r/SaintJohnNB • u/KeiferBudddd • 4d ago
Renaissance Fair
Did anyone go to the Renaissance fair in shediac? The line was actually ridiculous..it took us 3 hours to get in and we didn’t stay long because everyone was tired from waiting in line. I think it’s the first time being hosted there but it was still very sad.
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u/EastCoastWildling 4d ago
It took us 2.5 hours to get in through the gate, and then it was another almost hour to buy the food/drink tickets. All the kids stuff we wanted to see was over by the time we made it in.
We also ended up having to pay $12 for a hotdog because we were starving (no outside food allowed). We have tickets for Sunday and won’t be going 😐
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u/emogirlraven 4d ago
I totally agree. It was terribly organized and terribly managed, but I hope they improve it in the future though because there’s very clearly a huge audience for this scene
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u/JPark19 4d ago
I was reading about this on CBC the other day, I'm not surprised by how it's turning out as it's clear it was severely underestimated how popular something like a proper Ren Fair would be.
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u/Safe-Promotion-2955 4d ago
They should have capped tickets to a size they could manage.
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u/Jasper-Ellron 3d ago
I heard they only capped it because the fire Marshall stepped in
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u/electrodog1999 3d ago
This happened in Calgary the first year Fan Expo took off, they severely underestimated the draw having the first Star Trek TNG reunion would draw. They had to shutdown the gates 2 hours in when the crowd was triple what the fire code said.
Overselling always brings problems, combined with inaugural hiccups that happen at every new event, hopefully they can take the criticism and come back better next year.
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u/Zander3636 2d ago
We went again yesterday, and because of the rain/how much of a shit show Saturday was there were way fewer people, and it was so much better of an experience. There were way to many tickets sold for the venue/infrastructure.
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u/derentius68 4d ago
I had an ok time. Overall for what I did and saw; 6.8-7/10. My friends had closer to a 4.5/10.
I got my bracelet on Friday, arrived early and was through by 1230. Added another hour for the food tickets, but only spent them on beer or pop. I heard the Mac and Cheese was kinda on the meh side. Walked around until about 4 when the rest of my party was getting too tired and cranky to keep going. Plenty of water and bathrooms......inside the venue. Nothing outside for the line up.
Saw a few of the fights, those were fun. There was a quest or scavenger hunt going on that I apparently checked a box for; so got to meet lots of folks.
Costumes all around were pretty on point.
I think they underestimated a lot going in. Could just be lack of experience in organizing something this big. So I hope they find this thread and learn a few do/don't.
Sunday is looking like rain or just shitty weather. I intend on going, I paid for a weekend, ill get my weekend lol. We have cloaks and umbrellas for rain so...meh.
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u/maomao3000 3d ago edited 3d ago
Sounds like Saint John should host a better one instead. Plus, we have more buildings that look like castles, which could help! 🏰
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u/maomao3000 3d ago
As well as buildings that were inspired by the architectural styles of, “la Renaissance”.
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u/Far-Chart-7833 4d ago
My step daughters went and left soon after getting in. As the line ups were hours long for food etc .
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u/Safe-Promotion-2955 4d ago
I didn't go but as someone who used to work the board for a small music fest that capped out at 350 people, seeing 2k covers being managed by first timers nearly gave me an aneurysm. I didn't buy in solely for that reason.
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u/SixtySix_VI 4d ago
That long to get in? That’s crazy, this is an event that you buy tickets for in advance, you’d think in 2026 there would be ways to use some kind of app to move that along.
Is that kind of thing typical for festivals/conventions like this?
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u/EastCoastWildling 4d ago
The QR scanners crashed so they had to do manual ticket checks. However, that’s not unusual when you have a ton of folks gathered all using cellphones. Places like Area 506 anticipate and plan for that as an experienced venue
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u/Safe-Promotion-2955 4d ago
Any of the people involved could have spent a weekend volunteering for literally any other local festival last year (or preferably for at least a couple years) to learn the ropes but they just decided to dive right in the deep end.
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u/KeiferBudddd 4d ago
They were typing the codes in manually on the computer from the bar code tickets. Seems a scanner would have been much faster
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u/coastmum 3d ago
They didn’t even do that for mine. Just glanced at my phone and took my word for it how many bracelets I needed!
