How to get the most out of Ohio RenFest

Pro tip: Cheryl Bales, the festival's longtime marketing director, strongly recommends using the festival's app before leaving home.

• You can build an itinerary and use a map to find stages, food and bathrooms.
• Most of it works without cell service, which can be spotty.

Buy tickets early: Renaissance Festival tickets used to be open-ended. But as attendance has surged, the festival has moved to date-specific tickets to manage crowds, Bales says.

• A limited number of tickets are available each day, so pick from the nine themed weekends and buy early.
• Screenshot the QR code before you go just in case the internet keeps tickets from loading.

Getting there: Parking is free, and a third entrance lane should help get visitors in faster this year.

Once you're inside, Bales says, full-contact jousting is a good place to start.

• The Cincinnati Barbarians offer armored combat — "medieval MMA," as Bales calls it — while Equestrian Odyssey features acrobatics on horseback.

New this year: Social media-famous Jacques the Whipper performs Sept. 19–20 and 26–27.

Come hungry: Bales recommends bread bowl stews, bourbon chicken, chimney cakes and "the best funnel cake" she's ever had.

• Bales suggests eating before the first joust ends around 1pm, when food lines tend to swell.
• But save room for the classic.

"You can't go to a ren(aissance) fair and not have a turkey leg at some point," Bales says.

If you go: Weekends Sept. 5–Nov. 1, 10:30am–7pm. 10542 Ohio 73, Waynesville.