Hear ye, hear ye! Each fall, the St. Louis Renaissance Festival transforms the woods of Wentzville into a kingdom of knights, fairies, performers, and plenty of medieval mischief. Tucked beneath the trees, the festival has a Sherwood Forest feel that sets it apart from the other Ren Fests we’ve visited – and all that glorious shade is especially welcome when Missouri refuses to acknowledge that summer is over. Some of our favorite memories have been cheering through the jousts, tearing into giant turkey legs, sitting on the Iron Throne, and showing up in increasingly elaborate costumes we’ve crafted. The festival has evolved over the years, but the wooded setting, themed weekends, costumes, and medieval mayhem keep us returning to our hometown kingdom.

📚 Backstory: Once Upon a Faire

• 🏰 The St. Louis Renaissance Festival has been entertaining the region for more than 25 years
• 🎭 What started as a local Renaissance celebration has grown into a long-running fall tradition centered around period-inspired entertainment, characters, artisans, and themed weekends  
• 🍂 The festival traditionally runs on weekends from September into October, making it one of the St. Louis area’s signature fall events  
• 👑 Today, it blends Renaissance history with plenty of fantasy and pop-culture creativity

📍 Location: Welcome to Sherwood Forest

• 📍 Held at Rotary Park in Wentzville, Missouri, where the wooded grounds help create the feel of a tucked-away Sherwood Forest
• 🚗 About 40–45 minutes west of downtown St. Louis
• 🅿️ Plenty of grass/gravel parking is available near the festival grounds
• 🌳 Expect plenty of grass, dirt, and uneven terrain throughout the village

✨ Highlights: Worthy of a Huzzah

• ⚔️ Jousting – One of our must-dos every visit, with armored knights competing on horseback at the Joust Field several times throughout the day
• 🎭 Live Entertainment – Our favorites are the hilariously bawdy Washing Well Wenches, comedic singing aboard the Pirate Ship Stage, and fire acrobatics of Crazy Boy Coy at Joan of Arc, but there are performances all over the grounds, including aerialists, circus acts, whip shows, musicians, comedy, storytelling, and more
• 🐉 Game of Thrones Photo Ops – This fantasy-themed corner is one of our favorite spots to explore, with a Throne of Swords, Wall of Faces, and dragon displays all clustered together for some of the faire’s best photo ops.
• 🧚 Fairy Wing Forest – Wander through the trees to discover tiny, imaginative fairy houses submitted for the festival’s competition – it’s fun checking out all the creative details.
• 🏹 Games & Activities – Try your hand at archery, axe throwing and other medieval games, with additional contests and activities changing throughout the themed weekends
• 🛍️ Artisan Marketplace – Browse leatherwork, jewelry, costumes, fantasy accessories, artwork, weapons, and other handcrafted treasures throughout the village
• 🍗 Turkey Legs – Giant drumsticks are our quintessential Ren Fest treat – grab one early because lines can get long and they occasionally sell out.
• 👗 Costumes & Characters – Half the fun is seeing what everyone wears, from traditional Renaissance garb to fairies, pirates, Vikings, superheroes, and elaborate cosplay – and the themed weekends often include costume contests
• 🌳 Woodland Setting – The winding paths, rustic structures, and stages tucked among the trees give STL Ren Fest its distinctive Sherwood Forest atmosphere, with far more natural shade than we’ve encountered at the other Renaissance festivals we’ve visited.

🎟️ Entry: Pay the King’s Ransom

• 🎟️ General admission includes free parking, the scheduled entertainment shows, tournament jousting, and themed-weekend events. Food, drinks, games, shopping, and premium experiences cost extra.  
• 💰 Ticket prices vary by season and age, with advance-purchase discounts and occasional family or promotional offers available. Check the STL Ren Fest ticket page for current pricing before your visit.
• 🏷️ Look for deals before paying full price – the festival also runs promotions such as military and first-responder discounts, honor-roll tickets, donation drives, and other seasonal offers.
• 👑 Watch for special add-on experiences – the festival regularly sells separately ticketed packages such as the Pub Crawl, Queen’s Tea, Mead Tasting, Paint-N-Sip, Romance packages, and premium joust experiences. Many do not include festival admission, so check the details before booking.  

💡 Tips: Know Before Ye Go

• ⏰ Arrive early – Give yourself plenty of time to explore and plan your day around the performances you most want to see
• 📜 Plan Your Schedule & Route – Shows overlap across multiple stages and the faire is spread out, so plan your must-see entertainment and group nearby activities to avoid backtracking
• ⚔️ Claim your jousting spot early – It’s one of the most popular events and prime viewing areas can fill quickly
• 👟 Wear comfortable shoes – You’ll spend much of the day walking and standing on uneven outdoor terrain
• 👗 Dress up – Costumes aren’t required, but they’re a huge part of the fun and this is one of the rare places where elf ears feel like completely sensible attire
• 💵 Bring some cash – Cards are common, but cash can still be handy for smaller purchases
• ☀️ Prepare for the weather – Missouri fall weather can range from scorching to chilly, so check the forecast before beginning your quest and bring sunscreen, water, and layers as necessary
• 🛍️ Leave time for the marketplace – The handmade creations are part of the experience, so don’t rush through the shops between shows

👑 Visits: Our Favorite Faire Adventures

After years of visiting, the STL Ren Fest has become about much more than dressing up – although we certainly take the costumes seriously. We love cheering through the jousts, catching our favorite shows, exploring the fantasy areas tucked into the woods, trying our hand at archery, tearing into giant turkey legs, and finding new reasons to return for the themed weekends. These are the experiences that keep us coming back to our hometown faire.

