OPENING WEEKEND: Bristol Renaissance Faire 2016

ChiIL Mama's Chi, IL Picks List

Regional Fun Just a Short Road Trip Away

Here at ChiIL Mama, Bristol Renaissance Faire has been a family favorite of ours for decades. In fact, we've run 27 Bristol Ren Faire features over the years. Click here and scroll down for a photo filled blast from the past. We'll be there again this Saturday for opening day. Remember, kids under 12 are FREE on opening weekend with a printable coupon. Check back soon for our full review and photo filled recap. Highly recommended!

ChiIL Photo Favs from 2015:

Check out our full slide show here from our 2nd visit of 2015. More favorites are embedded below. 

Faire Facts 

Voted the #1 Renaissance Faire in the US for five years running! With more than 1,200 period interactive artisans and performers, including jousting knights, willful wenches, jocular jesters and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. 

This summer marks Bristol’s 29th season of exceptional entertainment! Bristol is living history with a twist of modern fusion. Experience a rollicking romp through Elizabethan England, with 16th Century games, rides, arts, crafts, food, music and dance, recreating the summer day in 1574 when Queen Elizabeth visited the English hamlet of Bristol. 

Entertainment 

Featuring the highest caliber of the Renaissance faire top touring acts, the 2016 season offers more than 35 performance acts. Favorites returnees: The Jousters, Dirk and Guido (“The Swordsmen”), the Sturdy BeggarsTM Mud Show®, MooNiE the Magnif’Cent, Iris & Rose can be seen all season. Limited -engagement appearances for 2016 include Broon, the Musical Blades, The DaVinci Brothers, enchanting aerial silk artist Lauryn Murray, and “heavy mahogany” pirate- punkers, the Dread Crew of Oddwood. 

RenQuest 

Bristol’s live action fantasy-play game returns with an epic storyline of RenQuest. Bristol’s RenQuest brings the worldwide popularity of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (similar to World of Warcraft) into the live action dimension of the Renaissance fair, and offers gamers the chance to test their role-playing prowess beyond the realm of their computer screens. 

Marketplace 

Nearly 200 artisans and crafters showcase one of a kind, hand-made wares ranging from jewelry and leatherworks to tapestries and hand-crafted longbows. Bristol’s merchants are known for their outstandingly unique products only found at Bristol. Demonstrations are offered by potters, glass blowers, broom caners, forgers and other working artisans throughout the city.

Food & Drynke
A taste for traditional fare or something more contemporary Bristol will please. Roasted turkey legs, steak on a stake, barbequed ribs, garlic sautéed mushrooms, Cornish pasties, baba ganoush, Italian gelato, fruit crepes and other delicacies. Vegan, Vegetarian and Gluten-free diet choices are available onsite. Craft beers, fine wines, trending cocktails as well as Gluten-free beer and unique beverages by skilled mixologists are a highlight in 2016. 

When & Where Saturdays and Sundays, plus Labor Day Monday, July 9 through Sep. 5, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m., rain or shine 

Kenosha, Wis., west of I-94 near Illinois/Wisconsin border (Russell Road exit) 

$24.95 for adults and $11.50 for children (ages 5-12) at gate. RenQuest participation is
an additional $10 per day. Discounts available online at RENFAIR.COM, and all Walgreens stores. (847) 395-7773 

Travel Back In Time!

*Bristol was ranked #1 Renaissance Faire in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015 by subscribers of Renaissance Magazine and the Renaissance Festival Podcast. 

Ren Faire 2015 Photo Favs:

PHOTO FEATURE: ChiiL Mama's Adventures at Bristol Renaissance Faire 2015 #ChiILPicksList

ChiIL Mama's ChiIL Picks List

Bristol Renaissance Faire has been a favorite of ours for decades. It's a short, hour(ish) drive north of Chicago near the border of Wisconsin and back in time. This family friendly fav is great for all ages. The shows, shopping, food, and lhuman powered rides are a blast and it's some of the best annual people watching around. We're not the only ones who think so either. Bristol Renaissance Faire has been voted THE #1 Renaissance Faire in the whole country 4 years running!

Disclosure: Thanks to Bristol Renaissance Faire for comping us tickets once again this year for review purposes. As always, all opinions, adventures and photos are our own.

Kids rule at Bristol Ren Faire! NEW Redo For 2015:

Huzzah! The Kids' Area has been expanded and redecorated in a whimsical, wonderful way! 

We adore the Hobbit houses and the enhanced stage, ships and mini slide. There is a small bathroom in the area for easy access with the littles. The backdrops rock with a kraken and dragons for the brave and cute fairies and forest creatures for the littles. It's a site to see. Highly recommended!

What to Wear to The Faire?! 

We adore dressing up, and at this fest imagination knows no boundaries. Expect to see authentic full on Renaissance wear as well as an homage to an impressive array of pop culture favs like Dr. Who and Harry Potter. The cosplay kids are out in fantasy garb and Bristol Ren Fair has even added an official steampunk weekend, though any day's a great day to rock the steampunk look in our book. 