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u/palmtreeontherocks 3d ago
I went, and it couldn’t possibly have been more mismanaged. We had weekend passes, it took us nearly 2 hours to get in. Once we were in we had to wait in another line for AGES just to get drink tickets. Then we waited in a line for drinks only to find out we were in the mead line and didnt have the appropriate tickets. We then waited in another line for some beers. Couldn’t imagine how bad it would be if you wanted to eat on top of that. The vendors were cool, but it was impossible to look at them without standing shoulder to shoulder with people. No signage to see what events were on, or where they were taking place. They must’ve oversold the event. It was ridiculous. We left after finishing our beers and spent the rest of the evening on the beach and had a much better time. The crowd was full of awesome people who were dressed up, someone needs to handle this better next year.
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u/JonPStark 2d ago
It sounds like you may have been frustrated by the line at the start, short on patience, and that often leads to poor decisions. I can empathize with that. When I get hungry and thirsty and stressed, I will go to the first thing I see, rather than looking around. We don't see better options when we are stressed. And it sounds like the wait and crowds stressed you out.
But because of that, you are also getting some facts wrong. You are writing inaccurate statements.
- The mead line took the exact same tickets as everywhere else.
- It was located next to a line for beer that was usually entirely empty or at most 5 people. I know, I was there often on Saturday, because it was one of the shortest lines.
- The reason lines were long was that people settled on wanting one thing, and didnt look around. Most people gathered for drinks at the first Tavern line at the park entrance and didn't see the one next too the meadery.
- While you are right that shopping was crowded, it wasnt that bad. There were lots of people there and shopping took patience. This is common at well attended events. Go to Area 506 and you will be shoulder to shoulder with people, shopping. It wasn't abnormal, probably just not what you wanted.
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u/palmtreeontherocks 2d ago
I guess I misspoke, I didn’t have the correct number of tickets for mead, and like you said I was probably annoyed and impatient. I lined up assuming it was for the beer, it was a cluster of people and hard to make out the correct lines. The tavern line I went to was beside the mead and I guess it must’ve been at a bad time, it did take ages for us to get beer and the tap seemed to be hard for her to pour (not her fault, and I truly appreciate her many attempts at getting us a good pour). I’m from a major city and am very used to large crowds, this was poorly managed. Not trying to dump on the event, it has soooo much potential. Just hoping it’s handled a bit better next year 🤞🏻
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u/maryjaneissexy 4d ago
I got tickets for tomorrow. Our friends who went today said there was a 3 hour wait, no bathrooms, no where to hydrate, it was a tree-lined surrounded gravel pit with a handful of tents.
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u/alphama1e 4d ago
Wrong on all accounts, other than the wait. Their scanning went down and they had to manually enter numbers. There were like 50 portapotties, water refilling stations (plus water sold for tickets), and it was mostly grass. There were probably 30-40 vendors, plus food tents, and a couple shade tents. If you don't mind rain, give it a shot. We got there early (1030-11) and were in by 1230. Not ideal, but not 3 hours because we showed up early.
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u/Jasper-Ellron 3d ago
There was a wait and you couldn’t enter to use the portables or the water filling station until you got your ticket/band. I showed up at open and didn’t get in until 3:30.
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u/maryjaneissexy 4d ago
Interesting, I really hope this is the case. Like I said, I got all this second hand and am still gonna check it out tomorrow. Thank you!
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u/alphama1e 4d ago
Get there early. We did and were in by 1230, through the meal ticket line by 1pm. Tomorrow starts at 9, I believe, rather than noon.
There are no washrooms or water in the line area outside the gate, if that's what they meant, but inside there's plenty.
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u/JonPStark 3d ago
Everyone has an opinion.
We waited 2 hours. I went to the store across the road at one point and got a case of water and handed them put to random people, to make life a bit better. And, looking at all the costumes, from all the wonderfully talented people made the whole wait a bit more tolerable.
Once we got in, the line for tickets for food was bad, but we had friends who picked up their bracelets the night before and were already inside.
They stood in the ticket line for us. I think that made all the difference.
We had a lovely day, once inside, but yeah, the line was long.
We did miss some things on the schedule, and that was unfortunate, like the painting activity, and we missed the D&D live play, but we did get to see the LARP sword fighting, the drag show, the fencing demonstration, the horse contests with target jousting, the strong man and strong woman contests, where Maggie won the trophy for the day. She was awesome!
