Renaissance fair

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 imaginary village in England during the reign of Elizabeth I, as this period has been generally considered to correspond to 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 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.

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]

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]

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]

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Renaissance fairs.

• List of upcoming Renaissance Fairs (US)