Valhalla Renaissance Faire — Local services in South Lake Tahoe

Attended on 8/24 and it was the most disorganized event I have ever been to. I can be sympathetic to the fact that they were holding it at a new site and that they will have some issues to work out because of that. They addressed the event being overcrowded in a facebook post but I was disappointed to see that they failed to address the irresponsible and unsafe practices I witnessed yesterday. It was clear to me from the start that the event was oversold. I arrived at 10:30am, it started at 10, and the line to get into the event was insanely long, but it was moving really fast. I found out the reason it moved so fast is because they were not checking a single persons tickets or bags. I had my ticket pulled up on my phone prepared to show it to the man sitting in a chair at the gate, I held it up for him to see and he never once even looked at me. We were all told to keep it moving and to go inside. No one in my party had their tickets checked and everyone I asked throughout the day said the same thing. That is so unsafe and irresponsible! I can’t help but feel there were people there who didn’t have tickets and that there had to be people there who got banned items in since they didn’t check anyone. I left to go to my car and I asked if they had a stamp or something for re-entry. My hand was marked with sharpie but not a single person looked at me when I walked right back in. No one questioned why I wasn’t in line, or asked to see my stamp, I just walked right through the gate. My entire day was spent waiting in lines. I waited in a line for 30 minutes for food only to find out there was another line 3 times as long to wait in to pick up your food. I gave up and we all left early to go get food elsewhere. Even one of the vendors told me they did not expect it to be so crowded and we’re not prepared for that many people to attend, they said they were told 4000 tickets were sold. The event space was way too small to accommodate how many people were there. I hope they keep their word and make the improvements they have promised in their facebook post but they failed to address the lack of security and I am concerned it will happen again. This was not ever what I expected from an event that has been held for over 2 decades apparently. I have not attended this event in the past so maybe I was just incredibly unlucky to attend this day,...

I feel like I’m spoiled because I grew up by the Maryland renaissance festival which is amazinggg, so I went in to this not expecting the best but still a good time. The fact that we could not get food the entire 5 hours we were there because the lines were so long and unmoving. Also $24 turkey legs??? I swear back at the MD renn fest I’ve seen them for maybe $12. The food and beer was extremely disappointing but I feel like it could have still been a good time, but somehow they fumbled the bag in literally every department. Wayyyy too overcrowded to the point where we could literally never see or hear any events that were going on, why were there no microphones for any performers? My boyfriend was joking that we just paid $28 each to wait in lines and be yelled at by various staff members for hours. The dust was egregious, they obviously did not spray water in any areas of the event including the ring where the jousting took place. I think I breathed in more dust and dirt yesterday than I have ever breathed in and I’ve worked in trails maintenance. I’m still hacking up dirt and blowing black boogers out of my nose today. For more expensive than the MD renn fest, I think all I paid for was to take a few years off of my...

Im giving this a one star review based off what I see there. Its a small venue with a lot of people. The layout with vendors were atrocious. I felt like I seen all the vendors just by visiting a few booths because alot of the vendors were sell the exact same thing just different styles almost like there was no thought in keeping things unique. There were a handful of actual homemade items which I have always appreciated but after spending some time there and researching their items with a simple Google search I just find its an o er priced resellers that turn a profit just because it is a ren fair. If you attend these events stay away from resellers they do have a small select few that actually spent the the time and created the goods they are selling support those businesses vs someone who buys cheap crap to turn into a huge profit because the buyer doesn't...