On weekends between now and Oct. 19, what is normally a popular Highway 101 rest stop is transformed into the Elizabethan village of Willingtown, set somewhere between 1560 and 1604.
The reporter and a friend hold turkey legs while watching a blacksmithing demonstration at the Northern California Renaissance Faire in Hollister on Sept. 21. (Kate Bradshaw/Bay Area News Group)
Located just past Casa de Fruta in Hollister, the Northern California Renaissance Faire covers 21 acres and has something for every would-be Renaissance man, woman or child — jousting tournaments, costume shops, carnival-style games involving throwing sharp objects, performances and a food court boasting quintessential ren faire fare like turkey legs, plus tasty, albeit anachronistic refreshments like mocha floats.
What to do first? Ask Duncan Horrillo, aka Snarkfellow, or Stan Horyza (job title: “village idiot,” he says), two of the Faire experts at the information booth near the entrance. They recommended an impressive lineup of events scheduled throughout the day, from a father-daughter blacksmithing demo to the Queen’s royal joust and a Shakespeare-meets-Dungeons & Dragons improv performance. There’s also a kid-friendly stage, as well as a 21-and-up stage. Many shows throughout the day also feature interpretations for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
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With hundreds of actors and 150 vendors populating the village, it’s fun to simply stroll through the winding village paths, taking in the elaborate costumes — some of which change depending on the theme each weekend — and wares for sale, like handcrafted tankards, leather pouches, costumes and more. The themes for weekends of Sept. 27-28 and Oct. 3-4 will be Cottagecore; Oct. 11-12 is Oktoberfest; and Oct. 18-19 is Halloween Fantasy.
Sure, to be entirely historically accurate, negative things like plagues, beheadings and poverty would likely factor in to the villagers’ lives. But Willingtown is intended to be the “Disneyland” version of the Renaissance — focused on the happy times, Horyza says.
While the Faire may be a way to escape to a fantastical alternate reality for the day for many visitors, it’s a different story for the people who’ve work in the pop-up Elizabethan village over the years — the community that forms here is anything but transient. Maybe that’s because it’s the only such Faire known to be owned and operated by its own merchants and performers.
Take Jennifer Christie of Los Angeles, a longtime attendee who specializes in teaching traditional crafts, including fiber arts, and this year, ran the leatherwork station beneath the Faire’s craft tent. She took over the craft station from her daughter, who’d grown up spending summers at the Faire.
“It’s where I raised my daughter,” Christie says. It was the community that formed among the Faire workers that helped her daughter get a job at the on-site petting zoo on her way to becoming a veterinarian.
Jennifer Christie teaches leatherwork in the craft tent at the Northern California Renaissance Faire in Hollister, Calif., on Sept. 21, 2025. (Kate Bradshaw/Bay Area News Group)
Morrigan Honor-McKeen, Aidan Cradb and Mallory Ackley run Rogue’s Honor Games and have developed additional quests at the Faire for the last few years that deepen the existing interactive elements of the village, for instance, inviting attendees to solve a murder mystery, search for a hidden grimoire by finding QR codes with encoded clues or earning coins for one’s team by collecting code words from different guilds at the Faire.
Honor-McKeen, whose mom chairs the Faire’s board, grew up attending the Faire. Now a father, his own child is a third-generation “Faire brat” (that’s lingo for Renaissance Faire kid).
“Faire is home,” he says. “For me, it’s community.”
If you go: There are a few rules: No pets. Shoes required. Costumes encouraged, but costume weapons must be sheathed and peace-tied — no exposed steel or strung bows. Tickets must be purchased online. The Faire is wheelchair accessible, but the paths are dirt and unpaved.
Details: Open weekends 10 a.m.-6 p.m. through Oct. 19, Casa de Fruta, 10031 Pacheco Pass Highway, Hollister. Admission is $35 for adults, kids 12 and under are free. norcalrenfaire.com