An elf at Elfia once asked me whether my gambeson was “from a game”, and the honest answer was that it was from a field in Gloucestershire, which is the whole difference between a fantasy fair and a medieval festival in one sentence. Twelve fantasy fairs in Europe have 2027 dates we have checked, from Trolls & Légendes in Mons at Easter to the Midwinter Fair at Archeon in December, and the biggest are Dutch: Castlefest at Lisse, 5–8 August 2027, confirmed, and Elfia (the old Elf Fantasy Fair) in its spring and autumn editions.
None is the real thing. Each has a period market, camp or castle under the elves. By the end you’ll know which half is which at every one, who each suits, and where the real thing is happening nearby if the ears wear off.
Fantasy fairs in Europe 2027 (checked 13 September 2026; “expected” means the organiser has not announced; none of the biennial fairs skips 2027)
What is a fantasy fair, and how is it different from a medieval festival?
A fantasy fair is a costume festival with a medieval backbone. The market, the bands, the camp or the castle are real and usually good, with craftspeople rather than tat behind the stalls; the elves, the steampunk, the cosplay and the costume contest are the reason people come. A medieval festival is a real place on a real date with reenactment groups in it. The full split, faire against festival against living history, is in medieval festival or renaissance faire.
Three tells in ten seconds: a costume contest where a battle would be; a band stage with a pagan-folk act on it; and a market where the smith sells next to the elf-ear stall and neither of them minds.
Which fantasy fairs are in the Netherlands and Belgium?
Five, and two of the names you may be searching for are gone. Keltfest was last held in 2019 and its organisers folded it into Castlefest, and Elfia left Kasteel de Haar at Haarzuilens in April 2025 after 23 years. Everything below is what is left, which is most of the circuit.
Elfia Vorden, Vorden, Netherlands (expected 7–9 May 2027)
Elfia is the Netherlands’ largest outdoor fantasy and cosplay festival by its own account, around 20,000 people, and since 2026 its spring edition is held in the park of Kasteel Vorden in the Achterhoek, a castle first recorded in 1315. Its period side is the castle, the craft and costume traders and the folk bands; the fantasy is everything else, from the costume parade to the election of a king and queen.
The 2027 dates had not been announced when we checked, and the organisers have not yet publicly said the fair returns to Vorden, so treat 7–9 May as a pencil mark. Day tickets ran from €28.90 on the Friday to €48.90 on the Saturday in 2026. Skip it if you hate queuing to be photographed; go if you want to be.
Elfia Arcen, Arcen, Netherlands (expected 18–19 September 2027)
The autumn edition fills the Kasteeltuinen Arcen, the castle gardens on the Maas in northern Limburg, on the third weekend of September: 19–20 September 2026 is confirmed and 18–19 September 2027 is expected. Gardens and a walled Guelders lordship’s past are the backbone, the market of craft and costume traders and the folk bands are the rest of it, and the fantasy is the point. Listings put 2026 at €53.90 for the Saturday and €43.90 for the Sunday, with a two-day ticket at €87.90, and normal garden tickets are not valid. The couple who want a castle garden and a good market go here rather than to Vorden.
Castlefest, Lisse, Netherlands (5–8 August 2027, confirmed)
Castlefest is four days in the park of Kasteel Keukenhof at Lisse, since 2005 and around 55,000 people, built on a large market of craftspeople and traders, pagan-folk and medieval-rock bands, workshops, and a Saturday-night Wicker Man burning that the organisers stage as a ritual and the crowd treats as one. The crafts, the music and the camp-style catering are the period side; the castle is a 17th-century country house, so do not go for the walls.
Tickets for 2027 go on sale on 1 October 2026 at 12:00 and the prices were not yet published; children under four are free with a ticketed adult and there is a child rate to twelve. By day it is the family fair on this list, and by night the costume one.
Midwinter Fair, Archeon, Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands (12–13 December 2026, confirmed)
The Midwinter Fair is the one where the old part is real: Archeon is an open-air archaeological museum with a reconstructed period town and a Roman quarter, and the fair’s craft stalls, fire-lit rituals and folk bands sit in them for a December weekend, the 22nd edition on 12–13 December 2026, with 11–12 December 2027 expected. Saturday adults were €36.50 early bird or €38.50 in 2026, Sundays from €30, children €21.50, and a two-day pass €60.50. The theme is the return of the light; the elves come anyway. It is also in our Christmas markets round-up, with the caveat that the fair is not what the market is.
Trolls & Légendes, Mons, Belgium (expected 26–28 March 2027)
Trolls & Légendes is Belgium’s fantasy festival and it is indoors, in the halls of Lotto Mons Expo, every two years over the Easter weekend: folk and fantasy-metal concerts, a book and comics fair with international authors, a craft market, role-playing and board games, films and cosplay, run by volunteers and drawing close to 25,000 people. There is no camp and no tournament, and it is closer to a convention than to a fair on a field, which is the honest label; children under twelve go free. The 2027 edition was not yet published when we checked. Go for the games hall and the authors; go to Bruges, about an hour away, for the Middle Ages.
Which are in Germany, France, Britain and Italy?
MPS: the touring market, at Rastede, Bückeburg and Luhmühlen
The Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum has been on the road every summer since 1994, more than a dozen stops a season, and it is the most period thing on this page: a large market of mostly real crafts, encampments of reenactment groups, a knights’ tournament, and fantasy by declaration, in the costumes and the name. Three stops are the ones the organiser himself calls the big ones.
