, there was a fine variety, ranging from musical groups such as Bardmageddon and Bounding Main, to comedy acts and even fire eating. Similar to Bristol, there were more events that we wanted to see than we could possibly attend, though the lunch line placement did help a bit.
The main difference we noticed was the shopping. While there’s no shortage of shopping opportunities at Bristol, sometimes we want to find small groups of gifts – think something in the one to five dollar range – and there were far more of those available at JRF than at Bristol. I suspect this is a combination of the lower entry cost for vendors and the sheer variety of merchandise, as not everything sold at JRF was strictly adhering to the Renaissance theme.
All told, it was a fun day and worth the drive… when the weather is good. We had a lovely sunny – yet not too warm – day, but I understand that it snowed for the event last year. I expect we’ll attend again, and continue to attend Bristol as well.
