What to Eat and Things to Do at the Ohio Renaissance Festival
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What’s Up, Hungry People
If getting a little tipsy in a medieval town while dressed like it’s the dark ages sounds like fun, you’ll feel right at home at the Ohio Renaissance Festival! Located just outside my hometown of Dayton, Ohio, this place is where you can sword fight with friends, throw tomatoes at real-life jesters and cheer on knights jousting on horseback.
For over 30 years, this tiny field has transformed into a full-on 16th-century town, and with two decades since my last visit, it was definitely time for a foray into this fantasy land.
Why is the Ohio Renaissance Festival the Best One? Why Should I Dress Up for THIS?
Because it’s the biggest one around – at least in Ohio. While there are other Ren Faires in the state, the Ohio Renaissance Festival is by far the largest and has the longest season. I strongly encourage you to dress up – otherwise, you’ll feel out of place in a town full of fantastical creatures; you’ll definitely see people dressed as everything from the elves and fae, vikings and peasants… to Deadpool, Garfield and dionsaurs. Nothing is off limits – bring your favorite cosplay outfit you haven’t had an excuse to wear anywhere and let loose! This festival is not about being cool, it’s about make believe – get ready to play pretend and have a few ales while you’re at it.
Get Your Ohio Ren Fest Tickets In Advance!
We actually intended to go earlier in the season with a few friends and didn’t realize that the festival has started to limit attendence due to the popularity of the festival in recent years. I recommend buying your tickets online as soon as you’re able in ensure that you can attend the festival. I do recall seeing ticket windows near the entrance (presumably for will-call type tickets), though it’s possible they have tickets for sale at the gate on slower weekends in the summer.
Either way, play it safe and buy your tickets with plenty of time to change to a different date if the weekend is sold out. Themed weekends (like the lover’s weekend / unofficial ACOTAR weekened) seem to sell out quickly – as well as the pub crawl tickets and special event tickets. You don’t need to do much planning ahead, but make sure you check out all of the offerings of the Ren Fest well in advance and book any special tickets. Once you arrive, it’s time to let loose!
Exploring the Shoppes and Grabbing Festival Snacks
While waiting for our troupe to assemble, we took a stroll down the main road lined with shops selling medieval wares. You can find everything here – from trusty walking sticks and wooden spoons to leather goods and actual iron weapons. I myself may or may not have bought two LOTR swords for future recipe props.
After some window shopping, we grabbed a couple of cheesy stuffed pretzels to snack on and made our way to one of the many pub tents for some hard cider, ale, and mead. Let me tell you, there’s nothing better than getting a little tipsy in the autumn sun while watching people of all ages in a variety of incredibly themed outfits have a good time together!
Taking on the Festival Games: Tomato Toss and Human-Powered Rides
Once we had a few drinks down, we meandered through the festival grounds to throw tomatoes at the town fool, which is just as fun as it sounds. Growing up, my favorite part of the festival was always the human-powered fair rides. From the spinning chair ride to the swinging barrel that looks like it’s straight out of medieval times, these whimsical rides are a must for all festival travelers.
There’s even a live-action mermaid show for kids and an area in the Whimsy Woods where you can challenge friends to a sword fight. They even have a section where kids can try their hand at swinging a sword at an unlucky sibling!
Death-Defying Stunts at the Wheel of Death
From the Whimsy Woods, we made our way to the Wheel of Death to catch some jaw-dropping stunts by the wheel walker himself, Ichabod Wainwright.
Watching him defy gravity on that wheel had the crowd on the edge of their seats. The giant wheel is weighted on one end so that it spins the cage around and high into the air. He crawls in and out of the cage, jumps rope and even catapults off of it at the end for a spectacular landing. Luckily, he survived the show, so we could move on to the main event – the joust.
The Full-Armor Joust at the Arena of Champions
After making sure Ichabod made it through his stunts in one piece, we headed to the nearby Arena of Champions to watch the full-armor joust.
Seriously, this was so fun to watch – even though the sun was in our eyes most of the time. If you get there early but still can’t find a seat in the stands, try to snag some standing room on the opposite side of the arena, or if you’re super lucky, you might actually get a seat inside with the royal court.
Watching the horses and squires alongside real armored knights going through a series of challenges before finally facing off with lances was insanely fun. I can totally see why jousting was such popular entertainment back in the day.
A Muddy Good Time at the Theatre in the Ground
As the joust wrapped up, we made our way over to the Theatre in the Ground for the famous mud show. This is exactly what it sounds like—three grown men cracking jokes while getting covered in mud. I’m pretty sure when I was a kid this whole bit was just fancy mud wrestling, so I’d say we’ve come a long way since the literal dark ages of the festival.
Refueling with Festival Eats: Corn on the Cob and Turkey Legs (or Ham?)
At this point, we’d worked up quite the appetite, and I needed some buttery corn in my life. There’s nothing quite like the taste of sweet corn dipped in melted butter after a day of drinking.
With the sun starting to set and the festival only open until around 7, we made our way to the main halls for some music and the classic Renaissance festival eats. Of course, no visit to the festival is complete without grabbing a giant barbecued turkey leg… or is it perhaps an emu leg?
Even stranger, I recently heard a rumor that these might actually be ham. So, if you know what they’re really serving, let me know! Now that I think about it, it did taste more like ham than turkey, but whatever it was, it was absolutely worth it.
Wrapping Up with Middle Eastern Eats and Final Festivities
After wandering around a bit more, we decided we should probably eat a proper dinner. We found an incredible plate of hummus, za’atar seasoned meat and fried falafel from the Middle Eastern food vendor. Fried food and pita bread definitely hit the spot after a day of medieval revelry, that’s for sure.
A few drinks later, we made our way back toward the entrance for our final stop of the evening at the Feast Hall and the 3 Fools Pub, where we enjoyed some music and dancing to close out the day.
Planning for Next Year’s Renaissance Adventure
While the 2024 Renaissance Festival season has officially come to an end, I’m already planning to come back next year with a fresh game plan and a new outfit.
What’s Next? More Festivals and Foodie Adventures!
This year’s festival season may have ended, but I’ll definitely be back next year with a new game plan and a better outfit. What foodie festival should I hit up next? Let me know in the comments, and if you liked this out-of-the-kitchen adventure, don’t forget to follow The Starving Chef for weekly foodie trips and recipes!
