We had the opportunity to visit the Carolina Renaissance Festival for the first time last weekend, and we had an amazing time! In the suburbs of Charlotte, you can be transported back in time to a place where history comes alive.
This post contains affiliate links, and we may earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you!) if you purchase when you click on the links. Thank you for supporting Love Dwells Here!!
Disclosure: Thank you to the Carolina Renaissance Festival for hosting us for this fun, family event. We received complimentary admission tickets, but as always, our opinions are honest and our own.
Carolina Renaissance Festival Entertainment
We watched a show with a dancing PIG!! We were lucky enough to snag front row seats to watch Snorkel, along with Rick and Jan, for their sole performance of the day. Let me tell you, Snorkel the pig has some awesome stunts up his sleeve– he was wearing clothes, so I think it’s safe to say “sleeve”. The humor during the show was definitely PG-13, but the jokes went WAY over the heads of our preteens!
Have you ever seen a ToryStellar?? We saw Zilch the ToryStellar, and his way with words was ridiculously awesome. Again, the humor was PG-13, but the jokes were completely missed by our under 13 crowd. They were rolling in their seats at his rendition of “Rindercella and the Stwo Tugly Epsisters”!
The kids were most excited to see the jousting since they’d never seen it before. We got to the arena about half an hour before the show, and it was already pretty full – make sure to get there early if you want a shady spot or don’t want to look into the sun! They were shocked and amazed that people actually used to joust, but they all said it looked like fun and wanted to try it sometime.
Carolina Renaissance Festival Food
The food at the Renaissance Festival was delicious and surprisingly affordable. We’re used to paying Disney prices for food, and we were pleasantly surprised. The turkey leg was $9 but had a TON of cooked-to-perfection, tender meat.
Ellie loved her sausage on a stick, and at $4.50, it was a great value.
The treats didn’t disappoint either – the pecan nut roll covered in chocolate was my favorite.
We had a great time at the Carolina Renaissance Festival and will definitely be adding it to our annual rotation of things to do in the Charlotte area. Even though a lot of the humor in the shows was PG-13 (and some were even R, though we didn’t see any), we still found it to be a very family-friendly option.
Things to Remember When Visiting the Carolina Renaissance Festival
- Check the weather! While they operate rain or shine (barring the one day this season they closed due to hurricane remnant rain), the walkways are mostly dirt and can get muddy.
- LOTS of people dress up in Renaissance garb (or to coordinate with the theme of the week- Pirate Christmas, Time Traveller, etc), so feel free to dress up in your Renaissance finest!
- If you want to see jousting, get to the arena early. There are a lot of food options right outside the arena, so we actually recommend getting your lunch and bringing it into the arena, maybe an hour before, so that you can eat while you wait for the show.
- We waited in a 40-minute line to see the new Mermaids this year and were completely underwhelmed. Unless you have a die-hard mermaid fan, if the line is more than 10 minutes long, it’s not worth it at all.
- Check for FREE KIDS weekends. The next two weekends are free for kids 5-12 with an adult ticket purchased at the gate- no coupon needed! And kids under 5 are always free!
