Ren Faire 2025- Quex Park
The Crossing of worlds!
On Saturday the 13th September I set sail for the exciting new waters of The Renaissance Faire UK; Crossing of the worlds.
I had never been to a Ren before and like many of us, my existing knowledge came from social media videos which were mostly US Ren faire's. It surprised me how many people had never heard of a Ren faire at all when I said I was going and a few others who thought I was off for some historical re-enactment.
So my fair Landlubbers, if you are indeed considering the possibility of booking up for The Renaissance Faire UK but your worries and apprehensions are blocking you from parting ways with your gold then this post is for ye!
What to expect!
From the second you enter, staff a welcoming and helpful. We received a cute printed wristband in keeping with the theme and they didn't security check us but they did check weapons.
There was no sign of the programmes so I am not sure where they were on offer and there was no signs that we could see which is something they may want to consider for next year.
We wandered through stalls first and there was lots of on theme items on offer and lots of D&D loot to be had. There was also a few workshop areas and a healing drum tonight which was mesmerising.
We found three entertainment stages and one combat arena. All outside except for the large main stage which was in a wedding type yurt. Pricings were reasonable, including drinks at the bar and food.
There are minimal places to sit other than in the main tent. Children and dog friendly though I would bring snacks for the kids!
Parking was easy and leaving was no hassle either.
Dressing up was very high participatory!
You don't have to join in with anything immersive or role-playing if you don't wish to.
The nitty gritty! 💀
Costume
I am a passionate dresser-upper, if there is an option for some kind of costume or over the top outfit then you can guarantee I am going to be immersing myself with bells on. I appreciate however this is not for everyone and there may be some concerns about how much effort everyone else is going to be putting in with their fits. If you have lurked on Social media posts from Ren Faire events you will note a high level of costumery occurs which is often themed. The Renaissance Faire UK had a theme of the crossing of the worlds and the website had information of the different realms that featured as part of the TTRPG area so you could choose to fit in with one of these realms should you desire. However there were many off topic costumes too. I chose to go as a pirate because it is a costume I haven't done for a while, the weather was set to be a little on the chilly side and a Pirate is perfect for layering. In my head I was part of the Mer realm, fighting against the human realm who were building steam powered dwellings on Mer seas. Anyway, that was just the scenario in my head.
I was hugely impressed by the level of dressing up, there was a definite scale, so don't feel like you HAVE to go all out or at all but the majority of people were dressed up in everything from hastily purchased costumes online to beautiful handmade creations and it was wonderful to see so many people living out their fantasy dreams in a wonderful judgement free place. From what I heard there was some second-guessing as to whether people would go all out so I suspect that some may have held back a little but I guarantee there will be a big uptake next year!
Everyone looked wonderful.
Note: If you didn't quite have everything you needed to dress up, there were plenty of stalls to choose from where you could build an entire outfit, accessorise or add to your own fit.
Food
There was a lot of food on offer. A particularly sought after item was for the giant
Turkey legs- at least I think that's what they were- being a veggie I declined the option to feel like King Henry but the queue for them was lengthy and they did run out quite early on, I am told they restocked for the evening entertainment. In general food queues were very long, the vendors were smaller businesses with cute food trucks rather than the usual cartel of burger stands you find at festivals. This vibe was a lot nicer and more in keeping with the feel of the day but the vendors were not expecting the amount of people present and were running out of stock very quickly and rushed off their feet. We opted for Cheese on toast as it was the shortest queue and we bagged a loot of cheese on toast and a tea for £6 which wasn't too bad really. They also had a selection of chocolates and crisps on offer. The cheese on toast was delicious and the tea gave us a boost of energy and warmth as it certainly was not the usual sunny September weather we have grown used to.
I would say that they may need to revise the food situation a little and it would have been good to have a few more places to sit under cover. That being said they did not bag check us so potentially you could bring your own food in? Though I am not sure if they will up that security next year.
Toilets
Toilets were the posh portaloo variety in the port a cabin type buildings, so proper toilets essentially with a chemical flush. We didn't have to wait long to use them until a little later in the afternoon and they cleaned them at least once throughout the day that I saw. A few did run out of paper but that comes with the territory. Note that they were a little cramped so consider that when thinking of your costume!
Venue
Although it had been raining considerably, the ground was only a little damp and there were only one or two mud patches near the entrance. The car park however was a lot more squishy and the car did struggle a little in the field.
Quex park has a castle type building and wooded area on site and the camping area was close to the arena. There was a lack of signage pointing out stages, eating areas and which stage was which. This is something that would have been pretty useful. I think we managed to miss out a whole section somehow.
The jousting arena was flat so hard to see if you got to the back but the stage areas were decent and the shops were laid out well.
The signage leading to the festival was pretty non existent until you were actually on top of the car park however it was easy to find.
Trinkets
I had known about the trinket swapping situation at Ren Faires but I wasn't entirely sure if it was going to happen here so I came ill prepared with zero pirate treasure to offer. It is worth noting that it did occur! Some Trinket swappers were prepared with alternative trades, I traded a dream with a witch in exchange for a spell which was a wonderful experience.
I also traded photography skills for a mushroom sticker with a mushroom lady. There were some stalls with trinket dishes where you could leave something in exchange for taking something which was cute and helped with the immersive experience.
Costume tips!
There was a massive variation in costumes. Some had just opted for ears or a hat whilst others went all out. So here are my top tips!
- Do what makes you feel comfortable. Be that going in full character attire, cosplaying or just donning ears and your regular clothes it honestly doesn't matter but rest assured that if you dress up you certainly won't be on your own.
- make sure you have weather proof back up. I just took an umbrella clipped on with a carabiner!
- One bar filled up my tankard the other one refused but its worth bringing a drinking receptacle for the authenticity!
- I would opt for boots over heels as it is all outside pretty much.
- consider the toiletting situation.
- You will be able to pick up additions to your costume, or get your face painted.
- Despite the medieval roots, there was everything from Frodo to mermaids and sci fi costumes. So go with what you feel comfortable in really.
Overall experience
I would definitely go to The Renaissance Faire Uk; Crossing of The worlds 2 next year. The overall experience of the day was a wholesome and entertaining one where I felt as though my cup had truly been filled. It was so heart-warming to see so many people geek out in full comfort and to see what kind of characters everyone had gone for. There was a small amount of hazaaring and a little frolicking. I would aim to get there a little earlier next time as we didn't really have time to explore the TTRPG area which we were looking forward to and did miss some of the experiences on offer. I would potentially do the whole weekend, though I am unsure how I would have felt about crawling into a tent damp and cold and trying to dress up again the next day.
I think attending the ball would be a fun experience next time, though I would probably need a costume change to take from a day look into night look. I would probably ensure I had some money saved up to stock up on cool stuff from the vendors too!
I think that the food situation could be improved though it wasn't horrendous but we did spend a considerable amount of time waiting. The entertainment was fantastic and it was a bonus to get our metal on to Sellsword in the main stage area.
The jousting was a little tame and less enthusiastic than others I have seen and we opted to switch that for power metal instead, which was a shame. I don't know what the battle displays were the following day though.
I didn't notice many roaming actors or spots where there was roving entertainment of street performer type things going on to add to the storyline. We only saw one tiny glimpse of this happening towards the end of the day but perhaps we were just in the wrong time wrong place.
It was a wonderful day to just forget about the existence of the real world to be honest and I had a serious case of the blues the next day!
Bring on 2026!
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