FAIRFIELD – Fairfield hosted its Second Annual Renaissance Faire this past Saturday and Sunday, which drew about 2,500 people to the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.

Claudia Mast, who organized the event with Lexi McLain-Goddard, said they were pretty pleased with the turnout considering the cold weather. She said the event drew 26 vendors, about triple the number from the Fairfield Renaissance Faire’s inaugural event in 2023.

Members of a group called Guardians of the Black Forest performed demonstrations of combat as it would have occurred with weapons and armor from the Renaissance period in Europe, which according to history.com spanned from the early 1300s to the early 1600s. The group also set up “living history encampments” to show what an encampment would have looked like in that era.

Mast said she saw the Guardians of the Black Forest perform in full gear during one summer at the Amana Renaissance Festival.

“They were dripping wet with sweat. They are such die-hards,” Mast said.

Tara Arreola welcomed guests as Ivy Mossysprings with a sunshiney personality when they entered the faire. She engaged with attendees of all ages and told them about her experience as a woodland fairy. Before each visitor left her tent, she enthusiastically told them about her “little mushroom friends,” that stowed away in her things to join her at the Renaissance Faire.

According to Mossysprings, mushrooms are the best at keeping secrets so, as a parting gift, she invited young attendees to take one home with them.

Mossysprings was only one of many performers that meandered around the Renaissance Faire grounds engaging with guests as various characters. Wizards, witches, royalty, and other Renaissance-themed characters invited attendees to play games and offered children trinket souvenirs such as pebbles, Fool’s Gold, rings, and tiny dragon statues.

While the wind and lower temperatures made Saturday at the faire quite chilly, vendors welcomed guests into their tents not just to show off their goods for sale, but to lend a space to warm their hands before continuing their adventures through the grounds.

Mast said she and McLain-Goddard started the Fairfield Renaissance Faire as a fun thing for people to do, especially after a few years of the pandemic when people were cooped up inside.

“Everybody was trying to pick themselves up, and we needed something positive for the community,” she said.

Some Renaissance faires require that patrons wear only period-specific clothing, while Mast said others are more “whimsical” and allow guests to just be themselves. She said organizers viewed the Fairfield Renaissance Faire as a chance to showcase local talent and boost the local economy in the process.

“We wiped out Sweet ‘n Saucy,” Mast said, referring to the restaurant’s food truck that was at the fairgrounds that weekend. “They couldn’t open on Monday because they had sold out of all their inventory.”

Mast said they are “absolutely” planning another Renaissance Faire in 2025, probably around the same time of year in mid- to late-April so as not to conflict with other Renaissance Faires in the region such as those in Des Moines and Ames. She said they hope to bring in a group that demonstrates knights jousting on horseback, though that will depend on how much money they can raise.

“We know of a couple people who do it, but it’s very pricey,” Mast said. “It’s just the two of us organizing it, and we’re trying to keep it self-sustaining. We hope that, after seeing the legitimacy of this one, we can bring in bigger crowds and advertise a little wider.”

Organizers asked guests to bring a non-perishable food item, and this year they collected 140 donated items compared to a little over 120 items last year. Mast added that this year’s event was made possible by their sponsors, Fairfield Tire and Walmart.