Renaissance fair

For other uses, see Renaissance fair (disambiguation).

A Renaissance or Medieval fair (ren faire, or festival) is an outdoor gathering that aims to re-create a historical setting—most often the English Renaissance—for the amusement of its guests.

An actress playing the role of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 2003

Renaissance fairs generally include costumed entertainers or fair-goers, musical and theatrical acts, art and handicrafts for sale, and festival food. These fairs are open to the public and typically commercial. Some are permanent theme parks, while others are short-term events in a fairground, winery, or other large public or private spaces.^[1]

Many Renaissance fairs are set during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Some are set earlier, during the reign of Henry VIII, or in other countries, such as France. Others are set outside the era of the Renaissance; these may include earlier medieval periods (including Vikings), or later periods, such as the Golden Age of Piracy. Some engage in deliberate "time travel" by encouraging participants to wear costumes representing several eras in a broad time period. This is also done by having garments for rent to participants. Renaissance fairs encourage visitors to engage with costumes and audience participation. Many welcome fantasy elements such as wizards and elves.^[2] Some Renaisance fairs offer campgrounds for those who wish to stay more than one day.^[3]

Characteristics

 

Harp player at Scarborough Faire, Texas (2009)

 

Fantasy elements, such as centaurs, are welcomed at some Renaissance fairs.

 

Jousting knights perform on horseback at the Texas Renaissance Festival (2005).

Most Renaissance fairs are arranged to represent an imagined village in England during the reign of Elizabeth I, as this period has been generally considered to correspond to the English Renaissance.

Within a modern Renaissance festival, there are stages or performance areas set up for scheduled shows, such as plays in Shakespearean or commedia dell'arte tradition, as well as anachronistic audience participation in comedy routines.^[4] Other performances include dancers, magicians, musicians, jugglers, and singers. Between the stages, the streets ("lanes") are lined with stores ("shoppes") and stalls where independent vendors sell medieval and Renaissance-themed handcrafts, clothing, books, and artwork. Typically, there are food and beverage vendors as well as game and ride areas.^[5]

Renaissance fairs typically feature a wide variety of foods inspired by both Medieval cuisine and typical American fair foods like corn dogs.^[6][7] Some foods like turkey legs, steak on a stick, and bread bowls have become iconic of renaissance festivals.^[8][9][10] Beer, mead, and wine are also sometimes present.^[11][12]

Games include typical fair events, such as archery or axe-throwing, as well as dunk tanks. Rides are typically not machine-powered; various animal rides and human-powered swings are common. Live animal displays and falconry exhibitions are also common. Larger Renaissance fairs often include a joust as a main attraction. PETA and Born Free USA have protested the use of elephants and camels at the Maryland Renaissance Festival and Arizona Renaissance Festival.^[13][14]

In addition to staged performances, a major attraction of Renaissance fairs are professional and amateur crowds of actors who play historical figures and roam the fair, interacting with visitors. Visitors are encouraged to wear costumes, contributing to the illusion of an actual Renaissance environment. Some allow suitable weapons peace-bonded, while others only allow fair employees to wear them. Many fair vendors sell or rent costumes for all ages and types. The Renaissance fair subculture's word for these costumed guests is "playtrons," a portmanteau of the words player and patron. This adds enjoyment to guests' experience by "getting into the act" as Renaissance Lords and Ladies, peasants, pirates, belly dancers, or fantasy characters. However, many Renaissance fairs discourage interaction between the official cast and so-called "playtrons."

Most fairs have an end-of-the-day ritual, a parade, dance, or concert where all employees gather and bid farewell to the patrons.

Renaissance fairs are staged around the world at different times of the year. Fair vendors, participants, and crew often work by going from event to event as one fair ends and another begins.

History in the United States

 

Blacksmith at Scarborough Faire, Texas (2009)

In post-World War II America, there was a resurgence of interest in medieval and Renaissance culture. In the 1950s, there was a very strong early music revival, and out of this came folk musician and traditionalist John Langstaff. In 1957, Langstaff held "A Christmas Masque of Traditional Revels" in New York City, and the following year another in Washington, D.C. A televised version was broadcast on the Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1966 which included Dustin Hoffman playing the part of the dragon slain by Saint George, and, in 1971, Langstaff established a permanent Christmas Revels in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[15]

In 1963, Los Angeles schoolteacher Phyllis Patterson held a small Renaissance fair as a class activity, in the backyard of her Laurel Canyon home in the Hollywood Hills. On May 11th and 12th the same year, Patterson and her husband, Ron Patterson, presented the first "Renaissance Pleasure Faire" as a one-weekend fundraiser for a radio station KPFK which drew some eight thousand people. The Living History Center designed the fair to resemble a Spring market fair of the period.^[16]

Many original booths were free-of-charge reenactments of historical activities, including printing presses and blacksmiths. The first commercial vendors were artisans and food merchants, and had to demonstrate historical accuracy or plausibility for their wares. Volunteers were organized into "guilds" to focus on specific reenactment roles (musicians, military, Celtic clans, peasants, etc.). Both actors and vendors were required to stay "in character" while working by speaking with period language, accents, and mannerisms.^[17]

 

Morris dancers entertain Queen Elizabeth, Renaissance Pleasure Faire, Agoura, c. 1986.

