We attended the 2022 Georgia Renaissance Festival yesterday. This was my third Renaissance…read moreFestival, and the first time it did not rain while I was there. The 2022 festival is held on weekends only between April 9th and May 30th, open from 10:30 am until 6 pm. The Georgia Renaissance Festival is a modern-day take on the renaissance period (14th through 17th centuries), with entertainment, jousting, music, games, rides, shopping, food and drinks. The festival is family friendly, although, as one of the entertainers on stage shared her observations, said, "From up here, I can see a lot of cleavage and bald heads!" Dressing up in renaissance period clothes is acceptable, and there is even a vendor who rents out clothes just outside the entrance. (Fyi, Harry Potter was set in the 1990s, which was well after the renaissance period. I state this because many attendees were wearing Potter character clothing. Alright, if that's what you wanted to do ...). Bring lots of cash, because credit cards are not accepted. However, for you bank needs, ATM machines are available on festival grounds.
Lots of parking on grass and gravel (mostly grass), enough for everyone, with people starting to leave in the early afternoon, especially if the weather is hot. R bought tickets online in February for $11 each, but they're now selling for a little more than double that. Parking is free, kids from 6-12 years old are about half price and kids 5 and under are free. The festival area is surrounded by a wall, and is set up renaissance-ish with modern day twists. My favorite thing to do is watch the very entertaining shows. There are many outdoor entertainment stage venues spread throughout the festival grounds, and at least two separate shows are going on at the same time, so plan ahead by reviewing the show times and plan accordingly. Yesterday, I watched a show with dogs performing tricks, a birds of prey show, a three-some of entertainers who balanced with and on each other, juggled knives, and told corny jokes all at the same time (very impressive - not their jokes, though), a jousting show, and a duo popping balloons as targets, with the woman shooting at a balloon with a bow and arrow using only her feet while doing a handstand. My favorite thing to do yesterday was watch people throwing cut up tomatoes at a heckler who had his face, head, hands and arms exposed through round cutouts in a wooden fence, like he was being humiliated by being stuck in a stockade. However, the people throwing tomatoes were the ones being humiliated as the heckler was saying a lot of outrageously hilarious things about the throwers, making them miss their target (the heckler) about 98% of the time. Soooo funny!!
The variety of food available to buy at the festival seemed limited to me. We've had the smoked turkey legs that a lot of the attendees were eating while walking around, but this year we had the world famous renaissance favorite - bourbon chicken with rice. This was actually good and filling.
If you like people watching, this is the place to come! I enjoyed watching attendees playing skill games, three separate booths where people could throw throwing stars, knives and axes. These booths were at the farthest part of the festival. There were so many painted wooden photo ops that people could stick their heads through and have a pic taken of them.
It was very warm yesterday, and we ended up staying at the festival for only 4 hours. That was enough for us, and we enjoyed time spent at the festival. There were only so many places selling fairy wings, magic wands, renaissance clothing, knick knacks, candles and other things that we saw before everything started looking the same.
Stay hydrated and enjoy this immersive experience at the 2022 Georgia Renaissance Festival! Even if you stayed the entire day, I don't think you'd be able to see and experience everything.