The Great Lakes Medieval Faire is celebrating its 21st annual celebration this year, according to its website.
The faire has vendors selling things from armor and swords to jewelry, food ranging from Sheppard’s pie to fried Oreos and a variety of performances that can hold anyone’s attention.
I went to the faire this year after five or six years of not attending, and I noticed many things had changed.
The jousting, which was my favorite part of the faire, no longer happens. After talking to an employee I found out they were technically separate from the faire and for some reason they stopped performing a few years ago.
Many of the shows I saw when I was younger still perform at the faire now. When I was younger I just didn’t catch the absurd amount of sexual innuendos in some of them. It’s fun to go and watch them now.
I went with a friend who had never been, and she kept commenting on how nice everyone is; we had a conversation with one of the performers just minutes before she had to start an act. I have to admit it’s very true that the people are exceptionally nice. I have found that you can literally spark up a conversation with just about any person there.
My friend and I also found that a lot of the vendors were willing to take a few dollars off of the things we were buying. Neither of us ended up buying full price souvenirs.
One thing I personally regret was going to the faire not dressed up. It’s kind of like a “Ye olde fashion faux pas” to go to the faire in street clothes. You actually stick out more when not dressed up, and of course this caused the people running the booths to yell at us to buy horns, tails and corsets.
As well as not dressing up I definitely regret not dressing smart for the occasion. I wore flip-flops, and it is located in the woods. It had rained the night before and there was mud everywhere. I don’t know how the lady I kept walking past was wearing high heels.
Overall I left the fair very happy and satisfied, despite my mild disappointment with the lack of jousting it always turns out to be a good day.
The Great Lakes Medieval Faire is located in Rock Creek, Ohio and is open Saturdays and Sundays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. rain or shine from July 6 to August 11.
