Renaissance fair

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An actress playing the role of Mary Queen of Scots in 2003.
An actress playing the role of Mary Queen of Scots in 2003.
For other uses, see Renaissance fair (disambiguation).

A Renaissance fair', Renaissance faire, or Renaissance festival (colloquially renfair or renfest) is an outdoor weekend gathering, usually held in the USA, open to the public and generally commercial in nature, which emulates a historic period for the amusement of its guests. Some are permanent theme parks, others are short-term events in fairgrounds or other large public or private spaces[1]. Renaissance fairs generally include an abundance of costumed entertainers, musical and theatrical acts, art and handicrafts for sale, and festival food. Some even offer camping, for those who wish to stay more than one day[2]. Most 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, and some include broader definitions of the Renaissance which include earlier periods, such as the Vikings, or later, such as 18th Century pirates. Renaissance fairs encourage visitors to enter into the spirit of things with costumes and audience participation. All tolerate, and many welcome, fantasy elements such as wizards and elves.

Chicago journalist Neil Steinberg said (of the Bristol Renaissance Faire), "If theme parks, with their pasteboard main streets, reek of a bland, safe, homogenized, whitebread America, the Renaissance Faire is at the other end of the social spectrum, a whiff of the occult, a flash of danger and a hint of the erotic. Here, they let you throw axes. Here are more beer and bosoms than you'll find in all of Disney World."[3]

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[edit] Characteristics

Jousting knights on horseback perform at the Texas Renaissance Festival.
Jousting knights on horseback perform at the Texas Renaissance Festival.
Costumed performers from the 2006 Bristol Renaissance Faire.
Costumed performers from the 2006 Bristol Renaissance Faire.
"The Lost Boys" performing at the 2005 Georgia Renaissance Festival
"The Lost Boys" performing at the 2005 Georgia Renaissance Festival

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 flowering of the English Renaissance.

In 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 comedy routines. 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 artworks. There are food and beverage vendors, as well as game and ride areas. Games include basic skills events such as archery or axe-throwing as well as Drench-a-Wench and Soak-a-Bloke, which allow a player with a good aim to hit a target and get a fair employee wet. Rides are typically unpowered -- various animal rides and human-powered swings are common. Live animal displays and falconry exhibitions are also commonplace. Larger Renaissance fairs will often include a joust as a main attraction.

In addition to the staged performances, a major attraction of Renaissance fairs is the crowds of professional actors who play all sorts of historical figures and roam the fair, interacting with visitors. Visitors are encouraged to wear costumes, once any weapons are suitably peace-bonded, contributing to the illusion of an actual Renaissance environment. Many of the 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 "patron" and "player", and they add a second level of enjoyment to their experience by "getting into the act" as Renaissance Lords and ladies, peasants, pirates, belly dancers, or fantasy characters.

Most fairs have an end-of-the-day ritual, a parade or concert where all employees gather and bid farewell to the patrons. For those who work at the fair, the last concert that a festival holds for the season is traditionally an emotional moment.

Renaissance fairs are staged around the United States at different times of the year. Fair vendors, participants and crew often work the "faire circuit", going from event to event as one fair ends and another begins. They often camp on-site or nearby and develop close bonds with their fellow performers.

[edit] An American Phenomenon

Although historical reenactments are by no means exclusive to the United States (for example, the Earl of Eglinton in Scotland sponsored a large tournament as early as 1839)[4], the Renaissance Fair is, arguably, a uniquely American variation on the theme, having as much the flavor of an amusement park combined with a shopping mall as of a historical reenactment. European historical fairs, on the other hand, seem more on the living history museum model, where an actual historic site is peopled by re-enactors whose job it is to explain historical life to modern visitors.[5] American Renaissance fair patrons may be as interested in drinking, eating, shopping, and watching farce as they are in an educational experience. Since the mid-1990s, American-style Renaissance fairs have been spreading into Canada.

It should be noted however that the first American fair (Agoura, CA) was originally designed by the Living History Center to resemble an actual spring market fair of the period.[citation needed] Many of the original booths were no-charge reenactments of historical activities such as printing presses, and blacksmiths. The first commercial vendors were mostly artisans and food merchants and were required to demonstrate historical accuracy or plausibility for their wares. Whole groups of volunteers were organized into "guilds" to focus on specific reenactment duties (musicians, military, celtic clans, peasants, etc). Both actors and vendors were required to successfully complete workshops in period language/accents, costuming and culture and to stay "in character" while working. Fairs that copied the original frequently did not attempt such historical accuracy[citation needed] and in 1995 new management and economic pressures negatively altered the original fair's historical quality as well.[citation needed]

Spinoffs of Renaissance fairs include fairs set in other time periods, such as Christmas fairs set in Charles Dickens' London. The American approach has apparently been exported back to England; a warehouse-based theme park, "Dickens World", opened in Kent, England, in May of 2007.[6]

[edit] History of the fairs in America

Morris dancers entertain Queen Elizabeth, Renaissance Pleasure Faire, Agoura, c. 1986
Morris dancers entertain Queen Elizabeth, Renaissance Pleasure Faire, Agoura, c. 1986
The real thing: Peasant's Fair, German etching c1530 by Daniel Hopfer
The real thing: Peasant's Fair, German etching c1530 by Daniel Hopfer

