The Great Lakes Medieval Faire — Attraction in Ohio

This was my wife and I's first time attending the Medieval Faire. The location of this event is perfect for the town of 'Avaloch'. The majority of the venue is within a forest, with plenty of shade. It's a nice change of pace from other events that typically have you roasting outside in the sun.

From the moment you arrive, you'll be overwhelmed by the sights, sounds and smells. There is quite a bit to do here, with a wide variety of shops, games and food vendors. It's rather easy to dump the entire wallet on this place and then some. To be fair though, most of the games and food are decently priced and not a complete ripoff like other events (archery and axe throwing were cheap and fun!) The shop vendors however can be a bit pricey; your mileage may vary here as some are more reasonable than others.

There are a lot of shows to see here; the amount is so overwhelming that it would seemingly take at least 2 days to see it all. You really have to utilize time management to decide what you'd want to see most, and stick with that. We mostly walked around to see all the shops, and didn't have time to watch any real shows except for passing by them. The only one we made sure to not miss was jousting, which is always worth watching IMO. Some acts I remember as we walked around had to do with fire eaters, a trained pig that dances, minstrels, wenches, and so forth. Something for everyone.

Many people cosplay for this event and a lot of them act 'in character' with accents and dialogue, which is really cool. If you don't have a costume, they certainly sell many different items ranging from gypsies to knights and everything in between. You can even rent outfits for anywhere from $20 to $75 or so, for the day.

On to the downsides however (I'd rate this event a 5 if not for these):

1. Prior to going, I bought tickets back on Mother's Day when they were running a 2 for 1 ticket sale. I got my tickets in the mail a couple weeks later, except there was only one ticket. It was nearly impossible to get anyone to respond to me as the Faire wasn't technically open at that time (regardless, someone should be supporting inquiries in a timely manner if you're going to sell tickets). After some persuading, I was finally able to get my second ticket mailed to me, but overall it was a frustrating ordeal.

2. The food vendors. I hope whoever handles this at the Medieval Faire is reading this, because it needs an overhaul BADLY. I had multiple instances of terrible service, along with many others from what I observed. a) The main pop/tea/water vendor (next to the pizzas and near the shop that sells wooden portraits and such). The line went out to 30+ people and was incredibly slow. There was only one girl working the counter and it took us over half an hour to get our drinks. On top of it, we find that she is messing up almost everyone's order. One person ordered Butter Beer and they gave them Mountain Dew. Another person had their number of drinks wrong. When she got to me, we ordered a large Diet Pepsi and a bottled water. She had to ask again how many waters, and she initially gave me a Mountain Dew instead. On top of it, the large drink cups were apparently out, and she said someone went to the storage room for more. She gave me a smaller cup in the meantime, with absolutely no ice. We waited another 15 minutes and no one ever replenished the cups, so we left in frustration.

b) The hot dog stand that sells different types of Hot dogs/tater tots (the 'peasant', the 'jalapeno popper', etc.) I asked for a Jalapeno popper hot dog which, according to the menu, consists of the hot dog, cream cheese, bacon, and sliced jalapenos. An older lady served me but was confused on even how to make it. She said she was out of cream cheese and offered sour cream. I reluctantly agreed. Then she starts putting items on the hot dog that aren't even part of what I ordered, such as nacho cheese. She had no idea what she was doing, so I declined the sale and got my money back.

PLEASE improve your food service. Time is valuable for...

Great experience!

Don't worry too much about getting tickets in advance since the prepaid line can actually get decently long with the amount of people that get it and the other lines move quickly enough anyways.

You have to try the turkey legs at least once. The cranberry gravy is delicious and the meat is cooked well with a good moist texture. It's also a pretty large portion so depending on your appetite, you might want to find someone to split it with. I was able to finish a whole one on my own the first time I had it but that was midday after skipping breakfast that morning.

As for the activities, I recommend catching the Celtic Mayhem band, the Washing Well Wenches, and the fortune teller.

Celtic Mayhem is lots of fun in general with high energy music that encourages clapping and singing along (I think they might have the lyrics posted on the website, but I'm not sure. Make sure to get that ahead of time since the mobile connection is terrible in the area.)

The Washing Well Wenches have a more adult orientated show (I think they said their rating is for ages 17+). The main part of their show has them take volunteers to come up and do some ridiculous and mildly embarrassing challenges to earn a rose to give to their partner. The challenges themselves are pretty tame, but the actresses get a bit flirty as part of the bit. Watch out for getting splashed with water if you sit closer to the stage. It's lots of fun to watch and the participants seem to really enjoy it too.

I found the fortune teller to be really interesting. Even if you're sceptical of the concept, I still recommend giving it a try since he handles everyone very professionally. I went there with my boyfriend and he made some surprisingly keen observations and interestingly specific for some of the other participants. Even if it isn't actually anything mystical, he still gives some rather good advice.

On top of all else, the atmosphere is super friendly and inviting with all the costumed people and lively activities. It's very freeing to be in a place where people aren't so afraid to be...

Overall a good yearly event with a lot to do, but probably not somewhere I'd go every year.

Value was decent. 25$ per adult at this time gets you in, and unlimited access to shows happening. Paying 5$ to park in a field after a poorly maintained entrance road is disappointing.

The shows are pretty good. Most are a similar brand of variety comedy with fire related tricks. Variety could be better and really I'm not convinced the shows have much to do with medieval times. I get why though, anything long like a true play or long musical pieces would either get boring for most kids, or interrupt other scheduled performances.

There's a good number of vendors. I'm happy that a number of them are selling items they personally made. A lot of craft fairs are becoming dropship vendors selling the same goods from China, which hasn't hit this event too much.

The crowds are usually pretty good. Nothing was too packed because the venue is very open. Never felt cramped. Many people in costumes from simple to incredibly complex. I would seriously appreciate if they'd ban smoking on the property. It's incredibly disappointing that smoking is allowed in a crowded venue with large numbers of children. Federal regulations allow businesses to ban smoking on their property, so I can only imagine it's not banned so they don't have to spend time enforcing it or upsetting customers.

The venue is decently well kept. There's a broken swing and trampoline in the parking lot that I'm not sure is on their property, but if they are, really should be removed. This goes for some other minor broken items that are disappointing to see they haven't at least been relocated or disposed of.

Food appears nice but I had none of it. I did enjoy the large turkey legs...