The Jackson Ranch National Historic Landmark — Attraction in San Antonio

I was at the site for Renaissance Fairy festival on March 29, 2025.

I was excited that it was a historic site. However, the locations we were allowed to use, which is basically only the roundabout from the main entrance was very small. The event grounds were not well maintained due to ant piles spiders, bugs, old tree roots and lots of mud.

I understand that it’s a Renaissance Festival and some people want the authentic medieval feeling, however as a vendor trying to plant my tent and sell my goods or services, the poorly maintained grounds made it difficult to keep things clean and neat.

I will say the vendors that I worked alongside were very polite and very friendly, all of them stated they were first timers and all of us agreed we were a bit underwhelmed versus what we saw on Google maps when we first signed up. The traffic control was unsafe for the entry and exit of both visitors and merchants being a one-way lane in and out of the property around at the top of the hill which made for some rough blind spots if you tried to turn out across the street.

We were told this was the 14th annual partnership with the food bank, which also gave us a lot of excitement for the partnership because of such a wonderful nonprofit organization. However, that seem to be the only sponsor available as no other major players or participants seemed involved with this fair and while that’s not a bad thing. It did explain that perhaps the fair’s popularity and appearance has gone down in years.

We went back the following day as a visitor so that my young daughter who is about 4 to 5 years old, could experience her first Renaissance event. And as a visitor, it definitely made for a different experience.

The vendors of which about half of the ones from the day before stayed were still friendly and polite. There were people in costume, as there are with all Ren fares which she was excited for, but after about an hour of playing with other kids, seeing the boost that were offered , she actually asked me is that all there is? And later she told me it would’ve been more fun with the playground. And well to me that is really funny for a toddler to mention. I also agree with her that if there was a dedicated spot or area for the kids, that could also really help uplift the mood of this place.

I don’t know that we will return in December for the Elven festival that they are planning, but I would certainly keep my eye on it in case some private investors or some big sponsors would be willing to help revitalize and breathe new life into this historic place it is certainly big enough and grand enough to host a magnificent festival or event as long as it’s been coordinated, cleaned up and maintained properly.

I thank all the vendors we got to work alongside as well as the event coordinator for even launching this opportunity, but I would strongly suggest in the next few months you look at the overall condition and expectations of what you’re trying to promote and make sure that it lives up to those expectations because you have an amazing opportunity to create a lot of joy and excitement amongst the Renaissance community much like Sherwood and TRF do every...

This place has so much potential but I offered to do the legwork tell clean the place up and even tried to do some online marketing to try to get people to show up for her events which by the way nobody showed up the entire weekend and as a vendor I lost a crap ton of money...

First you never told us not to go up there in fact you told us to go up there and helped us get around your yard to get there. You also said several times during the weekend that where we were turned out to be a great spot. Not to mention the food trucks right next to us. Second I paid the entire Bill to fix that. But the reason that I changed my review and I tried to keep it professional was because you stole those chocolate bars from me after I tried to do everything I could to help you and we had talked about me continuing to try to help you and what I asked for the chocolate bars that I had purchased and you said your daughter was coming and you wanted some of them so I offered to let you keep four or five of the 20 chocolate bars that I purchased. Your response to the request to get my property back was "you're going to write those off anyways so I'm just going to keep them" this was after we had agreed that you would keep four or five and I would get the other 15 back. It was your entitlement and willingness to go back on your word that had me change my review but I tried to keep this part out of it but since you just tried to slander me I figured everybody...

I had the unfortunate experience of being a vendor at the Beltane Celebration on May 6. The grounds were not prepared for this event, at all. Not even mowed. For a public event with 30+ vendors there was one OUTHOUSE with no toilet paper. Patrice Villastrigo told people to use leaves to wipe themselves. There was no place to wash hands. She was yelling at people to stay when it began to rain, thunder and lightning. She yelled into a microphone, telling us to stay and dance in the rain, as our inventory gets ruined. There wasn't much there besides vendors. There was a May Pole dance that video showed had 9 participants, including her and some kids. She yelled a lot. There were piles of trash covered by tarps. I recommend you avoid this place. On top of that, she blamed "witches" for "spreading lies and gossip" when responding to the comments of many vendors. Apparently we've all been bewitched? Or witches are out to destroy her? I'm not sure what she meant by that, but, if you read the reviews, she's been making excuses for the same bad behavior and environment for years. Wish I'd...