USA Today readers have crowned the Ohio Renaissance Festival the best renaissance fair in the country. The Waynesville festival took the No. 1 spot in the 2026 USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards, climbing from second place in 2025.
The timing could not be better for Columbus day-trippers. The festival’s 2026 season opens Saturday, September 5 and runs weekends plus Labor Day through November 1, from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day. Waynesville sits about an hour southwest of Columbus down I-71, an easy morning drive for a full day in medieval times.
Each of the nine weekends carries its own theme. The season kicks off with Homecoming Weekend September 5–7, with the gates open an extra day for Labor Day. Fantasy Weekend follows September 12–13, with ASL interpreters on site, then Pirates Weekend lands September 19–20 to coincide with International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Later weekends include Highland Weekend with bagpipes and haggis, Romance Weekend with vow renewals, and the Feast of Fools, home to a pumpkin-versus-watermelon war that gets exactly as messy as it sounds.
The festival has been running since 1990 and packs its 16th-century village with jousting, artisan shops, comedy knife throwing, the Washing Well Wenches, storytelling mermaids, and a mud show. Full details and tickets are at renfestival.com.
