The Strangest One-Star Reviews of Our Favorite Renaissance Faire

For the most part, King Richard’s Faire in Carver, an annual tradition for many locals, gets rave reviews across the board. The enchanted 80-acre wooded Renaissance realm of "Carvershire" is old-world enough to keep us coming back year after year. In fact, 2021 marks its 40th season, which is pretty indicative of its level of success.

Most people love the eight stages, the characters, the performers, the (intentionally) crude and rude actors, and window shopping at the dozens of Renaissance-related shops. It’s definitely the only place where you can casually browse chain mail and armor at one store and leather bodices at the next. All very normal stuff at King Richard’s.

Between seeing Game of Thrones characters every 10 feet and seeing some Tiger King action in real life, what’s not to love about this 16th-century fall festival?

Get our free mobile app

It’s got all of the things you’d expect from an outdoor venue, like bees near the food stands, porta-johns, a dusty parking lot, and the ground is uneven from the tree roots. While it may be possible to control some of these things with modern technology, at the end of the day, it's really hard to manipulate nature to be accommodating to event-goers' needs.

It’s a little unfair that those complaints drag the faire’s ratings down because it’s not something that can be easily remedied by the staff. It’s kind of like when your mom told you that if a person can’t fix the problem that second (i.e. an unzipped fly), there is no reason to point it out.

The other crummy reviews are mostly from people who live out of state and have been to “much better” Renaissance faires in other parts of the country. They are simultaneously mad about it not being historically accurate and not modern enough to accepting credit cards or have real bathrooms. You really have to wonder what these people expected to be getting from a remote forest-turned-weekend carnival. Did you not know where you were going?

Here are some of the most ridiculous one-star reviews of King Richard’s Faire from Yelp and Trip Advisor from the past 10 years. None of them will keep me from going again, though. Huzzah!