This was our most challenging fair experience to date. Year three of the Enchanted Orchard Renaissance Festival is located at a large orchard and farm in northern central Massachusetts. What was forecasted to be a 58 and partly cloudy day, morphed into a high of only 50 with all clouds and high winds in reality. We were cold! The wind was brutal. We packed for spring conditions, not winter ones, with wind chills in the low 40s. The weather forecasts have been shit since the government dismantled the national weather service, and we were honestly fools for not packing backup costume options.
Not that we could even benefit from everything we did bring because of the fair parking situation. The faire only offered on-site parking to “VIP parking” ticket holders for an additional $20. We would have taken advantage on such a windy day, but the faire sent out an email to all patrons a few days prior saying that all VIP parking was sold-out. We were required to take a sort-of-long, bumpy, loud, crowded shuttle ride from a nearby mall to the fair itself and were irate to see parking attendants taking cash for on-site parking when we pulled up in our gross school bus. Why send out the sold-out email if you were not in fact sold-out??
The venue tried to work with the weather by setting up fire pits throughout, which was appreciated, but without any wind-breaks, minimally helpful. We saw one vendor tent go full-on-flying away, dumping all of their small trinkets in the process. Many rushed to help, but there’s really nothing to be done for a broken tent in that kind of wind.
Why did we go to the fair in such weather? Well, again, the forecast was for a much nicer day; we bought tickets ahead of time; and at home an hour south the weather was much warmer. Other patrons seemed equally surprised by the weather. Many a bare-leg was seen shivering around a campfire.
We barely lasted two hours on-site. Our briefest faire day to-date, made much longer than it needed to be with a shuttle ride and wait times.
