The Hoggetowne Medieval Faire will return to downtown Gainesville in January, bringing all the best of the Dark Ages and none of the plagues or lack of electricity.
But the faire needs to find a new home. The city currently lacks funding to continue hosting the faire past the 2025 edition without returning to ticket sales. Hosting at Depot Park prevents Gainesville from controlling entries, so the city can’t sell tickets.
Each downtown faire forces the city to draw down on its reserve funding.
Roxana Gonzalez, director of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, laid out the situation during a November update to the Downtown Advisory Board.
“We don’t have the funding to continue it because we’re not going to make any revenue off of it,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said the ticket sales usually provide enough funding to continue the event for the next year. But both downtown editions, 2024 and the upcoming 2025 one, have been free.
Gonzalez said each Hoggetowne Medieval Faire costs around $560,000 for the typical three-weekend event. Each year, Gainesville pays for reenactors, advertising and materials.
Vendors who sell goods get a $200 fee, but Gonzalez said the fees can’t cover the costs.
The downtown editions have been for one weekend only. Gonzalez explained that the city can’t shut down access to a park for three weeks straight—or more if the faire stayed a multi-weekend event. But reenactors and performers who make the faire great don’t want to unpack and repack every weekend.
In the past, the faire has taken place in areas where the performers can set up RVs and stay for the whole three weeks. Hosted at the former Alachua County Fairgrounds and then a vacant land parcel off Archer Road, equipment could be left without worries.
Gonzalez said keeping the faire downtown too long could risk vendors not coming—and then visitors.
She said one weekend gives vendors less time to recoup costs. Plus, Depot Park can’t accommodate the larger faire attractions that hardcore fans crave, like jousts, chessboard performances and rides.
Without a strong medieval theme, Gonzalez said the faire could just become another downtown fair.
Gainesville reached out to the city of Alachua to use a piece of their land for the faire, but Gonzalez said Alachua refused to partner.
Mayor Harvey Ward said finding a permanent home is vital for the faire.
“I’ve committed to people who not only work around that space but who like to attend it that we’re going to find a permanent home for the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire,” Ward told Mainstreet.
He said he still doesn’t understand Alachua County’s reasons for moving the county fairgrounds from just south of the Gainesville Regional Airport to the city of Newberry.
Regardless, Ward said the city won’t follow suit and place the faire in western Alachua County. He said the city would rather go east, against the advice of Horace Greeley—“Go West, young man.”
A big part of the faire is the economic boost. Ward said the western side of Alachua County already has growing communities and doesn’t need an influx of public dollars. That’s why having the faire in east Gainesville worked so well.
A parcel of land near Melrose has been in unofficial discussions about hosting the faire.
Ward said the faire will likely need to stay outside city limits. The event needs at least 60 acres of open space and would thrive with more room.
The city isn’t ready to redo Ironwood Golf Course in order to use that site, Ward said, and another potential site within city limits also remains outside of Gainesville’s control.
Gonzalez told the Downtown Advisory Board that Gainesville staff would prefer to stay as close to city limits as possible.
“We got to stay within the county and really not too far off the city limits because, again, this is an event that brings economic impact,” Gonzalez said. “So if we leave the county or go too far out in the county, then it’s really not a city of Gainesville event anymore”
On the faire website, the city lists frequently sited locations and why Gainesville can’t use them, including the old fairgrounds, West End Golf Course, Gainesville Raceway, Citizens Field and Cuscowilla Nature Center.
The 2025 Hoggetowne Medieval Faire will happen rain or shine on Jan. 25 and 26, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., turning Depot Park into a “bastion of medieval revelry.”
Ward said he thinks the downtown edition still works—this being the second year. It brings downtown residents in contact with people who come for just the faire, and it exposes visitors to downtown businesses.
“I think it’s still novel and interesting, but I absolutely believe that we need to be about finding a permanent, roomy spot for [the faire],” Ward said.
In typical regressive fashion, the mayor doesn’t want to put the fair near places that are growing and where the most people live. He would rather social engineer an experiment rather than make the fair successful.
The fair is a business. When you put it in bad locations, then fewer vendors and paying attendees are going to come. So, to break even, the fees have to be higher, but that drives down attendance. It’s a recipe for failure.
Are the elected officials in Gainesville all as stupid as the mayor? Did he not even pass one class in economics, or is he just so bent in his political agenda that he even has to screw up the fair, despite the obvious solution of making it better by putting it where the highest number of people can attend?
Harvey Ward, keep you mitts off Melrose. You are NOT our mayor. We DO NOT want the Music Festivals nor the Medieval Faire out here. You have no business making any decisions about any other place besides Gainesville. You have already made a mess of Gainesville. Stay away from us.
What about working with the State to have the Faire at Paynes Prairie State Park?
Santa Fe College or Sprinhill
Well if how they run the fair is any indication, no wonder funds are drying up. The last time I went to a Hoggtowne festival it was overrun with furries, fantasy nerds, and harry potter fans. None of the food stations had organised queues to wait at. There were very few honest to goodness artisans with anything handmade, seemed like everyone bought thier stuff from the same vendors. In all honesty it looked and felt more like a poorly organised flea market then a renfair at all.
You nailed it. I’d add that it is merely a niche attraction that has outgrown any meaning it might gave had in Gainesville and serves no meaningful purpose (Idea – why not put it in Duck Pond and watch that liberal uppercrust of Gainesville “society” freak out!!!).
The old alachua county fair site – repels many citizens because of the crime and lack of security. Tolerance for gang activity and fighting- driving away from its location! . Hogtown med fair participants want security, ease of setup and open area-accessible to perform- the same . The atmosphere and woke aren’t are not providing a family oriented atmosphere!