Kansas City Renaissance Festival facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Kansas City Renaissance Festival |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Renaissance fair |
| Dates | Opens Labor Day Weekend |
| Location(s) | Bonner Springs, Kansas, United States |
| Inaugurated | 1977 |
| Attendance | 185,000 (average) |
| Area | 16 acres (6.5 ha) |
| Stages | 20 |
The Kansas City Renaissance Festival is a super fun event held every fall in Bonner Springs, Kansas. It's like stepping back in time to the Renaissance period, which was a time of great art and discovery in Europe, hundreds of years ago!
This festival starts on Labor Day weekend and runs for seven weekends. You can visit on Saturdays, Sundays, Labor Day, and Columbus Day. It all began in 1977 to help the Kansas City Art Institute. Now, it's a huge event with 165 shops and 13 stages, welcoming about 180,000 visitors each year!
Contents
What You Can See and Do
The Kansas City Renaissance Festival is packed with amazing things to see and do. It's like a giant outdoor museum mixed with a lively party!
Explore Shops and Crafts
- There are over 150 shops and vendors. Many sell unique handmade crafts and beautiful artwork.
- The festival grounds are really cool, with winding paths, colorful murals, and buildings decorated to look like they're from the Renaissance.
- You can watch skilled artisans from the Institute for Historic and Educational Arts (IHEA) at work. They show how people made things long ago.
- You might see them weaving textiles, working with wood, or even shaping metal in a real blacksmith shop!
Enjoy Living History Tours
- The festival offers a free "Living History Tour."
- On this tour, you can see craftspeople creating their art.
- Costumed characters will also share interesting facts about Renaissance art, science, medicine, and even how people fought battles back then. It's a great way to learn while having fun!
Festival History and Growth
The Kansas City Renaissance Festival has grown a lot since it first started. It has an interesting past, showing how it became the big event it is today.
Early Days and New Ownership
- The festival first opened in 1977. It was much smaller back then.
- For its first 23 years, it mostly helped raise money for the Kansas City Art Institute.
- In 1999, a company called Mid-America Festivals bought the event. This company also runs the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.
- After being purchased, the Kansas City Renaissance Festival grew much bigger and became a major business.
Staying in Bonner Springs
- In the early 2000s, there was a time when the festival might have had to move.
- Around 2003, there were discussions about the festival's land lease with Wyandotte County, Kansas.
- Luckily, the festival's owners and the county worked things out.
- Mid-America Festivals signed a new long-term agreement, promising to keep the festival in Bonner Springs for many more years.
A Year Off
- Like many events around the world, the Kansas City Renaissance Festival had to cancel its season in 2020.
- This was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many large gatherings to be put on hold for safety.
