Bay Area Renaissance Festival — Attraction in Dade City

A Disorganized, Underwhelming Disaster.

What an absolute mess from the moment we arrived. The parking situation was chaotic, with a bunch of folks “working” the lot—except they were mostly standing around in groups, talking instead of actually directing traffic. We saw multiple cars being told to park, then asked to move, then asked to move back again, which (understandably) left people frustrated and angry.

Once inside, things didn’t improve. There was almost no food available. Every ren-faire-operated food vendor had none of the advertised food (except eventually hotdogs and hamburgers) for at least the first two and a half hours of the festival being open. How does that even happen? The only place that had food was the wood-fired pizza stand—because they actually had their act together and aren’t run by the festival. And it was good, $5 for a big slice, definitely recommend that. A frazzled festival manager tried to give me the excuse that it was their opening day. How is that an excuse? This is your chance to make a good first impression and maybe get people to drive all the way back out to middle-of-nowhere Dade City and ya blew it! He also said that the turkey legs had arrived frozen and needed time to thaw and reach an internal temperature blah, blah, blah. Yeah I know how to cook, dude. Clearly, you all don’t. For a festival charging $25+tax per person, this level of mismanagement is ridiculous.

Beyond the food debacle, there just wasn’t enough to do. The vendor area felt like a cheap flea market, with way too many stalls selling marked-up Temu junk instead of unique, handcrafted items. Almost no one was in character, and the overall lack of interactive elements made the whole experience feel lifeless. It was honestly sad watching the dying breaths of what used to be a great Renaissance fair.

To top it all off, we couldn’t even find some of the vendors that were listed in the festival pamphlet, including Global Scents. When we asked for help at the information booth, the person there was useless and provided zero information.

On the way out, we were actually stopped by an older couple sitting in their car asking what was going on because they saw and heard so many disappointed people leaving the festival. We told them what was up and they agreed that the fair, which they’re season ticket holders to, has been going downhill since they moved from their MOSI location in Tampa.

Bottom line: This was a total letdown. Disorganized, boring, and not worth the money. Unless major improvements are made, we won’t be back—and we wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. If you like renaissance fairs, we highly recommend the Sarasota Medieval Fair. It’s usually later in the year and much...

Went with a group of 8 people, some of which had experienced a renaissance festival before, others who had not. Compared to other ren fests we’ve been to (Bristol & Atlanta), this one wasn’t as “wow” of an experience primarily due to aesthetics/atmosphere, vendor/shop selection, and employee service.

Edit to add context: Final weekend, attended early in the day.

AESTHETICS/ATMOSPHERE: One of our attendees who has also been to other ren fests (not Bristol or Atlanta) described the atmosphere of the Bay Area ren fest as “sketchy,” and we suspect that was due to the use of temporary pop-up tent structures. Understanding that Florida weather doesn’t always allow for more permanent structures, the plastic pop-up tents just don’t quite match up to the wooden semi-permanent structures we’ve seen at other fests. When you have those more permanent structures, it feels more like an immersive village than this did.

VENDOR/SHOP SELECTION: The shop selection was, for the most part, underwhelming compared to other festivals. The honey shop and the witchy candle and scent stall near the entrance were standout highlights, and that’s about it.

EMPLOYEE SERVICE: Parking was a bit of a free-for-all, and could’ve used more attentive guidance from the parking staff. The parking team employees were inattentive, either listening to music on headphones next to the entrance (not paying any attention to the cars, not guiding anyone) or standing around not directing cars in any way, shape, or form. At other ren fests we’ve been to, the parking staff guide you every step of the way, with every staff member actively signaling where to go at all times. Separately, a couple of the volunteer employees manning activities, especially the one staffing the maze, seemed bored and uninterested in being there.

POSITIVES: Friendliness, overall ren fest camaraderie, and some performances. The staff manning the cinnamon roasted pecans/almonds/cashews stall were very friendly and patient while the card-reader malfunctioned. You definitely still get the “everyone’s just here to have a good time” vibes from other attendees like you do from all ren fests. All attendees were friendly and most were dressed in costume, which is always fun to see. The Damh & Dove musical performance was excellent; they really kept up the energy even as it began to rain.

I’d say it’s still worth going to if you’ve never been to a ren fest before. If you’ve been to other ren fests, lower your expectations just a little and you’ll probably still have...

I've been to a few Ren faires in Florida, and unfortunately this is on the bottom of my list. I don't think I'd attend again, mostly because it is not worth the 1h 30m drive. However, the endors were nice, lots of cool things to look at and purchase, like most Ren faires. But there were a few issues that made me and my group not want to attend a second time. The food stands are a complete disaster. We went on the first day, and they had no food ready until 2pm. When we were looking for food around 11-12, all 3 stands only had a quarter of their selection ready to be served. Each stand had 3 separate lines, if you wanted a drink you had to go to one line, if you wanted a burger you'd have to go to another, and fries etc etc. Having to order different food items in different lines, that all come from the same stand, makes 0 sense. It also took a very long time for our food to come, one of our friends ordered a veggie burger and it took so long to get that we ended up just walking away. The map we got handed at the entrance, was completely inaccurate!!! None of the vendors or food stands on the map matched what was around us. There were also some misleading signs? There was a sign on a post for the jousting area that said "Weiner Dog Racing 2pm" so obviously it's safe to assume that there was going to be a dog race happen at 2pm, right? WRONG. We sat and waited, and around 10 minutes past 2pm we decided to check the event schedule, to see if maybe it's a different time than the sign said, only to find out there was no trace of any dog races at all. Why the hell would you put a sign up where events happen, especially with a scheduled time on it?? So that was frustrating to wait for nothing. Another issue we had was the ground, and how it clearly wasn't cleaned at all before set up. There was moss and broken branches all over, I ended up walking over a vine that was in the middle of a pathway and it got caught on my shoe and my ankle got scraped by a thorn. Ouch lol. I just feel like it shouldve been cleared out beforehand 100%. I feel like if there was more organization and planning beforehand, this could be a great Ren faire. I just don't think it's worth the drive or the money. Charging $25 per person is crazy for the experience that we had to endure. Little disappointed unfortunately, wouldn't go again. I'm going to stick to Lady of the...