Jim Worthington

Review of Sterling Renaissance Festival

For the past 16 years our family has trekked acros...

For the past 16 years our family has trekked across New York State from Buffalo to Sterling, and every year we spend an entire day walking, eating, laughing and spending too much money at the Sterling Renaissance Festival. This year it was interesting to see that some of the vendors had changed, and new vendors had taken the available spaces. As usual, the food and entertainment was fantastic!

Unfortunately, there were 2 issues we had this year with the Sterling Renaissance Festival.

The first issue was with the bow and arrow/catapult weapon demonstration. The PA system did not work loud enough or clear enough to understand all of the information being broadcasted. We re sure it was interesting information past experience tells us that the organizers of the festival would make sure it would be. But we couldn t hear it and neither could others in the crowd, based on their comments. The bow and arrow demonstration also stopped people from taking comfortable seating in preparation for the jousting event because the area was roped off to keep people safe from the weaponry. I totally understand the safety factors involved with dangerous weapons and the general public, but following the demonstration, the mass of people who rushed for the comfortable seating, which was located out of the blazing sun, created another dangerous situation. For years now, the hillside next to the jousting area has provided our children and others a place to quietly enjoy a snack, dessert or even a quick nap after a long day.

The second issue we had with the Sterling Renaissance Festival was the camel rides being replaced with a small pirate ship swinging ride, which was very similar to the swinging dragon ride. When our children saw the pirate ship, their faces fell. They look forward to riding the camel with great excitement every summer. We got the strong feeling that the camel rides will not be returning because of the huge posts that had been buried and cemented into the ground to fence off the area to keep the general public a safe distance from the simple swinging ride.

The Sterling Renaissance Festival could have easily brought in large horses for families to ride in the designated pasture where the camel rides had normally taken place. This also would have been an authentic experience from the Renaissance time period. The camels provided a wonderful experience that you were only able to experience at the Sterling Renaissance Festival.

We will probably continue to make our annual summer trips to Sterling Renaissance Festival, but the uniqueness of the experience has been sadly diminished. I sincerely hope there will be no more reductions to such a wonderful summertime event.