I am planning to visit your fine faire this summer. Is there a weekend that you recommend over others regarding performers or themed events? Also, are there any hotels that you could recommend? Any other suggestions or tips are most welcome. Grammercy.
Hi Lady Gregory!
I am not a regular at Sterling, but we did visit last year, and so I thought I would share my research with you. I will let the locals speak about what is best to see at faire! I will chip and and say there are quite a few hills - so wear the comfortable shoes!
In terms of Hotels - and we only looked at fairly well known Hotel chains, not Motels, or anything that was truley independant, the closest I could find was the Quality Inn in Oswego - which is about 20 minutes from faire. The Best Western is also fairly close. Outside of that, you are looking at Liverpool (Hampton, Fairfield), at about 35 minutes from faire. We actually found the cost to be higher than average of what we like to pay - prices last year ranged from 135 a night to 173 a night, so we actually ended up camping.
We stayed at Suttercreek, a nice 5 minutes from faire, and it cost us $22 a night, and there were lovely flush toilets and hot showers to boot.
Hope that helps!
Any weekend is a great weekend for Sterling! :)
The hotels that were mentioned in Oswego are good. There is another, called the Beacon Inn. I understand that it is real nice. The hotels are about 25 mins away.
Sutter Creek is closer to faire, maybe 15 mins.
All those mentioned, do have web sites to see what is to your liking. During the Oswego Harbor Fest, all hotels are SRO. The dates do run with the faires Pirate Fest.
If you go to the Sterling web site, there is a list of theme weekends.
Hope you have a fantastic time!
»edit: I did check and the Oswego Harbor Fest is the same weekend as Pirate Fest. I noticed there is a thread on this page with listed theme weekends. Hope this helps.«
When I lived in Rochester I used to go many times to Sterling. It is a 45 min to an hour drive, but you will find many Hotels/Motels along rt 104 that are much more reasonable (< $100) per night. something to consider. I also spent the entire weekend at the camp ground one year. So I was able to go both days.
There is Fair Haven Beach State Park which has cabins for rent, you would have to check availability. That's just minutes away.
Here's a link to the web site: http://www.nysparks.com/parks/12/details.aspx (http://www.nysparks.com/parks/12/details.aspx)
You could always try to find some B&B's. Oswego's a college town so there should be all sorts of motels, hotels, B&B's. Sorry I can't be more specific with recommendations for accommodations. My wife and I only live < 1 hour away so I have never bothered to look around. I used to camp at Fair Haven, and stayed in their cabins, and that is a nice place. Most likely be other festival people there too.
Opening weekend tends to be really crowded due to the buy one get one half off, or child free. Celtic Christmas is new for all this year, Pirate Weekend is a lot of fun- but like others mentioned other things are going on and accommodations may be hard to find. Well, they are all fun. My wife and I just randomly go every year and we always seem to hit Highland Weekend. This year we will try to go to a different theme weekend, I hope Fantasy weekend.
Wear comfortable footware, you will be walking up and down the hill many times over the course of the day.
Hope this helps.
This is all wonderful to read. My wife and I as well as another couple with which we're friends are coming up from Maryland, and have reserved cabins at a near by state park. We will be attending both days on the weekend of July 13th and 14th. I've read that this is the romance and chocolate weekend, or something like that. I was wondering if there are any "must see" acts we should check out, or any exclusive "at this faire only" type drinks we should try during our visit. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Don Juan and Miguel have been working on a new act that they will be showing here. I always highly recommend them if you have never seen them, they are great fun. Even if you have seen them they are great. Any of the musical acts are awesome too. I don't know about at this faire only drinks or food since my wife and have only ever been to one other faire. I always drink mead anyway. There are some local wineries here that have booths set up and there is some really good wine to purchase.
It's so hard to just pick certain must see shows, I love them all.
If you don't mind filthy humor, Arthur Greenleaf Holmes will have you rolling. Uncle Churchyard's Filthy Irish Stories is new this year, but I've been led to believe that it's Christopher Buehlman, aka Christoph the Insultor, so we're looking forward to checking him out (and he's one heck of an author).
When I went to Sterling I stayed at the pleasant beach hotel in fairhaven. It is only about 10 min away and they have free breakfast. the bar/restraint downstairs has pretty good food.
That being said it is a bit pricey but when you factor in the gas savings/ decrease in travel time and great breakfast it kind of evens out.
i would say , the celtic weekends tend to be big , but i would also say any weekend it good, it truly is a great faire with great people , look at the themed weekends and what one sounds like the best to you and go with it, it will be a blast no matter when u go.
Thanks guys for the advice. I appreciate it. I think I've sen Don Juan and Miguel at the CT Spring faire a few years ago. A few weeks ago I read the description on the website for Arthur Greenleaf Holms, and that sounds like a complete and total win. The uncle churchyards filthy Irish stories sounds as if it could be along the same lines. I'll have to look into that as I did not see anything about it on the website(that's why I come in here asking these questions and not just look at the website). If it was up to me I would be there on Celtic weekend being as how it's an extra excuse to wear a kilt and all, but my wife and my buddies wife are the ones who planned the trip. That's the weekend that worked out around our 4 schedules. Also, I didn't see anything about local wineries having booths on the website. This is a good thing to hear. I didn't even bother to look for something like that. Thanks again for all of the help guys. Hopefully I'll see you next weekend. Perhaps we'll run into each other in a pub and chat for a drink or three.
Thanks again to all! We had a wonderful time, and hope to be back sometime in the future.
Any weekend is a good weekend to go.
My husband and I are going the 10/11 this year on Fantasy weekend.
It will be the first time in 5 years for me, and the first in about 7 for my husband, we're very excited to be visiting again :)