Renaissance faires in Utah

Utah's renaissance faire tradition runs deepest in Cedar City, where the Utah Midsummer Renaissance Faire — started by a group of Southern Utah University professors and described as one of the oldest in the country — is put on entirely by volunteers and has never charged admission, a choice the founders made so visitors would spend their money with the vendors instead; Cathy and Rick Bryant have run it for 33 of its first 39 years. The state's biggest-drawing event, the Utah Renaissance Faire, was founded by Rich Thurman, who came to love renaissance fairs during medical school in the Midwest and discovered Utah had none: it began at Timpanogos Park in Provo Canyon, spent ten years at Thanksgiving Point before outgrowing that facility, and now runs on a farm in Mona, where a recent edition drew a record 13,500 people and jousting is led by Charlie Andrews of the Knights of Mayhem, a 14-time world champion heavyweight jouster. In Tooele County, the Tooele Renaissance Faire is run as a nonprofit presented by the Tooele County Arts Guild, which puts proceeds toward local artisans and educational and artistic activities; it started as a tiny event and by its sixth year was expecting more than 5,000 attendees after selling nearly 5,000 tickets the year before. Its setting is part of the draw — the faire takes over the grounds of the Benson Grist Mill, built in 1854, where relocated pioneer cabins and outbuildings form a historic pioneer village. Southeastern Utah contributes a Celtic branch to the scene: the Scots on the Rocks Moab Celtic Festival, founded by Dan and Marta Lamont to highlight Celtic traditions, brings highland games like the caber toss and sheaf toss, bagpipe competitions and massed bands, and clan heritage booths — the Lamonts themselves represent what the festival calls Scotland's oldest clan. Together these events give Utah an unusual spread for the genre: a decades-old free volunteer faire in the south, a large touring-scale faire along the Wasatch Front, an arts-guild charity faire on a pioneer-era mill site, and a highland games weekend in red-rock country.

Sources: Daily Herald (heraldextra.com) — Knights return: 13th annual Utah Renaissance Faire in Mona · Red Rock 92.7/99.9 FM — Cedar City couple helps run Utah Midsummer Renaissance Faire · Hoodline — Tooele Renaissance Faire braces for 5,000 fans at 1854 grist mill · Moab Sun News — Heritage and highland games at arena next week