Renaissance faires in Iowa
Iowa's renaissance faire tradition reaches back to 1992, when the Iowa Renaissance Festival was founded; the festival, now a two-weekend event held at Middle Amana, is produced by Midwest Festivals LLC, an events company whose slate also includes the Greater Quad Cities Renaissance Faire in Davenport and sister festivals in Nebraska and Indiana. The fall anchor of the season is the Renaissance Faire at Sleepy Hollow in Des Moines, which has been running since 2006 at what RenFest.org calls 'Iowa's only permanent Faire site,' the Castle Park grounds, where the faire occupies the first three weekends of September each year with a spring companion event earlier in the season. In the state's southeast corner, organizer Katrina Vincent runs a pair of grassroots events: the Fairfield Renaissance Faire at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, whose third installment drew about 1,625 visitors over its weekend, and an autumn faire held on her own acreage near Denmark. Living-history and reenactment groups such as the Guardians of the Black Forest and the Skjaldborg Vikings appear at the Fairfield event alongside touring musicians. That mix is what sets Iowa's scene apart: a purpose-built permanent faire village in the capital, a multi-state promoter staging festivals in eastern Iowa, and fast-growing independent faires — the Southeast Iowa Union reported that Fairfield's attendance tripled year over year.
Sources: RenFest.org – Renaissance Faire at Sleepy Hollow · Sleepy Hollow Sports Park – Fall Renaissance Faire · The Renlist – Iowa Renaissance Festival · Iowa Renaissance Festival (official site) · Greater Quad Cities Renaissance Festival (official site) · Southeast Iowa Union – Fairfield Renaissance Faire triples its attendance