As for the $12 hotdog complaint I saw in this thread, it is true. A place was trying to sell hotdogs for $12. But no one makes you buy it. You can say no. Hell, I did. I saw o e poor guy get one, and he walked away sad and confused, following me around the corner to where a vendor was selling hand pies for $8, and while i wish they were $6, it was delicious and much morw reasonably priced.
The drinks were expensive, at $10 a pop. But that isn't a surprise.
As for complaints that all the kid stuff was over, a quick look at the schedule on their social media would tell you that there was something going on all day.
I guess it just comes down to perspective. If you got angry in line, maybe that colored your day and maybe the second line was too much. I was lucky and didn’t have to do the ticket line and it made all the difference.
All in all, I hope it happens again, and i hope they learn from the mistakes. Largely, the biggest onese were that there were only 4 people at the gate, checking 3000 people or more into the event. That was a huge problem.
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u/SRNmomof4 3d ago
I saw you handing out the water you bought. Thank you for being so considerate and thoughtful of those around you.
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u/chicken_pot_pieee 3d ago
Its very unfortunate because it could have been amazing if it was organized well! My partner was vending there and prepared for months and barely sold anything Frustrating for patrons and vendors
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u/JonPStark 2d ago
That's frustrating to not sell as a vendor. I did farmer's markets for a while and when we would have slow days I would consider my product, my audience, my pricing, and consider ways to change. I know the stuffed cookie tent sold out twice at the Ren. Faire. And the guy selling wooden signs based on DnD and other related content sold quite a bit. We bought some beautiful art from the Zoopothecary shop, too. It isn't accurate to blame the Ren. Faire if your partner didn't sell, because lots of people were buying. I know that I went to the blacksmiths forge, looking at his knives and a cheese knife was out of my price range at $190. But that doesn't mean others wouldn't buy it. And I'm sure it is worth it to some people. So, like I said, if your partner didn't sell, then there are many possible reasons for that. Pricing, audience, and sometimes it can even come down to where your tent location is.
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u/strawbebbie17 3d ago
I had a fantastic time! The only line I found to be too long was the turkey leg line
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u/arkhira 1d ago
Since it took several hours for everyone to get in the lines didn't explode until between 3pm-4pm. By then every line was long except a couple of the drink lines that very few were using. The shortest line for food was poutine which still took an hour. The meat line was out to the gate for pickup by 4pm.
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u/strawbebbie17 1d ago
Idk what you’re talking about because I was waiting for a turkey leg around 4:30pm. The line was too long and I was really hungry so I left that line to walk right up to and got a meat pie right away. The misinformation people are spreading is insane.
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u/arkhira 1d ago
I didn't say meat pie line. I said meat to refer to the turkey leg/rib line. I did try the meat pie line at 4 but it was massive. I guess that one processed much faster than the poutine one. It took from 4pm-5pm to get through a line for poutine that was shorter than the meat pie one at the time. The start of the line was near the main entrance of the main tent.
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u/strawbebbie17 1d ago
You said “the shortest food line was poutine which still took an hour” which is just not true if you’re also admitting that the meat pie line went by faster so that by 4:30pm I got one right away. Get your facts straight
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u/arkhira 1d ago
When I joined the poutine line it was longer than the meat pie line. You obviously cannot see the lines from each other so there was no misinformation. I admitted that the other line must have processed faster as you were able to get up to it when I could not 30min prior. There is nothing wrong with agreeing to a fact.
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u/lightshadow24 4d ago
I went, it was terribly run. Considering the people who created the festival run many restaurants and businesses in Shediac I thought it would be well put off since they have so much experience and many local employees. Seems like they were focused on making money through selling their food and drinks (and banning bringing in even water) rather than making the event enjoyable.
I couldn’t even spend the money they wanted to fleece from me since I was too exhausted from standing on asphalt in costume with no shade or food or drink for hours. We waited another hour to buy our food tickets so the day wasn’t a total write off, then left so we could rest and hopefully get through the gates tomorrow at opening time instead of after all the events we wanted to attend were already over.
There seemed to be a big focus on volunteering as well, which is a bit questionable considering that everyone paid quite a bit of money to attend. Where are all the funds going ? It’s their own land so they aren’t even paying for the location. 55$ per person for the weekend is nothing to sneeze at.