Why I Love Renaissance Faires (and What They Have to Do with Amberlight Valley)
Some places feel like coming home even when you've never been there before.
Renaissance Faires are that for me.
I have been going since I was a little girl. My parents would take me, and we would dress up… all of us, together, stepping through those gates into something that felt more real than real life. I remember my dad going all in one year, dressed as a king. He got the biggest kick out of how people treated him differently the moment he was in costume. The court that assembled around him, the bows and the "Your Majesty"s, the way strangers played along with complete sincerity. He loved every second of it.
So did I.
Renaissance Faires have always felt like my people. Like the kind of place where I could exhale fully and not worry about whether I was too much or too strange or too deeply invested in something most people didn't understand. There was always someone more enthusiastic, more costumed, more committed than me… and that was celebrated. Looking back now, I think I recognize the pattern. That immediate sense of belonging, the sensory richness, the permission to be fully yourself in a world built for imagination? That speaks a particular language that many neurodivergent hearts know well.
I felt welcome there before I had words for why.
What It Feels Like to Walk Through the Gates
The moment you step inside a Renaissance Faire, everything changes.
It isn't one sense that gets you… it's all of them at once. The textures of velvet and leather brushing past. The smell of roasted turkey leg and woodsmoke curling through the air. The sound of live music layered over the clash of armor and the laughter of jesters. The visual feast of a thousand costumes, each one a small declaration of who someone is when they get to choose freely.
It's sensory overload in the best possible way.
Like every piece of your soul that tends toward beauty and whimsy and wonder got laid out in the sunshine and said, look, this is us, all of this is us.
A faire is not escapism, exactly. It's more like permission. Permission to play. Permission to wander. Permission to talk to a stranger because they're wearing dragon wings and obviously they are going to be wonderful.
Medieval Mayhem 2025 - I snapped this one, as the trio reminded me so much of Morgan, Mary, and Brigid.
Medieval Mayhem: A White Mountains Treasure
If you live in or near the White Mountains and you have never been to Medieval Mayhem Renaissance Faire, I need you to put it on your calendar right now.
This is the longest-running fundraising event for the Mountain of Hope Foundation… a White Mountains nonprofit that provides gap scholarships to Navajo and Apache County students, and it has been bringing Wyvernton Shire to life in Show Low since 2007. Eighteen years of knights and queens and pirates and jesters and artisans and food and music and magic, all in our own backyard.
The faire features live demos from skilled artisans, music, dance, and fully armored knights fighting with real weapons. There is a da Vinci Day for curious young minds (and let's be honest, curious adults), a treasure map that leads you through the shire to discover artisans and organizations keeping old traditions alive, two main stages of entertainment, and merchants offering the kind of handcrafted goods you simply cannot find anywhere else.
It is a community event in the truest sense, built by volunteers, sustained by love, and anchored in the belief that wonder is worth tending.
This year, Medieval Mayhem runs July 10-12, 2026 at Frontier Field Park, 650 N. 9th Place in Show Low. I will be there—and I would love to see you.
Being a Vendor: The Other Side of the Magic
There is something that shifts when you stop being a guest at a faire and become part of the faire itself.
As a vendor, I get to be part of the magic for someone else. I get to dress up, express myself in ways that feel deeply freeing, and be one of those colorful corners of the world that someone else stumbles into and thinks, oh, this is exactly what I needed today. That is a genuine gift.
And then there's the vendor community itself. Other makers, creators, and magic-weavers who look out for each other, befriend each other, share snacks and laughs between customers and cheer each other's sales from across the way. It is one of the warmest, most genuine communities I have ever been part of. It feels like belonging.
As for my costumes, I love switching them up. Lately, I have been very into wearing my swords with everything. So if you spot a warrior witch, an elf, or a faerie wandering through Wyvernton Shire this year... that might be me. Come say hello.
Calan Mai 2026 in Camp Verde, AZ
A New Tradition: The Sword Dance
Since I recently attended Calan Mai, which carries that same beautiful Renaissance Faire energy… I have started a new personal tradition: a spontaneous sword dance to celebrate. There is something about the music, the movement, the sheer joy of it that feels ceremonial in the best way. Like a toast made with the whole body.
Every faire deserves at least one moment like that.
The Amberlight Valley Connection
People ask me sometimes where Amberlight Valley came from. The honest answer is: it came from here. From the White Mountains. From the magic I find woven into the ordinary… in pines and mountain air and local places that carry something ancient and alive in them.
But it also came from places like this. From Renaissance Faires.
When I think about what makes Amberlight Valley feel the way it does -- the whimsy, the wonder, the lightheartedness, the people who lean into magical moments instead of away from them, I realize that Renaissance Faires have been teaching me that energy my whole life. The willingness to play. The community of people who take imagination seriously. The sense that something extraordinary might be around the next corner, and you should absolutely go look.
If I had to pick one character from my books who would absolutely thrive at a Renaissance Faire, it would be Befana. She would wander through the shire slowly, taking everything in, letting it remind her of things she had almost forgotten. She would stop at every artisan's booth. She would know the history behind each craft. And she would leave with her arms full and her heart fuller.
I understand that impulse completely.
If You've Never Been to a Renaissance Faire
Let me tell you what I would tell any first-timer:
Be open to whimsy. That's it. That is the whole secret.
Allow yourself the space to be silly, to be delighted, to interact with the performers, to try the food, to linger at the merchant booths longer than you planned. Wear sunscreen. Bring your wallet and prepare for magic around every corner, because it will be there, and you will want to take some of it home with you.
You don't need a costume to belong. You just need to show up with an open heart. The faire will do the rest.
Come Find Me at Medieval Mayhem
Medieval Mayhem Renaissance Faire
July 10-12, 2026
Frontier Field Park, 650 N. 9th Place, Show Low, AZ 85901
Friday & Saturday: 10am-6pm | Sunday: 10am-5pm
Tickets are available online and at the gate. Children 4 and under are admitted free. Proceeds benefit the Mountain of Hope Foundation.
Follow Medieval Mayhem on Facebook for updates, and find more details at azmayhem.com.
I will be there with my books, my handcrafted bookish goods, and almost certainly at least one sword. Come say hello, shop the faire, watch the knights battle it out in the Royal Rumble, and let yourself wander.
The magic is waiting. Huzzah!
Dalea Faulkner is an author, filmmaker, and creative living in the White Mountains of Arizona. Her novel The Secrets of Starlight Lake is available now. Her world is always, in some way, the mountains.
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