HawthorneVillager.com

Looks like fun! I would have loved to bring the family there.

I worked there for the few years it was open. Can't recall why they shut it down.

They were great. after they closed in Milton they moved to Hamilton. not sure if they are still operating there.

I too enjoyed going there, especially with the kids. I talked to someone at the Milton fair last year and was told that the land was bought by Mattamy for future development. At first Mattamy had no problem with the show going on but, they let the Mattamy lawyers out of their cages and they talked. And, that was it. No more fair. Legal beagles decided it wasn't a good idea. Kind of like the Grinch who stole Christmas. Maybe we could volunteer the lawyers to be the dummies in jousting practice on "Full Metal Jousting".

Renaissance Festival? I have seen it at Milton heritage museum last year.

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Let me know if you need a picture or two

By the way, lovely picture - natural lighting or some photoshop? Either way - very nice....

Do you know if this event is repeating again in Milton this year?

Thank you. The picture is heavily post processed.
They are not in the list for this year:
http://countryheritagepark.com/events

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Let me know if you need a picture or two

The Ontario Renaissance Festival was owned and operated by the folks that run the Maryland Renaissance Festival, which is still going and hugely successful (25,000 - 30,000 visitors a day). They were hoping to duplicate that success in Canada, but unfortunately didn't account for the fact that Renn Fests just aren't part of the culture here like they are in the States.

Still, by the end of the Ontario show's nine year run it was doing very well and turning a decent profit. Unfortunately, the show's investors weren't willing to wait any longer to recoup their investment, so they pulled out and sold the property to Mattamy for millions (gods know what they plan to do with it - it's undevelopable as far as I can tell).

My husband and I both had merchant booths there, and we lost about a third of our annual income when ORF shut down. We were luckier than some, though - at least our booths were paid off. We knew people who had spent tens of thousands on buildings and improvements just before the fest closed and lost it all to the bulldozers. We and some of the other merchants and performers tried desperately to put something together after we got the news, even looking into leasing the original site. Sadly, it was not to be.



Actually, it was an entirely different operation that ran Abbingdon out in Hamilton, although of course there were many of the same elements and even some of the same cast and merchants. Many other smaller festivals have popped up in the years since, with varying degrees of success, but none are associated with ORF and none are on the same scale. They are what we call "tent faires".

If anyone wants to see what our Renaissance festival might have looked like after another decade or so, I highly recommend the Maryland Renaissance Festival near Annapolis. It's amazing. For something local on a smaller scale, the one-day Royal Medieval Faire in Waterloo is a lot of fun. It's coming up September 15th: http://www.royalmedievalfaire.org/2012.

I actually just got back from Quebec City's Les Fetes de la Nouvelle France, which is exactly like a Renaissance Festival, only set in a 400 year-old city. And in French. But of course, some things transcend language.

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Jennifer Smith
jsmith25@cogeco.ca

That sucks to hear

OMG, I can see my booth from here!!



(in fact, my husband drew that map)

It was weird - for at least five years after the festival closed, you could still see all the booths and buildings on Google satellite map.

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BlueBikeDesigns.com
Innovative web, print, and graphic design
Jennifer Smith
jsmith25@cogeco.ca

I remember volunteering at it back in 2001. I wanted to show it my kids now )

Yeah, I remember going a few years in a row. Remember the turkey leg (amazing), getting through in the stocks after dancing with the queen (sisters got a kick out of that) and the plays.
I still have my wax hand
Too bad this doesn't continue, especially with the new generation coming up, I feel they are missing out.

Not sure if you heard about a brand new festival. Please see our website at www.oxfordrenfest.ca or www.facebook.com/oxfordrenfest we are trying to be even a small taste of the Ontario Renaissance Festival, we MISS it so that's why this one started...Spread the word!

I was just looking through pictures and came across this thread. I went to the pirate festival today and talked to some of the actors apparently the land renaissance times was on still isn't being used and the pirate festival is going on to raise money to buy the land to bring renaissance times back!

Don't know if anyone will see this but there is a small revival festival called the Oxford Renaissance Festival that features acts from the old Ontario like Zoltan the Adequate and Men in Tights
www.oxfordrenfest.ca