Renaissance faires in Oklahoma

Oklahoma's renaissance scene has unusually deep roots: the Oklahoma Historical Society records Renaissance-themed events in the state as far back as a jousting tournament at the Wagoner County Fair in 1923, and dates the first modern renaissance festival to 1977, when University of Oklahoma graduate students organized the event that grew into the Medieval Fair of Norman. That fair began as a forum for OU's English Department, is run today by University of Oklahoma Outreach, expanded to three days in 1993 and moved to Reaves Park in 2003, and describes itself as the state's largest weekend event and one of the few free medieval fairs in the nation, with more than 200 art and craft booths and seven stages. The state's other anchor is the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival, founded in 1995 at the Castle of Muskogee, where Queen Elizabeth I and hundreds of entertainers and artisans recreate the 16th-century English 'Village of Castleton' on Saturdays and Sundays plus Memorial Day; the Castle complex also stages Halloween festivities and holiday light displays at other times of year. In the southeast, Heavener Runestone Park — opened in 1970 around a runestone found in 1923, transferred from the state to the City of Heavener in 2011 after budget cuts, and now operated by the nonprofit Friends of Heavener Runestone — hosts a costumed festival of Celtic and folk music, swordplay and merchant booths that serves as a fundraiser for the park's operations and maintenance. The Oklahoma Historical Society also documents a newer wave of events, including the Queensferry Renaissance Festival in Vinita (2019), the Guthrie Renaissance Faire (2021), and the OKC Renaissance and Scottish Festival (2022). Distinctively, Oklahoma fields its own jousting companies: the Historical Society names the Knights of the Vale, established in 2024, and the Hanlon-Lees Action Theater, founded in 1979 and described as the oldest operating theatrical jousting company.

Sources: Oklahoma Historical Society — Renaissance Festivals · Medieval Fair of Norman — About · Wikipedia — Heavener Runestone Park · TravelOK — Oklahoma Renaissance Festival · Visit Muskogee — The Castle of Muskogee