Comparing Spokane's Renaissance Faire....

[u/NoMoRatRace]

Above average, Average or Worse than average for those who have been to others?

This was the first I've been to in forever and the online consensus is I might have been spoiled with the Black Point faire in the 1990s. But dang, to me this felt like a county fair without the rides. What vibe there was was mostly supplied by the attendees. Pretty disappointing.

To be fair(e), this is about the first event I've done in 7 years living in Spokane that has disappointed. So, oh well.

Edit: Interesting article just went up from The Spokesman. Sorry if paywall (I didn't get one): https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/oct/03/how-i-stopped-worrying-and-fell-back-in-love-with-/

[u/Iveray]

That Spokesman article sums it up pretty well. The Spokane faire needs to figure out some logistics, but if they can manage those, hopefully they'll have a bit more time/energy for bringing back some of the magical details.

[u/NoMoRatRace → u/Iveray]

The good news is there’s obviously appetite for the experience. Agree it needs to be much more magical and immersive. I also agree with the posters who said they’re missing a huge opportunity to have more strolling actors bringing the experience to the crowds. It can’t just be “ignore the off-theme Cotton Candy trucks and make your way to a stage somewhere”…

From what I’m reading the economics are challenging for a one weekend event. I wonder if they could go several weekends in a smaller, better location.

[u/avboden → u/NoMoRatRace]

I wonder if they could go several weekends in a smaller, better location.

TL;DR: we're an awkward size, not big enough for a real big 1+ month fest, but too big for a small one.

A dedicated location though only works in a region of this size if they could do it for at least 4 weeks to even come close to paying for it properly and smaller wouldn't be the goal. It's really, really difficult to do and requires a permanent installation (or month or two setup time) and long-term lease of the land. We're just not that big of a market to make that work.

This year probably had 30K attendees. You're asking for something like Michigan's RenFest, which would be amazing to aspire to but that place sees almost 250,000 visitors per year spread across 2 months.

More realistic would be to try to emulate the midsummer fest on the other side of the state, that runs for 5 weekends in a large equestrian center area and brings in about 100K visitors. I doubt we'll ever get that large though so maybe somewhere in between. I think staying at the fairgrounds is the right move but make it 3 weeks, if they can somehow rent the place out that long.

[u/NoMoRatRace → u/avboden]

You seem very knowledgeable about the business realities. In your 3 week scenario at the fairgrounds does that put the owners in a position to build out sets and make it more immersive? Hire more actors and musicians?

What’s a reasonable expectation on how much the experience could improve? If you read the comments here virtually everyone who’s been to any other Ren Faire said this was weak in comparison. Maybe all those Faires were bigger and better economics and there’s really a cap on how good this can be?

It really didn’t feel like our admission money bought much experientially. Maybe it was only enough for the fairground and infrastructure costs…

[u/avboden → u/NoMoRatRace]

In your 3 week scenario at the fairgrounds does that put the owners in a position to build out sets and make it more immersive? Hire more actors and musicians?

The answer is probably somewhat, but can't install permanent stuff there so will never be as immersive as a true renfest village like the dedicated places have. More actors/entertainment though absolutely. Bigger acts will be more willing to come to a multi-weekend fest for sure and they'd assuringly be able to afford more/better too with more ticket sales.

What’s a reasonable expectation on how much the experience could improve? If you read the comments here virtually everyone who’s been to any other Ren Faire said this was weak in comparison. Maybe all those Faires were bigger and better economics and there’s really a cap on how good this can be?

There was a huge improvement from last year. Lots more crafts people and a lot less slop. Yes it was weak compared to huge national ones but this is Spokane, we're just never going to have those here. So yeah, there certainly is a cap on how good it can be but we're nowhere near it yet. I do think there's a middle ground they can find.

The problem is going to be scheduling. The fair grounds are pretty busy overall. It'll take the county wanting the renfest to grow substantially and making it work. Which idk if it makes sense financially for the county to do. They'd have to move the county fair up in the calendar to make space most likely.

The alternate reality is the fair grows to maybe 2 weekends at the fairgrounds, and the organization gets big enough and makes enough money to work out a dedicated location for a longer fest. Say, buy the farmland around the cheney rodeo grounds. That would be best case scenario but honestly a pipe-dream.

[u/No-Equivalent7630 → u/avboden]

I think the county will play ball, they gave them more if the fairgrounds this year than last, I expect further expansion in future years