📆 First three weekends of August: 5th – 6th, 12th – 13th, 19th – 20th | After-hours parties on Fridays and Saturdays
⏰ 10 am – 7 pm
📍 Sky Meadows Park: 18601 Sky Meadows Ln, Snohomish
📧 info@washingtonfaire.com
🎟️ $0 – $29.95
Grab your drinking horn and your gallant steed! The Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire is back for three weekends. Previously at Kelley Farm in Bonney Lake, the festivities have moved northward at Sky Meadows Park in Snohomish and expanded to around 900 acres, allowing for more Faire, more camping tickets, and (blessed be) more parking.
We got a rundown of all things Ren Faire from Aimee Filippi, a regular and a member of the improv troupe Clergy of Errors, who will “baptize you in the comedy of the cloth.” They’ll play ye olde theatre games at the Auld Lyon Theatre, the Ember Rose, and the Hammered Troll Inn while visiting Merriwick (what those in the know call the Faire). “We’re comedy monks with a minimum of ten years of improv for each member (one has 30 years!),” she told The Ticket.
Filippi, who’s been doing Faire improv since 2012, knows Merriwick in and out, so I asked her for the best of the best. Of utmost importance? “I always recommend coming first thing in the morning, even before the 10 am opening, to get a good parking spot and beat the crowds. Sunday mornings tend to be a little lighter.”
Other can’t-miss entertainment in Merriwick?
⚔️ Witness the Knights of the Realm jousting at the Royal Arena
⚔️ Robin Hood & Maid Marian Present! (interactive storytelling) and Broon (variety, comedy, fire-eating, juggling) at the Village Square
⚔️ A Punch & Judy Show courtesy of the Piccolo Puppet Players at the Oakwood Puppet Pavilion
⚔️ The Troll, one of Merriwick’s drinking spots, holds more adult fare to go along with your ale. Sign up for the pub crawl.
⚔️ More in the mood for artisanal goods? “As Wood As It Gets makes beautiful, handcrafted wood tankards and kitchen wares,” while the Kesh Music Shop has handmade crystal flutes.
⚔️ If you’re there to gorge on some special food, there’s plenty to choose from, regardless of if you want your food pickled, barbecued, in cream form, or put in pies. And there’s always the classic giant turkey leg. Though Filippi advises to “get food early; lines get long.”
The good news about Merriwick is that no matter who you come with (solo, families, a barbarian horde), there’s something for every walk of life. But get your tickets fast. Weekends are already selling out.
