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 In fact, these events create a fantasy inspired, in most cases, by both historical references (most often England in the time of Henry VIII or Elizabeth I) and by perceptions of the Middle Ages and Renaissance obtained from movies, games, books, comics,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 re-enactments are by no means exclusive to the United States, the Renaissance Fair is, arguably, a uniquely American variation on the theme, having more the flavor of an amusement park or mall than a historical reenactment. The people acting the roles (called 'participants'), 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') usually are more interested in drinking, eating, shopping, and watching farce than in some sort of educational experience.

Contents

1 Environment 2 History of the Faires in America 3 Commentaries on Current Faires, Internal Politics, and Commericalism 4 See also 5 Fair Websites 6 Other External links

Environment

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 anacronist) comedy routines. Other performances include dancers, musicians, jugglers, and singers. Between the stages the "streets" are lined with stores ('shopes') 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 (which gives an indication of the type of event it is).

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 del'arte)|]], St Stupid and the Los Angeles Fools Guild all developed from improvisationally-focused ensembles that intially worked together at the Pleasure Faire.

In the late nineties the Faire [which one?] was sold to Rennaisance Entertainment Corportation, 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".

Spinoffs include fairs set in other time periods, such as Christmas fairs set in Charles Dickens' London.

Commentaries on Current Faires, Internal Politics, and Commericalism

The California festival has largely changed since the seventies and eighties when it rivaled Oktoberfest in Beer Sales and incorporated a vision of the emerging renaissance of the sixties into its colorful street scene. Face painters and cookiejesters, Flamenco performers and Pinwheels all portrayed both a historical and present renaissance. Many of the workers also attended shows of the Grateful Dead, and the crafts were unrivaled in the state. Largely declining in the quality of crafts and intensity of theatrical experience the crew and cast have moved on to other ventures and the emphasis is no longer on interactive ensemble theatre. After Hal Taylor famed long-form improvisation performer and Faire employee passed the final link with a history steeped in performers from Second City and the Groundlings was eroded. The festival still includes music, dance and stage performances, scattered lightly through the open air facilities.

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. Current dates are April 16 to May 22, 2005.

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. Current dates are July 9 - September 5, 2005.

Many of those involved with the seemingly idyllic nature of the earlier fairs (especially those fairs operating with a non-profit spirit) lament their growth as a business, with all that that implies. Yet new generations of Rennies still do fine delight and magic in their work at the largly popular modern fairs.

See also

• Society for Creative Anachronism

Fair Websites

• Bristol Faire
• Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California
• RenFair Incorporated

Other External links

• Reduced Shakespeare Company
• Agoura Reunion
• Obscene Juggler Greg Dean
• Fools Guild
• Tutti Frutti
• Oregon Country Faire
• St Stupid
• General information about Renaissance fayres