Kansas City Renaissance Festival
Location	Bonner Springs, Kansas
Opened	1977
Season	33rd
Area	16 acres (0.065 km2)
Stages	13
Average attendance	180,000

The Kansas City Renaissance Festival is a Renaissance fair held each fall in Bonner Springs, Kansas. The fair runs from Labor Day weekend going seven weekends, open on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as Labor Day and Columbus Day. The faire began in 1977 as a benefit for the Kansas City Art Institute, and became a stand-alone event in the late 1990s. Presently, the fair has 165 booths and 13 stages, entertaining 180,000 patrons annually on 16 operating days. ^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

[edit] History

The festival began in 1977, as a much smaller festival than it presently is. For its first 23 seasons it was operated primarily as a benefit for the Kansas City Art Institute, rather than as a business. In 1999 it was purchased by Mid-America Festivals, which also operates the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, and turned into a much larger business concern.

The Kansas City Renaissance Festival in addition to being sold to new ownership in the late 1990s and the tremendous growth it has encountered, as also seen the extreme possibility of having to shut down and move in the early part of the 21st century. There was talk in 2003 during a lease fight with Wyandotte County, Kansas, a scenario in which the Festival ownership and management gave serious thought to relocating the festival and taking every structure and sign with them.^[2] Ultimately, the lease fight was resolved with Mid-America Festivals signing a new long term lease and agreeing to keep the festival open in Bonner Springs for what they heralded at the time as "another thirty years."

[edit] See also

• Renaissance fair
• List of Renaissance fairs
• Reenactment
• Jousting
• Society for Creative Anachronism
• List of open air and living history museums in the United States

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Kansas City Renaissance Festival website