Oklahoma Renaissance Festival — Local services in Muskogee

Google maps asked me "How was the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival?" and "Has the Castle changed". I worked at the Castle for nearly 20 years; ten years of that as the Site Director. Has it changed? YES! The story of the Castle's origin is fascinating, and worthy of a book itself. When I joined, the village was a cluster of ten or so rectangular single story huts. By the time a stroke forced me to retire, it was a happy jumble of multi story varied buildings, reminiscent of an actual sixteenth-century English village. So has the Castle changed? Yes, in ways small and large it has grown to exceed all expectations. But the Rennaissance Festival has changed as well, and definitely for the better. From the earliest years when the patrons were mostly bewildered at the music and din and the nervous novelty of having performers coming right up and interacting with the audience, the Faire itself has grown to be one of the best of it's kind in the nation. There are two or three - no more than five - that are spoken of in awe by the vendors and performers who travel from state to state and make such ephemeral wonders possible, and the truly hard-core Renfaire fans who travel to attend. The Oklahoma Renaissance Festival is that type of Faire, worthy of any difficulty one must overcome to get there. It is a dazzling festival and it is quietly charming. To return regularly is to be reunited in a family you might see only once a year but hold in your heart all the time. My wife and I were there long enough to see a generation grow up and have children and for those children to become a part of today's faire - we call them "our castle kids". And thru it all there has been change. Larger buildings in a larger village. Larger cast of performers putting on bigger and more ambitious shows. Performers grown up and grown old and some who now exist only in our hearts and the stories we tell. Bright young replacements that delight and amaze new, larger audiences who flock to Castleton in late spring each year. Has it changed? Oh yes, in the most wonderful, surprising ways. If you haven't come to Muskogee in May yet, come and see for yourself. If you have visited Castleton before, welcome home, it will be good to see your friends.

October 5, 2024

Once again, Google maps noted I had visited the Castle of Muskogee and asked "How was the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival?" and "Has it changed?" I'LL SAY IT'S CHANGED! It's changed to the Haunted Castle Halloween Festival. As it always does every year between a date in late September and Halloween. Castleton gets a makeover. Patrons used to suggest to me that we extend the hours for renaissance festival and remain open into the late evening to give them the experience of a 16th century English village after dark. I'm sure they meant well, but an English village in the middle ages was a very quiet place after dark. People went to sleep when it got dark. No lights, and candles were expensive. Well Haunted Castle gives them their evening in Castleton. In addition to Haunted Attractions ranging from fun to terrifying, there are the street characters one finds in renfaire, but they aren't constrained to any particular time, or even a particular universe, and are more likely to be DC characters, or less well known beings. Admission to the village is FREE and guests can wander the village filled with delicious food and shopping and watching the merriment, only paying admission to the individual haunted attractions if you choose to buy a ticket and go thru them. I am proud to say that I directed the scariest attraction "Domus Horrificus" for 16 years and people, there is nothing more fun than scaring the pants off of willing patrons. Not only - within these carefully constructed scenes - do we have permission to scare other adult human beings (something that is frowned upon at the grocery store or restaurant), they have paid for that very experience. Well OK, if you...

The Castle used to be an annual favorite for our family at the Renaissance Festival. Regrettably, however, they haven’t kept up with their growth well at all. Timed ticketing would solve many of the issues, but they for some reason refuse to attempt to resolve any of their issues even when attendees point them out kindly and objectively.

We waited over an hour in line in our cars/in traffic to get in the parking lot. The lines inside were about 3x longer than we’d ever seen them before for EVERYTHING. The parking lot attendants don’t attend the parking lot… as we had extremist religious materials put on our vehicles while we were there this year. To top it all off, we had to wait over half an hour to get out of our parking spot because of a gridlocked parking lot no one was doing anything about.

We reached out with our concerns and only excuses were provided (after trying 4 different ways to get ahold of someone) and nothing was offered to remedy the situation.

We won’t be back, which is sad since we have gone every year all my life.

It just isn't worth the time and...

Went to the opening weekend of the haunt. It's fun and enjoyable just walking around the "village". But the prices for the mazes and the 2 rides are ridiculous. Prices for the mazes run from 15-25 per maze. And 10-15 for the 2 rides. While most are good to very good only one was very very good. Dominicous Horrificous being the best followed by trail of blood. The most improvements being made to Dominicous Horrificous. Several new animatronics were added as well as lots of laser effects. Overall a nice stroll. The trail of blood seemed very scaled back this year. Even the fire canon seemed scaled back. The haunted hayride was enjoyable, and by the lines to participate very popular. Its clear why. While there were several new or updated effects, there were some well worn that needed updating. Some effects didn't fire as expected, and there were a few "actors" more interested in talking then interacting with guests. The ride was nice and enjoyable. The time we rode, there was a cool breeze which made the ride very enjoyable. The train ride was a joke. Not worth the...