Renaissance faires in Mississippi

Mississippi's scene is rooted in Celtic heritage rather than a single large commercial faire: CelticFest Mississippi and its organizing Celtic Heritage Society, a 501(c)(3) run entirely by volunteers with no paid staff, began in 1991 as a one-day Irish music festival in Jackson and now hold a festival the second weekend of each October at Bobby Cleveland Park at Lakeshore on the Barnett Reservoir in Brandon, a site the group says made proper competition Highland Games possible. On the coast, the Highlands and Islands Association of Celtic Gatherings sponsors the annual Celtic Music Festival and Scottish Highland Games on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in Gulfport, with pipe bands, Irish dance, jousting, artisan demonstrations and Highland Games competitions. Bay St. Louis adds a tradition found nowhere else in the state: Pirate Day in the Bay, created to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812's Battle of Bay St. Louis and run for ten years by the roughly 300-member Mystic Krewe of the Seahorse, which takes its name from a vessel in that battle and returns about $20,000 a year to local charities ranging from a community garden to cancer groups and an animal-shelter friends organization. The Pine Belt contributes the state's dedicated renaissance event, the Hattiesburg Zoo's Renaissance Festival, which marked its tenth year in 2026 and drew 3,829 visitors on its Saturday — the second-largest single-day attendance in the event's history — with a judged costume contest and hands-on quests such as candle-making and butter-churning. Taken together, the circuit is carried by volunteer nonprofits, a carnival-style krewe and a zoo rather than professional faire promoters, with the Celtic gatherings anchoring the fall calendar and the zoo festival landing at winter's end.

Sources: CelticFest Mississippi – Mission · WLOX – Mystic Krewe of the Seahorse turns Bay St. Louis into pirate's paradise · WDAM – Hattiesburg Zoo's Renaissance Festival draws thousands for 10th year · MS Highlands and Islands Association of Celtic Gatherings