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How did Renaissance fairs begin?

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Re: How did Renaissance fairs begin?

#81

Post by ThrownOffGame »

Mistletoe wrote: post #3

What interests me is why humans crave this one time in history (medieval?). It’s old enough to be different than now but not old enough to be like caveman times? Lower technology than now but not no technology. Do people in other countries that aren’t western civilization have similar cravings for that era or an era like it?

I could probably wax poetic about how it is perceived as a time of innocence but high culture, before "technology and science" ruined stuff, a time that is immortalized in literature such as Robin Hood, King Arthur, and imitated today by Tolkien and Rowling alike.

It is especially interesting the way people tend to portray it drained of all religious overtones and entirely secular in nature, so that it is palatable to all comers, whether pagan, Christian or Jew.

TFA completely fails to mention the utter fandom that has grown alongside RenFaires: The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). People who are involved with the SCA basically have ongoing year-round RenFaires of various magnitudes. They develop entire in-world personas for themselves and they're assigned to Kingdoms and such, regionally. I'm not sure of the relationship between the two, but it's certainly symbiotic and RenFaires give a taste of what people can have, 24/7 in the SCA.

Medieval life is also attractive to traditionalists of a Christian nature, again -- before everything was "ruined" by science and modernism. We all love going back to the 16th century to see how it all went wrong, or the 11th century to see how it also went wrong!

What's more, plenty of other subcultures draw on medieval tropes, such as goths and filkers and whatever con-going fandom is up to these days. Any competent cosplayer can "seamlessly" meld into a medieval princess or wench just by designing the right costumes, and there are plenty of YouTubers and Etsy sellers ready to assist!

Re: How did Renaissance fairs begin?

#82

Post by IAmBroom »

Hrun0 wrote: post #80
IAmBroom wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, Wild Turkey(tm) is native to North America. Kentucky, USA, specifically.

> Also, Wild Turkey(tm) is native to North America. Kentucky, USA, specifically. How come Turkeys are called Indians (Hindi) in Turkish then?

It was a joke - Wild Turkey(tm) is a brand of whiskey.

Re: How did Renaissance fairs begin?

#83

Post by IAmBroom »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #66
fireflash38 wrote: post #24

I went down a rabbit hole on Wikipedia about turkeys. Am I understanding it correctly in that turkeys went from South America to Europe then to North America? So it's native to the new world, but not native to North America? Anyway, 1500s is when they came to Europe, so maybe they did enjoy a good turkey leg...

Turkeys in the northwestern US are not native. They were released here (and periodically restocked) in order to be hunted.

Not the point. Cactus are not native to Alaska; polar bears are not native to Utah; (some species of) cactus and polar bears are native to North America.

Re: How did Renaissance fairs begin?

#84

Post by IAmBroom »

incomingpain wrote: post #25

Last weekend I went to my local ren faire. What a fantastic time. If you havent been to one before, definitely go. At mine, I'd say 70% of people are in a costume of some kind. 95% of the costumes were period correct or related. I went in star trek blue. My favourite response a lady tells me that I'm violating the temporal prime directive for being in uniform. That was hilarious! Note, I was literally the only person…

You've recreated a famous Youtube comedy sketch.

Re: How did Renaissance fairs begin?

#85

Post by pixl97 »

kragen wrote: post #15
triceratops wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly why do people dress up as pirates and Vikings for Halloween? We're talking about gangs of armed robbers who engaged in rape, pillage, murder, and slaving.

The humans find narratives about those things very interesting, perhaps because listening to them has been a crucial survival trait since they evolved storytelling. But the question above is why there are Renaissance Faires rather than Middle and High Medieval Faires (Viking times) or Early Modern Faires (Treasure Island times).

Invention of the printing press caused more late medieval and Renaissance data to be captured?

Re: How did Renaissance fairs begin?

#86

Post by IAmBroom »

carabiner wrote: post #59

Are they all just focused on sex, debauchery, lots of drinking today? I went to the one near Pasadena around a decade ago, maybe related to the OG faire, and there was so much sexual humor in the open air (like jokes shouted by storekeepers, and in the play being run) where I'd consider it an adult environment. It was a little disappointing because I was expecting something like a live-action museum, sort of like col…

Yes, they are primarily based on moneymaking entertainment, as you have guessed.

There are more historically-oriented "entertainments", but they tend to be both non-profit and not audience-based (everyone attending is in costume).

Re: How did Renaissance fairs begin?

#87

Post by IAmBroom »

Bratmon wrote: post #60
Mistletoe wrote: post #3

What interests me is why humans crave this one time in history (medieval?). It’s old enough to be different than now but not old enough to be like caveman times? Lower technology than now but not no technology. Do people in other countries that aren’t western civilization have similar cravings for that era or an era like it?

Fun fact: During the actual Renaissance, they had "tournaments" which were just medieval fairs.

They also had fairs without tournaments during the actual Renaissance.

Ren fair(e): entertainment gathering of the modern age.

Rennaissance fair(e): entertainment gathering, occuring after the start of the Renaissance.

Re: How did Renaissance fairs begin?

#88

Post by IAmBroom »

bluGill wrote: post #40
chrisco255 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In reality though, feudalism was just one notch above pastoral slavery. You had no rights, most people were trapped into poverty and bound to a plot of land to work on the rest of their lives. The vast majority were not nobility so were given breadcrumbs. Wars were brutal and constant, bows were as deadly as firearms for a couple centuries, as evidenced by the Commanche even into the 1800s (they took more skill to tr…

Everyone at a fair is a noble, or merchant. Very had very different rights, and a much better lifestyle (realistically common merchants were probably worse off, but we pretend they were better). The peasants were not invited to see a joust - some did see it, but only because they were servants who's job happen to put them in the right spot.

"Invited to see" is not "allowed to see".

I suspect tournaments were heavily attended by any peasants who could get there. Their money, however hard-scramble, was just as useful to merchants selling meat pies, fried sweetened breads, and beer/wine.

Re: How did Renaissance fairs begin?

#90

Post by hugs »

"By 1965, it moved to Paramount Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains"

Fun personal fact: Paramount Ranch was also the site of my high school's home cross country course (Westlake High School). During my high school days, the ranch's center was set up as a western town for filming Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. As a kid, you just accept all of that as normal, everyday things. "Doesn't everyone have Renaissance fairs and TV and movie sets in their town?" It took going to college thousands of miles away to realize and appreciate how delightfully weird Southern California can be.

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