MPS Rastede, 6–9 May 2027, confirmed, is four days over Ascension in the Schlosspark of the Oldenburg grand dukes’ summer palace, on the site of a 1091 abbey, with around 120 stalls and more than fifty camps; a four-day pass is €82 in advance. Then MPS Bückeburg, the flagship, takes two weekends in the grounds of Schloss Bückeburg, 24–25 July and 31 July–1 August 2027, confirmed, with a two-day pass at €40 in advance and children under seven free across the tour. MPS Luhmühlen, 3–5 September 2027, confirmed, is the three-day camp the tour calls the Fette Heide, on open heathland in the Lüneburg Heath.
From 2027 the MPS drops its music arena and headline bands, by the organiser’s account in the regional press, so the market and the camps are what you are buying. The reenactor who wandered in stays for the camp and then leaves for the real thing, which the Germany round-up has by date.
ConQuest of Mythodea, Brokeloh, Germany (4–8 August 2027, confirmed)
Mythodea is the world’s largest live-action role-playing game by its organiser’s count, up to 10,000 costumed players building camps, markets and armies on the Rittergut Brokeloh estate near Hanover and fighting for five days over an invented continent. It is a game, not a spectator festival. Day visitors are admitted only in period dress, only to the market area, only on the Thursday to Saturday, and only 200 a day, sold on site; in 2026 the price fell through the day from €30 before noon to €15 after six. The camps and the crafts are as period as anything on the MPS tour; the world is wholly made up. You play or you do not go, and small children do neither.
Cidre & Dragon, Merville-Franceville-Plage, France (expected 18–19 September 2027)
Cidre & Dragon turns a Normandy seaside village into Merravilla for one weekend every September, 19–20 September 2026 confirmed and 18–19 September 2027 expected, and it is free, which no other fair on this page can say. Underneath is a proper fête médiévale: a market of artisans, a camp with workshops and combat, and stages of folk music. On top is Tolkien-flavoured fantasy, dragons in the parade and costumed visitors by the tens of thousands, 70,000 by the organiser’s figure. Do it with the Médiévales de Bayeux, expected 2–4 July 2027, an hour down the coast, and you have Normandy’s year in two weekends.
Fantasy Forest, Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, England (16–18 July 2027, confirmed)
Fantasy Forest is Britain’s fantasy festival, grown from just over 1,000 people in 2019 to a sold-out 21,000 in 2026: three days of folk, pagan and fantasy bands, a fantasy market, LARP, workshops, authors and a campsite in the grounds of the 15th-century castle where Katherine Parr is buried. The castle is the backbone; the rest is the festival. A weekend camping ticket was £96.95 in 2026, day tickets were reported from £18.95 the year before, and 2027 prices and the on-sale date were not yet announced. Families camp here happily. Tewkesbury, the real field, is a few miles away the weekend before, and the UK round-up has both.
Festa dell’Unicorno, Vinci, Italy (expected 9–11 July 2027)
The Festa dell’Unicorno takes over the walled centre of Vinci, Leonardo’s hill town, for three days each July with themed worlds that run from a citadel with a market and knights to steampunk, cosplay, comics and horror, some 200 stands and hundreds of shows. Vinci and its castle of the Conti Guidi are the old part; the worlds are the fair. In 2026 online tickets were €13 for adults, €10 for children and €26 for three days, with children under seven free, and 9–11 July 2027 is expected from the mid-July pattern. It is the cheapest fair on this list and the only one in a hill town, which is a good pairing on a hot day.
Who is each one for?
- The costume crowd: Elfia, either edition; the parade is the day. Skip it if you hate queuing to be photographed.
- Families: Castlefest by day, the Midwinter Fair in December, Vinci for the price. Skip Mythodea; it admits almost nobody and no small ones.
- LARPers: Mythodea, if you are playing; Trolls & Légendes for the games hall.
- The couple who want a castle garden and a good market: Elfia Arcen, or Castlefest on the Friday before the crowd.
- The reenactor who wandered in: an MPS stop, for the camp, then the exit below.
Where to see the real thing instead
- From the Dutch fairs, Belgium is next door: the Ommegang in Brussels, expected 30 June–3 July 2027, and the Procession of the Holy Blood in Bruges, Thursday 6 May 2027, confirmed; the Belgium and Netherlands pages hold the rest.
- From an MPS stop: the Kaltenberger Ritterturnier, 9–25 July 2027, confirmed, and Esslingen’s costumed Christmas market in winter, both on the Germany page.
- From Cidre & Dragon: Bayeux, on the France page.
- From Sudeley: Tewkesbury, and the two English festivals with a fantasy market of their own, The Loxwood Joust and England’s Medieval Festival, on the United Kingdom page.
The whole circuit lives under fantasy fairs, and the months under May, August and December.
What to wear, and what not to
Costume is the culture at a fantasy fair, not a rule, and turning up in jeans is allowed and slightly lonely. Natural fibres near the fire stalls, because a polyester cloak next to a fire-eater is a decision you make once. Prop weapons are peace-tied or banned depending on the fair, so read the organiser’s page before you pack the sword. And the gambeson is fine; you will simply be asked which game it is from. What to wear has the wool argument and medieval fair etiquette has the rest, most of which applies to elves.
I told the elf it was from Tewkesbury. She had never heard of it, wrote it down, and that is the most useful thing this site does.
