Renaissance Fair
From Freepedia
Image:Renfair entertainers.jpg A Renaissance Fair or Renaissance Festival is an outdoor weekend gathering ostensibly focused on recreating life as it was during the Renaissance. In fact, these events create a fantasy inspired, in most cases, by both historical references (most often England in the time of Henry VIII or Elizabeth I) and by perceptions of the Middle Ages and Renaissance obtained from movies, games, books, comics, and television shows.
Variations on the name include:
- Renaissance Faire
- Elizabethan Fair
- Renaissance Pleasure Fair
- RenFest
- Medieval Fair
- and others (depending on which one you go to).
While historical reenactments are by no means exclusive to the United States, the Renaissance Fair is, arguably, a uniquely American variation on the theme, having as much the flavor of an amusement park or mall as of an historical reenactment. Since the mid-nineties, however, their popularity has slowly been spreading into western Canada. The people acting the roles ('participants' or 'actors'), frequently young volunteers, often attempt to recreate swashbuckling movies, Middle Earth, and/or Monty Python bits (etc.) as fervently as other participants attempt to be 'historically accurate', while guests ('patrons') may be more interested in drinking, eating, shopping, and watching farce than in some sort of educational experience. Experienced fairgoers often admit that attempts at re-enactment vary in their degree of success, being heavily dependent upon the ethos of faire management/direction, the culture and precendent of the specific faire, and the demographics of its audience. Some fairs endeavor to limit their scope to a comparatively narrow slice of history, while others may attempt to cram approximately six hundred years of history from the High Medieval period to the High Renaissance into one place, juxtaposed with recognizable fictional characters and events (Three Musketeers, Dragonslayers, etc.).
Spinoffs of Renaissance Fairs include fairs set in other time periods, such as Christmas fairs set in Charles Dickens' London.
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Environment
Image:Renfair swordfight.jpg Most Renaissance Fairs are arranged to represent a imagined village in England during the reign of Elizabeth I, as this period is generally considered to correspond to the flowering of the English Renaissance (most especially because this was the time of Shakespeare).
There are stages or performance areas set up for scheduled shows such as plays in Shakespearean or commedia dell' arte tradition, or (frequently anachronistic) comedy routines. Other performances include dancers, musicians, jugglers, and singers. Between the stages the "streets" are lined with stores ('shoppes') where independent vendors sell their wares, along side food and beer vendors, as well as game and ride areas. Fairs will also often include a Joust as a main attraction. Meanwhile, strolling minstrels, mimes, fools, jugglers and jesters mingle with the fairgoers. Actors (often called participants) portray historical figures and common people, from royalty and nobility to merchants and peasants, and are often organized into thematic "guilds" (such as the peasant guild, Scottish guild, or parade guild). Actors wear period costumes, some meticulously researched recreations and others more generic impressions, and speak using an approximation of the vocabulary and accents of the time. The accompanying bazaar features traditional crafts, from jewelry and stained glass to metal and woodwork, as well as traditional English foods like bangers and mash.
For a time in the eighties in Agoura the Guinness Book of Records record for most beer sold at a single venue was held by a Renaissance Fair.
History of the Faires in America
In May 1963 schoolteacher Phyllis Patterson and her husband Ron put on the first Renaissance Pleasure Faire, an outgrowth of school projects. The Faire was held in North Hollywood, California and drew some 8000 people for the one-weekend event. Some claim that this event was based on an even earlier event held in Santa Barbara.
Since that time many unrelated Renaissance Faires have sprung up all over North America. Examples include large gatherings in Texas, Minnesota, Arizona, New York and Florida. Often drawing people with nomadic lifestyles, other events such as the Oregon Country Faire and Burning Man festivals frequently were staffed by the same crew and performers that had worked at Pleasure Faires in the same year, and vendors and participants often worked 'the circuit', going from one fair to another as one Fair's season ended and other began .
For decades the Renaissance Pleasure Faire held an annual spring gathering in Agoura, and a fall event in Novato both in California. The event was run by a large ensemble of performers, fine arts 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 (commedia dell'arte), St Stupid and the Los Angeles Fools Guild all developed from improvisationally-focused ensembles that initially worked together at the Pleasure Faire.
In the late nineties the original Renaissance Pleasure Faire was sold to Rennaisance Entertainment Corporation, a company already operating the Bristol (Illinois/Wisconsin) and Colorado faires. Several years later Kevin Patterson (the son of Phyllis and Ron Patterson) incorporated with his wife Leslie Patterson as "As You Like It Productions" -- since re-organized as "Red Barn Productions".
Many of those involved with the seemingly idyllic nature of the earlier fairs (especially those fairs operating with a non-profit spirit) lament the growth of the fairs as businesses. Yet new generations of Rennies still find the same sort of joy in their work at the largly popular modern fairs.
Notable fairs
The Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California is hosted by the Corporation which purchased the Pleasure Faire from Living History Center. The annual event, now in Irwindale (formerly Devore, originating in Agoura), is currently the largest event of its kind in the United States. It is usually held in late spring for 7 to 8 weekends.
The Maryland Renaissance Festival, located near Annapolis, Maryland, is considered the second-largest event of its kind in the United States, serving an average of 12,000 customers daily as of 2004. The Maryland Renaissane Festival has been in continuous operation since opening 1977 and runs 9 weekends every fall. Its 2005 weekends are August 27-October 23.
The Bristol Renaissance Faire of Kenosha, Wisconsin has been around for more than thirty years. It started in 1973 as King Richards Faire and reopened in 1988 as the Bristol Renaissance Faire offering fine arts & crafts with food and entertainment of 16th century England. Bristol Academy of Performing Arts auditions are held late spring. It runs for 9 weekends during the summer, starting in early July and ending on Labor Day.
The Minnesota Renaissance Festival, located just outside Shakopee, Minnesota, is in its thirty-fifth year. It started in 1970 and is among the oldest continuously operating Renaissance Festivals/Faires in existence. It runs weekends and Labor Day during August and September.
Hundreds of other smaller festivals continually spring up (and go under) on a regular basic across America, with attendance from a few hundred to tens of thousands. There is often a split between those who enjoy the larger, corporate theme park events versus the smaller, more intimate independent offerings.
See also
External links
- Renaissance festival books. 253 digitised Renaissance festival books selected from over 2,000 in the British Library's collection.
