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The Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival returns with new features and old favorites, taking visitors back in time.
“Last year was amazing,” said festival site director/craft coordinator Susan Treadwell.
The Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival started at the Butler County Fairgrounds in the mid-1990s before moving to its current location in West Newton around 1997.
Since then, the festival has attracted around 90,000 people, with an average of around 7,000 visitors a day, depending on the weather and what’s featured on a given weekend.
“Some weekends are more popular than others,” Treadwell said.
Last year’s turnout was particularly high, she said, as people returned to festivals after the 2020 shutdown due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“Everyone is tired of being locked up,” she said, adding that, also due to COVID-19, the festival started later than last year’s normal, taking place on weekends in September and October.
This year the festival is back to normal, from August 20th to September 25th, every Saturday and Sunday as well as Labor Day.
Treadwell said the festival has new and exciting entertainment this year, including harpist Sarah Mullen, who plays beautiful melodies from around the world and all eras; Wire Squire, who performs a death-defying feat atop the crowd; Rose and Thorny, a duo singing obscene songs and comedy; Thunder’s Power Show stunt and circus comedy and a cappella music group Chaste Treasure.
The Return is a popular show that audiences return to watch, such as fighting matches; The Craic Show, a medieval world music group; The Angels, a renaissance variety show; Lady Amelia, which keeps patrons frolicking in their hearts; Duelist, who combines wit and comedy in swordfights; and Dragonfire, a Guinness World Record holder for manipulating fire.
“We have regular characters like kings, queens, farmers and villagers,” Treadwell said, adding that there are also about 100 local and national craftsmen who sell everything from cloaks and herbs to art and pottery. Everything.
“It’s not going to be something you’d find at a flea market,” she said.
Each weekend throughout the festive period has a different theme: Celtic Weekend, 27-28 August; Children’s Weekend, 3, 4 and 5 September; Wine Feast, 10-11 September ; Pirate Invasion Weekend, September 18-19, Love and Romance Weekend, September 24-25.
Another interesting part of the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival is the patrons themselves, Treadwell said.
“We call them ‘play-trons’ because they play together,” she said, adding that many play-trons wait all year to dress up and go to festivals because they blend in like this is them A second home where everyone had fun. “It’s their time too; they’re part of this festival.”
Admission is $25 for adults, $12 for children 5-12, and free for children under 5.
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