Visiting Bay Area Ren Fest 2025 In Dade City

I visited on a weekend when St. Patty’s Day and Bucaneers collided with Medieval history & fantasy.

I thought I would be groggy the morning of Sunday, March 16. It was a hidden blessing that Florida Polycon 2025 downsized and ended late afternoon instead of lasting until midnight with the afterparty. I was happy to get a good night’s sleep before waking up early the next morning for the somewhat long drive to Dade City for the Bay Area Renaissance Festival.

Florida Polycon’25 — Greatly Downsized, Still Enjoyable

This was my first time driving up to Dade City, meaning I had to drive along US-98, which can get traumatizing.

There’s a section of US-98 that splits into four lanes when going through the northern part of Lakeland (Gibsonia), and it gets f–king chaotic later in the day. I LOATHE driving through that part at night, especially on a weekend night, because of the high rate of traffic accidents.

Driving through that part sucked, but it shrunk back to a 2-lane road afterward.