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 that 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, DC. 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.[7]

In 1963, schoolteachers Ronald and Phyllis Patterson originated the Renaissance Pleasure Faire as an outgrowth of school projects. The first Faire was held in North Hollywood as a fundraiser for radio station KPFK and drew some 8,000 people for the one-weekend event. The Patterson family's company, Theme Events Limited, and its non-profit affiliate, The Living History Center, are generally credited with developing the Renaissance Faire concept as it exists today.[8]

For decades, the Renaissance Pleasure Faire was held in the spring at the Paramount Ranch located in Agoura, CA, and in the fall at the Black Point Forest in Novato, CA. The event showcased a large ensemble of performers, fine artists and craftspeople and crew. These yearly events drew on the rich variety arts movement in Los Angeles, and the explosion of outdoor public events. Interactive environmental theatre and stage shows were overlaid with large scale processions featuring giant puppets and courtly displays. The London-based Reduced Shakespeare Company, San Francisco's i Fratelli Bologna, Tutti Frutti, St. Stupid and the Los Angeles Fools Guild all developed from improvisationally-focused ensembles that initially worked together at the Pleasure Faire. Famous actors who worked at the Pleasure Faire in their youth include Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Rosanna Arquette and Penn Jillette.[9]

[edit] Myths and Lore

Belly Dancer from the 2004 New York Renaissance Faire.
Belly Dancer from the 2004 New York Renaissance Faire.
An entertainer at the Scottish Games at Dunsmuir House in Oakland, California.
An entertainer at the Scottish Games at Dunsmuir House in Oakland, California.

The jousting and swordplay on exhibit in most Renaissance fairs is not real. As with professional wrestling, these "fights" are often carefully scripted mock combat. The weapons are real, but the participants are skilled, trained actors and stunt performers. Some jousting troupes, however, do perform real lance passes (using real pine lances).

Although the stocks and pillories displayed in some Renaissance fairs look alarming, they are not actually functional. They are provided for amusing photo opportunities and for entirely fictional stunt acts by professional actors.

Acts at a Renaissance fair usually have years of skill behind them and are highly choreographed, taking weeks of classes and, in some respects, years of practice in order to make it appear as authentic as possible.

Renaissance fairs have several variant names, many of which use old-fashion styled spellings such as "faire" or "fayre". These historically inaccurate spellings likely originate from the Middle English variant of the Anglo-Franc word "Feyre"[2]. They can also be referred to as "Elizabethan", "Medieval", or "Tudor" fairs (or fayres). "Ren Fair" and "Ren Fest" are popular colloquialisms.

[edit] Controversies

Within the Renaissance fair community, there is difference of opinion as to how authentic a fair ought to be. Some feel the fair should be as authentic an experience as possible, to be educational and like European living history museums.[10] Others feel that entertainment is the primary goal. [11]

There is regret among some long-term Renaissance fairgoers that the fairs have changed over the years. Many of those who remember the idyllic and transportative nature of the earlier fairs (especially those fairs operating with a non-profit spirit) lament the growth of the fairs as businesses.[citation needed] Once small, intimate gatherings, where nearly everyone knew each other, they have become more like professional theme parks. However, more organized, professional, family-friendly fairs have also attracted a larger, more diverse audience from the population at large.[12]

[edit] Notable fairs

These are only some of the larger Faires around the country. However, there are many many more, of various sizes and themes.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "State fairgrounds could benefit from fuller calendar", Battle Creek Enquirer, 5 September 2007
  2. ^ See, for example, the Louisiana Renaissance Festival at [1]
  3. ^ Neil Steinberg, "Out of Time, Nearly: Feast of Fools", Chicago Sun-Times, Wednesday, August 15th, 2007, page 23
  4. ^ Mark Girouard, The Return to Camelot: Chivalry and the English Gentleman, Yale University Press, 1981 ISBN 0-300-02739-7
  5. ^ Val Horsler, Living the Past, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, in association with English Heritage, London, England 2003. ISBN 0297 84312 5
  6. ^ "What the Dickens?", "The Guardian", 18 April 2007
  7. ^ John Langstaff's obituary in "The Guardian", UK
  8. ^ Peter Thomas and Richard J. Sneed, The Faire: Photographs and History of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire from 1963 onwards, The Good Book Press, 1987.
  9. ^ Peter Thomas and Richard J. Sneed, The Faire: Photographs and History of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire from 1963 onwards, The Good Book Press, 1987.
  10. ^ "Bristol Renaissance Faire organizers strive for authenticity," according to the Chicago Heights "Star" at "Bristol Renaissance Faire for more than kings, queens" on August 23, 2007
  11. ^ Richard Shapiro, who founded what later became the Bristol Renaissance Faire, said he favors entertainment. “We were so authentic back then it was almost painful” ("King Richard’s Faire brings a Renaissance revival" at projo.com, the Providence Journal online, August 30, 2007)
  12. ^ " Renaissance Faire: for rogues, wenches AND families", by Dawn Sagario, "Des Moines Register", August 30, 2007

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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