Ren Fair time again

This weekend, I’m headed out to Sterling, N.Y., located about 45 minutes outside Syracuse, for the Sterling Renaissance Festival. Every summer since 1976, the festival hosts visitors for seven consecutive weekends with attractions and activities every Renaissance fair should have — ye olde shops, live minstrels and Shakespearean performances, even jousts!

I attended it for the first time in August 2018 and have made the trip out every year since, except for 2020. I was amazed by how fun and fascinating everything was the first time, but even six visits later, it’s always fun to see what’s new and what’s the same. Set in 1585 in the fictional village of Warwick, there are all the costumed entertainers, merchants, games, rides and the food. My goodness, the food. You can’t go wrong with meat on a stick and a pint of mead, but there’s plenty of more traditional amusement park food as well.

While the first few years went by pretty fast because we all wanted to see as much as we could, now we go at a little slower pace so we can sit down and enjoy some of our favorite things a little more.