Renaissance faires in South Carolina

South Carolina's renaissance scene is built around a handful of homegrown events, including one staged at a privately built castle: EastWind Castle in Trenton was created by Sherman Gills, known as King Keliance, and his wife, who lived in the castle structure before developing the grounds into a year-round event space that now hosts the annual Dragon Faire. Members of the Society for Creative Anachronism appear at the Dragon Faire to demonstrate period pottery, knitting and sewing. In the Upstate, the Upstate Renaissance Faire was founded in 2021 as an effort to revitalize small businesses after the pandemic, drew more than 10,000 attendees in its first year, and is largely sponsored by Round Table Community, a nonprofit whose mission is to support the financial, commercial and artistic success of artists in the Southeast. On the coast, the Mythical & Medieval Fest near Myrtle Beach runs as a fundraiser for Caleb's Dragonfly Dreams, a local nonprofit that provides positive activities for children who live in group homes or shelters, and its organizers later created a second event, the Shadow Bay Celtic Festival, to branch out into Celtic traditions such as Highland games, a bonfire, a hand-fasting ceremony and a Maypole dance. The state's Celtic streak runs deepest in Greenville, where the Greenville Scottish Games — the anchor of the Gallabrae celebration — were established in 2006 by a small volunteer group of community members and made their home on Furman University's athletic fields, in a region described as having arguably the highest concentration of Scots-Irish descent in the country.

Sources: The Post and Courier (North Augusta) · Augusta Good News · The Ren List — Upstate Renaissance Faire · The Ren List — Mythical & Medieval Fest · WMBF News · pipes|drums