Photo Credit Dugan Kenaz-Mara

Photo Credit Dugan Kenaz-Mara

Embrace your inner knight, dragon or garden gnome. Come in a kilt or your favorite 2015 era t-shirt and shorts. Anything goes as long as it's fairly family friendly and you zip tie any actual weapons you're bringing as props.

Photo Credit Dugan Kenaz-Mara

Click HERE to check out our full set of pixs in slide show form.

Favorites will also be embedded below. Photos by Bonnie Kenaz-Mara AKA: ChiIL Mama unless otherwise noted.

Each weekend features rotating smaller acts so we try to catch the new ones. The major players remain the same and are always a treat to see again, like The Swordsmen, Gypsy Geoff, Adam Crack: Fire Whip, Barely Balanced, The Jousting, MooNie the Magnif'Cent and more.

Foodie Fun:

It's not truly a Ren Faire weekend without conquering the "Mile High Chocolate Crepe". Highly recommended! We also dig the Giant Brats, Butterfly Potatoes and Pickle or Cheesecake on a stick. 






RenQuest!

When the kids were younger, we did the Kids Quest for $5 a kid (ages 4-10), which is super fun for families. Opening day, my 14yo son, Dugan and I tried our hand at the adult (& kids 12+) version of RenQuest which is $10 a day to play. The game takes approximately 2 hours and it's recommended you play early. Sign up closes at 2pm each day. The role playing and plot were quite fun, and the family's returning to play the next part of the story today. Everyone gets to chose a path and a name. I was a bard (go figure-story teller) named Dragonfly and Dugan was a mage (magician) who wants his name to remain secret. We loved it and will make a point of joining Renquest again. 

Do note, you will work HARD to figure this out and it takes a solid 2 hours or more. It's more fun if you play the same character type with at least 1 friend or family member. The Renquest plot line is complicated and you'll have to solve lots of riddles and puzzles, talk to a zillion characters, and embrace your role playing personae. Only half of the people who started with us the first day made it to the final scene! If that's not your cup of tea, then skip it for another kind of fun.

ChiIL Mama's ChiIL Tips: 

Modern Plumbing/Renaissance Charm:

No need to pee in a ditch or bring thine own chamber pot. There are now two sets of flush toilets supplemented by porta potties throughout the grounds. If you're in costume, the modern plumbing is a huge help! Flush toilets are now to the left of the main entrance and straight back from the action stage.

Don't Fear the Faire:

We've run into more than a few people over the years who have NEVER been to Bristol Ren Faire because they thought costumes were mandatory, or felt it "wasn't their scene". Bristol Renaissance Faire is one of the most welcoming places and you can be a spectator in street clothes or play along to your heart's delight in historically accurate glory, or anything in between. If you've never been, we challenge YOU to check it out. We're willing to bet you'll have an excellent time.

We highly recommend Bristol Renaissance Faire. Check out their main site HERE to purchase tickets, and get a discount by signing up for their mailing list. Walgreens also has discount coupons. More faire details, special themes and rotating acts are listed on their site. Bristol Renaissance Faire 2015 runs from July 11th-September 7th. 

Check back with ChiIL Mama early and often. We hope to head back to merry olde England via Bristol Renaissance Faire at least a time or two more in 2015 before they close on Labor Day Monday, and we'll have more photo recaps to share. 

Disclosure: Thanks to Bristol Renaissance Faire for comping us tickets once again this year for review purposes. As always, all opinions, adventures and photos are our own.

Photo Favs:

ChiIL Mama's 14yo son, Dugan on opening day.

Never seen THAT before: 

Giant, full arm puppets!

Parade:

(Photo Credits Dugan Kenaz-Mara, 14)

Deante' Fettuccine The Pasta Juggler-Father/Daughter Duo:

Gypsy Geoff: 

Hey Nunnie Nunnie:

quite pun filled & aimed at adults

Huzzah for Ren Faire Regulars:

Adam Crack: Fire Whip 

Lady Ettie 

All the Great People Who Run the Games of Skill & Human Powered Rides 

Barely Balanced

Fairies in the Garden 

Strolling Minstrels and Costumed Characters 

Seen On The Scene:

NEW Redesign for the Kids' Area:

We love this special space for the littles! Truly magical.

 

NEW Circle of Themed Thrones--Perfect for Pictures: 

The Joust:

Danse Macabre-The Dark Side of Ren Faire:

A Few of Our Favorite Vendors:

Gemini Glass

Run by Chicago Theatre Friends of Ours 

Hair Twisters: Hairtwisters.com

ChiIL Mama's ChiILin' out just north of Chi, IL with a brand new twist on my usual pony tail or braid with a dragonfly charm! Dugan got an amazing dragon head there, too. The ribbon braid we each got for completing part 1 of Renquest.

Miss the tie-dyed roses at the first night of the final Grateful Dead Shows? You can find them at Bristol Renaissance Faire! Dry it as a lasting memento.

Till Next Time:

Fare thee well!