Renaissance faires in Illinois

Central Illinois hosted one of the state's most enduring events, the Olde English Faire, which ran for more than 35 years at Jubilee College State Park before relocating in 2010 to Wildlife Prairie Park, where it doubled as a fundraiser for the 480-acre park — organizers said all profit went back to the park — and drew weekend crowds of around 10,500 while billing itself as the only medieval festival in central Illinois. The giant of the broader region actually sits just over the state line: the Bristol Renaissance Faire's 30-acre site runs along the Wisconsin–Illinois border, began in 1972 as King Richard's Faire under founders Richard and Bonnie Shapiro, and now draws over 200,000 visitors annually, among the highest attendance of any renaissance faire. Within Illinois itself the scene leans on community organizing: the Marseilles Renaissance Faire, begun in 2016, is sponsored by the Marseilles Tourism and Park Committee, with committee member Kathy Kocheri spending about nine months a year planning it. In Galena, the Galena Shakespeare Company — which Scott McKinsey started after moving back to town in 2019 and which grew from a one-man operation into a full cast producing multiple plays a year by 2022 — hosted the town's inaugural renaissance faire, pitched by McKinsey as 'a celebration of human fantasy.' Fairy-themed festivals are a fixture here too: the World of Faeries Festival, run by Dave and Gloria Yaeger under the old oak trees of Vasa Park in South Elgin, has been recreating fairies since 2005. The newest grassroots strand is Chicago's Faire in the Field, a free one-day pop-up renaissance faire that turned to a $30,000 Kickstarter campaign to fund its second year.

Sources: Chronicle Media (Peoria County) · Wikipedia — Bristol Renaissance Faire · Shaw Local News Network · Telegraph Herald · Renfaire.com — World of Faeries Festival · Faire in the Field