Renaissance Festival - How is traffic going there from Houston and leaving? (Sugar Land: house, camping)

[AlexTx]

We went to the Ren Fest yesterday and tried to leave right before the fireworks started to try to beat the rush leaving. We got to our car at 6 PM and the traffic was a JOKE. At each row of parking, people were lined up to exit but NO ONE was moving. We sat in the parking lot for 2 HOURS not moving. Once we FINALLY started moving, it took another Hour to make it out of the parking lot and go about one mile south on 1774!! I'm not exgagerating when I say it took THREE hours to exit the festival.

Once we got about a mile or two South of the Festival, traffic moved fine and we made it home at around 10 PM (we are in Northwest Houton / Cypress area around 35 miles from the Ren Fest).

But my husband has vowed to never go back because Traffic was such a joke getting there and just ridiculous leaving.

Here's my question - is this normal? Have you left the Festival right before or after the fireworks? What was your experience leaving?
Does anyone know if something happened last night (Saturday, Nov 15) that made the traffic so bad leaving?

Getting to the festival yesterday at 1:30, we sat in about an hour's worth of traffic (left the house at noon).

Last year we left around 3 PM and had a much easier time leaving.

Please share your experience leaving and going.

[chris_ut]

We went at 10 am and left around 3 pm on a Saturday a few weekends ago and there was no delay in either direction. I have gone every year for the past few years and never had traffic issues but we always leave early. Anytime you stay until the end of a large event your going to run into traffic issues, although 3 hours to get out seems excessive..

[ZeroTX]

We had the same 3 hour delay the previous week. This is NOT NORMAL for Ren Fest. I've gone for about 8 years in a row and NEVER had an experience quite like this. I don't know WTH is going on out there. It is more crowded than in the past (something I'm not fond of, I wish it wasn't as popular), but not more than 25-30% more crowded. I remember about 1 hour being a normal exit time in the past. The 3 hour exit is just ridiculous.

I offer an option to the Ren Fest owners: Offer an after hours bar type of environment for 21+ patrons, so they can chill for 2-4 hours after the park's close and that would cut down on the huge mass exodus all at the same time. Plus, imagine living a night bar scene in a Renaissance era tavern! That would be a blast, esp. with 21+ only being allowed in.

[hugepossum]

We went on Saturday. I think we ended up getting there at approx 10:00. Moderate delays coming in with short periods of traffic jams coming through Tomball and Pinehurst. We left at about 3:30 with no waiting whatsoever either in the parking area or on the highways. I guess I would suggest leaving earlier or camping there.

[ZeroTX]

Leaving earlier isn't an option. Even in 9 hours you can't even get a small glimpse of everything there. Plus, have you ever stayed for the fireworks? It's a great (and free) fireworks show. I'm sad that I took so long to finally go see the fireworks. Now I try to see them every year.

Better option, next time we'll plan to "camp" in the parking lot for 2-3 hours afterwards... take an ice chest, drinks, food, maybe a BBQ pit.. tailgating anyone?

[SilverWings]

We went to Ren Faire on the 8th (Sat) and the traffic was HORRENDOUS. Actually no, HORRENDOUS doesn't begin to descibe it. For some reason, possibly intentional I don't know, but all the lights in Magnolia were blinking and traffic cops were directing. Doing a horrible job at it, I might add, constantly letting the side streets go and holding up the main road that was backed up bumper to bumper for probably 5 miles.

Going home was actually easier than expected given the problems getting in but still terrible. We must have spent 5 to 6 hours in the car that day - granted it was from Sugar Land but that was not the problem. It's a nice place but after that I think it's VERY unlikely I'll be going back there anytime soon if ever.

[melbacc]

Waited 3.5 hours in the same parking spot! We will never go back!

[ZeroTX]

The weird thing was, the problem was simply exiting the parking lot. Once on 1774, there were absolutely no delays all the way to 105 and 105 was truckin'.

I won't go through magnolia again. That S-curve over the railroad tracks really backs things up.

[AlexTx]

Thanks for the feedback. I was hoping there was just something crazy going on the night we went, but it sounds like everyone who stayed later, no matter the day, had a horrible experience leaving.

I understand you have to expect some traffic coming and going, but they really need to improve things if they expect people to come back.

A lot more people are going these days and they need to accommodate the larger volume better.

[Yonkers]

Originally Posted by melbacc

Waited 3.5 hours in the same parking spot! We will never go back!

Same with me. I went this past Saturday, the 15th. We got there around 2:15 and left at 6pm because it was too darned cold. Apparently everyone else had the same idea because we sat in the car from 6:10 to 9:15pm. Basically we spent about the same amount of time in the parking lot as we did on the fair grounds.
We were parked at row 27 so I did not take my car out of park that entire time. When it started moving it went relatively quick. I'm boycotting it next year myself. I had the same issues last year except it was for 2 hours.
This year I had two 5-year olds and a 10-month old in my car. Never again.