Florida Renaissance Festival — Attraction in Deerfield Beach

I am a long time Renaissance Festival fan and today was so much fun. Some of the highlights of the day included the shows. I was able to catch three great ones. Hubby and I saw an amazing archery show. The archer was able to hit the target from very far away. He could also shoot three arrows at once. In between shooting arrows he gave a very interesting and informative talk about the history of archery. This show was made even better by the delicious hard cider I purchased at a nearby tent.

The other show hubby and I caught was a very entertaining acrobatic show where two guys ran on wheels that rotated high in the sky. You will have to look at the pictures to see what I am trying to describe. They also did some tight rope walking. I loved that one.

The final show I saw was the joust with my girlfriend. This is the premier show of the fair, not to be missed. You want to show up early if you want to get a seat. We arrived at 4 for the 5 o'clock show and it filled up quickly. A lady came out first with her horses and did some tricks. Then the girls came out and warmed up the crowd with some cheers. She told us which knight to root for and a lot of jokes, jeering, and cheering ensued. Finally the knights came out to be introduced to their cheering sections. This joust was nothing like the one in previous years. It used to be a couple of guys on horseback running at each other with sticks. This was more like Game of Thrones. This joust had the jousting but also chariots racing and an epic fight at the end. I tried to follow the story but it was a little difficult to hear. It was something about a princess and an evil knight. Anyway at the end the evil knight killed all the girls and then our knight was killed. It was very violent with blood and it looked like the bad guy won. This was definitely more entertaining than past jousts.

It would not be the fair without trying some of the many delicious offerings. Hubby wanted the turkey leg. It was really salty and drippy. Later on my way out I got the fish and chips and meat pies to go so I didn't have to cook dinner. The booth offered an end of the day buy one get one free special. Whatever you get the portions are huge! Soda and water around the fair was $3. My hard apple cider was $7. When you come to the fair you want to have some cash on hand so you don't have to pay ATM fees. Not everyone takes credit cards/ debit. For instance the turkey place only took cash.

Another fun aspect of the fair is people watching. Some people in costumes were just attending the fair while other people with the most elaborate costumes were posing for people for tip money. If you want to take pictures with people it's nice to have some singles so you can tip them. My favorite people at the fair today was a person dressed as a giant tree. The costume was so good my hubby walked right passed them. They looked the tree person at Animal Kingdom. I also liked the mermaid in her shell chair.

Shopping opportunities abound at the fair. When I walked in I bought a flower garland for my hair. Fairy wings, henna tattoos, tails, jewelry, candles, pottery, and period clothes are just some of the endless items for sale.

There are so many things to see, eat, do, watch and buy at the fair. They even have themed weekends like pirates and time travelers which inspire even more costume creativity.

As great as the fair is there is a few things to be aware of. It costs $1.50 to get into Quiet Waters Park. Parking will be far from the actual fair although sometimes you can catch a wagon ride. The fair will be crowded, hot. and dirty. The ground of Quiet Waters park is extremely dusty. If you are moisture soaked from sweat and you add dust then you have mud. I always end up leaving grimy. However don't let these minor inconveniences deter you from coming. The fair is an experience not...

We've been wanting to go to this event for quite a while, so today was the day, thanks to Yelp. Although the Renaissance has never been my favorite period in history, the festivals we've attended before were a great diversion. I've been wanting to see how this one stacked up against the CO festival that we attended for so many years.

Needless to say, there were a lot of similarities. It was fun to see all the costumes and the different entertainment features. Most of them were the same as we had seen before. You've really go to give credit to the actors for being able to survive in those hot costumes and keep the image of the festival going with their amazing command of archaic English! I did, however, miss Dead Bob from the Larkspur festival. I'd try to explain, but he's just one of those "had to be there" things.

Naturally, we go pretty much everywhere for the food. I tried a meat pie, which had pretty good flavor but was dry and lacked salt. The doughnuts, however, were a different story. The mini doughnuts were good (we had the pumpkin) but the Argentine doughnuts from a little booth way in the back were amazing. Fresh from the cooker, they were doused in what they called honey. Actually it was sorghum (you can't fool a girl with a southern heritage), but it was sooo much better than honey. I could have just stayed there and eaten all afternoon. The biggest "miss" from fairs of olde, were the popovers, hot out of the big black oven. I really wanted to try the "liquor on a stick", but by the time we were ready for it, we couldn't find the wandering vendor.

Overall, it was a fun way to spend an...

It was OK, but I'm not sure if I'd go again. It's about an hour away from where I live, for starters. Then, I spent nearly $200 between tickets and food. $62 for 2 gyros and 2 shishkabobs is ridiculously expensive, as were the tickets at nearly $40 per person. The place was disorganized and there was no one to ask about where the events were held. A lot of the events wanted to charge extra, and did not take cards or Zelle. Speaking of not taking cards or Zelle, none of the food vendors (who did accepted cards or Zelle) sold drinks and the drink vendors only accepted cash. This left us dehydrated and it seems very poorly run. Come on, it's 2025. I was at the Asian festival at Tropical Park just a few weeks ago and every vendor accepted cards or Zelle, or both!

The royal tea show wanted $5, cash only, so that was out. I wish the map had mentioned that. I couldn't find the jousting show, but we attended the firefly show, which consisted of a fire show, and they were very charismatic. When we wanted to get back to the car, they had these people pedaling carriages and offering a ride. They wanted to charge $10 per person, which is ridiculous. Everything just seemed highly overpriced. There were a lot of loud, drunken, obnoxious people so this further turned off my daughter and we decided to just go home. I'm not sure if it's always like this or if it was because this was the last day to attend. I think tickets should be $20 or $25. When I went back in my high school days, it seemed a lot more affordable and easier to find all the different events. I miss the days of it being at Vizcaya. That setting...