The original Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California (RPFS) was held in the Spring of 1966 at the Paramount Ranch located in Agoura, California, focusing on the practices of old English springtime markets and "Maying" customs. In 1967, the Pattersons created a Fall Renaissance fair, with a harvest festival theme, first at what is now China Camp State Park in San Rafael, California and in 1971 at the Black Point Forest in Novato, California. Both fairs developed into local traditions and began a movement that spread across the country.^[18]

 

Booths at the Medieval Market of Turku in Turku, Finland

Although historical reenactments are not exclusive to the United States, Renaissance fairs are largely an American variation on the idea of reenactments. European historical fairs, such as those held at Kentwell Hall in Suffolk, England, operate more on the living history museum model, in which an actual historic site is staffed by reenactors who explain historical life to modern visitors, rather than acting in a role.^[19] Similarly, the Earl of Eglinton in Scotland sponsored a large tournament in 1839.^[20]

In recent years, American-style Renaissance fairs have made inroads in other countries. Germany has seen a very similar phenomenon since the 1980s (see de:Mittelaltermarkt) and beginning in the mid-1990s, Renaissance fairs have spread into Canada and Australia.

Spinoffs of Renaissance fairs also include fairs set in other time periods, such as Christmas fairs set in Charles Dickens' London.^[21]

Names

Renaissance fairs have several variant names, many of which use old-fashioned spellings such as faire or fayre. These spellings originate from the Middle English feire (variant spellings include feyre, faire, and fayre), which comes from the Anglo-French word feire.^[22] They can also be referred to as Elizabethan, Medieval, or Tudor fairs or festivals.

A German Mittelaltermarkt (literally "medieval market") resembles a Renaissance fair. Many Catalan towns hold Mercats Medievals (literally "medieval markets") as part of their annual festivities.^[23]

Internal debates

Within the Renaissance fair community, there is a difference of opinion as to how authentic a fair ought to be. Some believe fairs should be as authentic an experience as possible, supplemented with educational aspects, as in European living history museums.^[24] Others believe that entertainment is the primary goal. Richard Shapiro, who founded what later became the Bristol Renaissance Faire outside Chicago in 1972, favored entertainment, saying "we were so authentic back then it was almost painful."^[25]

Renaissance fairs may try to bridge the gap between authentic and entertaining. In 1968, Phyllis Patterson, founder of the California Renaissance Pleasure Faires, also created the Living History Centre, a California-based educational and cultural foundation. The foundation's motto "we trick into learning with a laugh" reflects the belief of merging history and entertainment.^[26]

See also

• List of Renaissance and Medieval fairs
• Medieval reenactment
• Renaissance Magazine
• Society for Creative Anachronism

Notes

1. "State fairgrounds could benefit from fuller calendar", Battle Creek Enquirer, 2007-09-05.
2. de Groot, Jerome (2009). Consuming History: Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture. Routledge. p. 120. ISBN 978-0203889008.
3. "Louisiana", , archived from the original on 2007-06-08.
4. "Sir Guy of Warwick". Sir Guy of Warwick Official Site.
5. Gillespie, Paul W. "Maryland Renaissance Festival". Capital Gazette. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
6. Vera-Phillips, Kris (2020-03-11). "Food Fit for a King? A Historian Reviews AZ Ren Fest and Medieval Times Menus". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
7. Miller, Ally (July 24, 2020). "Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire will resume this fall for 40th anniversary season". www.phillyvoice.com. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
8. Foremand, Star (2018-05-17). "Renaissance Faire Food Is So Much More Than Giant Turkey Legs". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
9. Cheryl (2020-09-02). "Tasty and Authentic Recipes For Your Renaissance Festival At Home". RenFest.org. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
10. "12 foods we love at the Renaissance Faire". San Gabriel Valley Tribune. 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
11. Geurts, Jimmy. "Suncoast Renaissance Festival to debut at Sarasota Fairgrounds". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
12. KGO (2018-10-08). "Bay Area LIFE: Ren Faire food scene". ABC7 San Francisco. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
13. Gillespie, Paul W. "Maryland Renaissance Festival". Capital Gazette. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
14. "'PETA planning protest at Arizona Renaissance Festival". 21 February 2014.
15. Derek Schofield (2006-03-10), "Obituary: Jack Langstaff", The Guardian, UK.
16. Thomas, Peter; Kember, Michael; Sneed, Richard J (1987), The Faire: Photographs and History of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire from 1963 onwards, The Good Book Press.
17. Fox, Margalit (January 30, 2011). "Ron Patterson, Renaissance (Fair) Man, Dies at 80". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
18. Rubin, Rachel (2012). Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 9780814771389.
19. Horsler, Val (2003), Living the Past, London, ENG, UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, in association with English Heritage, ISBN 0-297-84312-5.
20. Girouard, Mark (1981), The Return to Camelot: Chivalry and the English Gentleman, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-02739-7
21. Zavoral, Linda (24 November 2017). "Annual Dickens Fair chases the Scrooge away". The Mercury News. Bay Area News Group. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
22. Kurath, Hans (1953), Lewis, Robert E (ed.), Middle English Dictionary, vol. 8, University of Michigan Press, p. 451, ISBN 0472010611, retrieved 2009-09-11.
23. FestesMajors (2023-09-01). "▷ FIRES MEDIEVALS - Agenda de Fires Medievals 2022". Festes Majors de Catalunya - L'AGENDA DE FIRES I FESTES DE CATALUNYA (in Catalan). Retrieved 2023-10-02.
24. , Star, Chicago Heights: Star newspapers, 2007-08-23, archived from the original on 2007-09-27, Bristol Renaissance Faire organizers strive for authenticity.
25. , The Providence Journal (online ed.), 2007-08-30, archived from the original on 2008-05-28.
26. "Home". Living History Centre. Retrieved 2023-02-10..

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Renaissance fairs.

• List of upcoming Renaissance Fairs (US)