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What you need to know about ticketing and other changes at Carolina Renaissance Festival

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Ready for some medieval merriment? The Carolina Renaissance Festival has returned for its 29th season.

To help address traffic issues that have plagued the annual festival, organizers announced several changes for the 2022 season, including how admission tickets will be made available.

A limited number of date-specific tickets will be sold online for each event date while supplies last. General admission tickets valid for any event date will no longer be sold at retail locations throughout the area as in past years.

“This is the most significant operational change in the festival’s near three-decade history,” said Matt Siegel, the event’s director of marketing, in a news release.

Siegel added that tickets will only be available at the festival’s onsite box office on event days that are not sold out in advance.

Although the festival operates rain or shine, ticketholders will receive a refund should the event not open because of unsafe weather conditions.

Other changes include a new traffic management plan, increased staffing and training, and revised hours: the festival will open 30 minutes earlier, at 9:30 a.m., on each of its event days. Click here to see the complete 2022 event operating and traffic management planning report.

The Carolina Renaissance Festival will be held on Saturdays and Sundays from Oct. 2 to Nov. 20. The festival takes place on a 250-acre farm located north of Charlotte, between Concord and Huntersville, at the junction of North Carolina Highway 73 and Poplar Tent Road.

For more information, go to carolina.renfestinfo.com.

NOTE: Although the Carolina Renaissance Festival is a rain-or-shine event, the festival did not open on Saturday because of the impact of Hurricane Ian on the final set-up of the fairgrounds. The festival will open on Sunday, Oct. 2 to kick off its 29th annual season.

(Watch below: Renaissance Festival to use new traffic plan, revised ticketing this season)