⚔️ Jousting: Knights Take the Field

The joust is our must-see event every visit and one of those experiences that makes Ren Fest feel like Ren Fest. Armored knights charge across the field on horseback, competing in challenges before facing off with lances, with plenty of cheering, chants, and crowd participation along the way. One of my favorite memories was taking my niece to her first joust – she was completely convinced the rivalry was real and had an absolute blast joining in the chants and taunting the opposing knight. We’ve watched the tournament many times over the years, but seeing it through her eyes made that visit especially memorable.

🐉 Themed Areas: Fantasy in the Forest

Part of the fun is discovering the fantasy areas tucked among the trees. Our favorite is the Game of Thrones-inspired area, where we’ve sat on the Throne of Swords, posed with dragons, and checked out the Wall of Faces. We also enjoy wandering through Fairy Wing Forest, especially when the trees are filled with miniature fairy houses created for the festival’s competition.

🍗 Food: Come for the Turkey Legs

For us, the giant turkey legs are the quintessential Ren Fest food and easily our favorite thing to eat at the faire. They’re messy, appropriately medieval, and worth grabbing early since lines at King’s Feast can get long and they occasionally sell out. Beyond the drumsticks, though, we’ve generally found the rest of the food and drink offerings are less memorable, so the turkey leg remains our go-to feast.

🏹 Activities: Take Your Best Shot

There are plenty of pay-to-play games scattered throughout the faire, but archery is our favorite and the activity we’re most likely to stop for between shows. You’ll also find other medieval-style challenges like axe throwing and tomato torment, making them a fun way to break up the scheduled entertainment and see whether your Renaissance costume comes with any actual Renaissance abilities.

🎭 Shows: Our Faire Favorites

We always work a few shows into our day, with the hilariously bawdy Washing Well Wenches at the top of our list. Their mix of comedy, water, and audience participation makes every performance a little different, and they got very witty with Scott’s William Wallace. We also enjoy the comedic performances and songs aboard the Pirate Ship Stage and the fire-filled antics of Crazy Boy Coy, giving us a good mix of comedy, music, stunts, and general Ren Fest ridiculousness.

👗 Themed Weekends & Cosplay: Dressing for the Occasion

One of the biggest reasons we’ve returned so many times is the rotating themed weekends, and we rarely pass up an excuse to dress accordingly. We’ve attended Pirate weekend back when it was Pirates & Pups, Oktoberfest, Heroes vs. Villains, Viking Invasion, Celtic Weekend, and Enchanted Halloween, transforming ourselves into characters inspired by Peter Pan, Thor, How to Train Your Dragon, Brave, Braveheart, Game of Thrones, Monty Python, steampunk, and more – usually with plenty of crafting and 3D printing along the way.

🐉 Game of Thrones: Daenerys & Drogon Take the Throne

In 2019, we went as Daenerys and Drogon from Game of Thrones and entered the costume contest, even recreating Drogon’s emotional finale scene with Daenerys. The commitment paid off – we won first place and met our Ren Fest besties, Anne & Geran, making this one of our most memorable visits.

⚙️ Steampunk: Plague Doctor, Mad Scientist & Tinker Bell

During the pandemic, we switched gears with steampunk plague doctor and mad scientist costumes and took both first and second place, proving our Ren Fest costume obsession was officially getting a little competitive.

We returned to the steampunk world for Enchanted weekend in 2022, when I transformed an old Tinker Bell costume into Steampunk Tinker Bell, complete with huge handmade cellophane wings, a 3D printed light-up wand, steampunk gun, and test tubes filled with glitter “fairy dust.”

⚡ Heroes vs. Villains: Thor & Loki Conquer the Faire

For Heroes vs. Villains in 2021, we descended as Thor and Loki, wearing costumes I made based on Thor: Ragnarok, and apparently Asgard ruled the kingdom that day – we won first place in both the hero and villain costume contests. Scott also added a pie-eating contest victory to his accomplishments, and we spent the day with friends we had met at the Game of Thrones costume contest two years earlier.

🏹 Celtic Weekend: Brave Merida & William Wallace

For Celtic Weekends, we’ve dressed as Warrior Merida and William Wallace and even brought our niece and nephew for their first Renaissance Festival. Scott especially loves any excuse to bring out William Wallace and even won the William Wallace costume contest by performing the entire Braveheart speech. Between introducing the kids to the faire and Scott going full “Freedom!” mode, it made for a particularly memorable weekend.

🐲 Viking Invasion: How to Train Your Dragon

For Viking Invasion in 2025, we created How to Train Your Dragon group costumes with me as Astrid, Scott as Hiccup, our nephew as Toothless, my brother joining the Viking crew, and our niece as Super Cat. It was one of our biggest family costume outings and a perfect example of how Ren Fest has become as much about creating the costumes as wearing them.

🎨 Renaissance Masters: Not the Ninja Turtles

After the release of Mutant Mayhem, we brought Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello to the 2023 faire – the Renaissance artists, not the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We fully committed to the art-school chaos with coordinated costumes and props, making it a very literal way to put the “Renaissance” in Renaissance Festival.

🥚 Kegs N Eggs: A Monty Python Easter Hunt

We took the costumes beyond the traditional fall festival at Kegs N Eggs in 2022 and 2023, an adults-only Easter egg hunt that gave the faire grounds a completely different kind of chaos. Naturally, we turned it into a Monty Python and the Holy Grail adventure with Tim the Enchanter, the witch, King Arthur, the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog, and Patsy hunting for eggs around the grounds.

🎥 TikTok: Patsy joined King Arthur and his entourage at STL Kegs ‘N Eggs!