I have been to several Renaissance Fairs, and also to a Civil War battle re-enactment. I am impressed with the dedication of the people who are into this stuff-in the case of the Civil War battle, the guys had all the details right.
Obviously, this is a hobby that demands a lot of time and expense.
My question (to those of you who do this)-what do you get out of it? Do you feel like you are back in those times, really participating in history?
Or is it mostly a comradship thing-you get together with friends, and enjoy role playing for a few hours.
Which is it?
My sister, her husband, her husband’s father, mother and sister all attend civil war reenactments. I sometimes join in the fun, but I’m a little more moderate than they are.
Fact of the matter is, every one of us(as in me and my family, not all reenactors) enjoys history, both learning and teaching it. Explaining things to people that they didn’t know before is very fun. Also, we get to be around a group of people that are just as interested in the subject. It’s just a fun time to be around other people you have something in common with.
But most of us are not in ultra-serious ‘we-are-living-in-that-time-right-now’ mode. We’re just playing a very advanced form of dress-up, and teaching the spectators about history. A lot of the time, its about the people attending the reeanactments, rather than us. We like to assimilate unsuspecting civilians into adopting our ways. Soon, we shall encompass all the world. There ould be a reenactor in your own home, and you would never know…
Also, we get to shoot fake guns. Except not me. I’m in the medical tent, so I get to hold people down while their arm or leg gets ‘amputated’. Good times.
Well, it all started out with a love of Egypt, complete with convincing the Monroe County Library system into sending me their copy of Easy lessons in Egyptian hieroglyphics with sign list by Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge that got me able to read in a fairly limited way a fair amount of egyptian words, and the hieroglyphs so that i could roughly transliterate Egyptian. After a family trip at the age of 8 to Michegan where my parents stashed me in a Museum for an hour or so and the curator caught me translating the statue and complaining that the label card was wrong I determined that Egyptology was not a good idea for a profitable profession. sigh Then I started reading books written in the classical era - Herodotus is actually pretty fascinating. Mom gave me her copy of Bullfinches Mythology, and I tapped into the adult sections of the town library and read anything I could get my hands on.
After soaking up a fair amount of history, I was wandering across a university campus in Rochester NY and saw a bunch of people in carpet armor with freon can helmets whacking each other with sticks. :eek: 
They were in the SCA, and they invited me to a camping event down in Pennsylvania the next weekend.
I swotted a couple of bog gowns together, and used plaid flannel mens PJ bottoms as trews, and the tandy leather high top mocs as footgear. I will fully admit I got the name Margali from MZB’s Darkover books, but it is actually a real world name that was used before 1600. I started researching, and ended up with somewhere in the vicinity of ten thousand hours of research and hands on recreation over the past 30 years. It is split up between pre Caeser Britain, Imperial era Rome, Ghengis Khan era turkoman, Selucid Persian and Elizabethan England. I can do the expected housewify skills needed to run households in pretty much any condition from neolithic through modern. I can also run a still room, and have a copy of Tacuinum Sanitas so i am all set for nursing someone back to health 
It is fun to teach a room full of kids how to make and use drop spindles, and lyre cord looms, or how to make common household goodies out of pottery, and to fire them. It is also a blast taking a few ingredients, and showing them the progression of a recipe from Roman, through medieval and renaissance, and onto the modern table.
It is fun playing dress up with people, showing them what people wore in the past. Showing people how to dance or play simple musical instruments, and games - that you can have fun without TV.
I know other states are more serious about it, but in SoCal Renaissance Faires aren’t really historical. A lot of it is the chance to hang out with people who like similar things. A lot of it is a chance to share booze and flirt with everyone. It doesn’t have to be that expensive - if you’re not in to perfect historical accuracy you can get a lot of clothes at thrift stores and make most of accessories.
None of the faires I go to use the accent or really try to be that accurate, which is a bit of a shame. Obviously it varies from guild to guild.
I’m glad this question was asked…I was googling various things and came across these people Legio XX--The Twentieth Legion.
These people seem a lot more serious than SCA people though.
In my limited experience there are several distinct groups:
- the “renfaire” types. For many of those, it’s roleplaying, it’s a physical activity, it’s a way to be more comfortable with your own body (a week walking, cooking, singing, dancing and serving tables in one of those bustiers does wonders for a woman’s self-image).
- the “reconstruction” types. Meets the group above in the “get the exact shade and cloth” section. Serious history buffs who have found a way to have their time spent with their nose in books turned into an outdoorsy activity and a way to share their love of history with others.
- the “LARP” types. Roleplay… with an enormous dash of minmaxing, for the ones who do combat. Accuracy is irrelevant.
In all cases, it’s Nerds Outdoors ™.
I do SCA events. I like camping, and I like doing things in the old style fashion. At the last event last year I made some delicious dutch oven cooking over a slow fire and drank homemade beer. I like seeing the heavy fighters, the archery contests, and the workshops on how to make things the old fashioned way. Our kingdom is pretty laid back, we just like to enjoy the events. I do tend towards Laurel-like habits (the reconstruction types in Nava’s post) in that I like things to be as period as possible. I’ve heard other kingdoms are nothing but that; they buy only raw materials and make everything themselves, and only in the ways available back in the 13th century.
I like the camaraderie of it all too. Often times you can wander into a random campsite and hear a story and get some free booze, or there may be bawdy songs being sung. And of course hearing random hookups in tents that are not-at-all soundproof 
Whenever I describe the SCA, invariably they’ll say “What’s the SCA?”. So I either say it’s medieval drunken camping, or the description above, depending on my audience.
No, not really
Kinda, except without the roleplaying bit. SCA social convention dictates I have a persona (or two) - a name and character history - but I, personally, don’t take it any further than that. I don’t do roleplaying in the SCA, that’s what RoleMaster and Theatre LARPs are for. Hell, I bristle at the use of the trappings of medieval class hierarchy, as it is. I do it (bow to the King, use people’s titles), but I don’t* like* it one bit.
Mostly, I like making things with my hands, and the SCA provides the sort of structured framework my ADHD mind finds helpful for practicing crafts with some discipline. Always new things to learn, too, which again feeds into my ADHD. It could as easily be some other crafter’s organization, but none have the wide range and international appeal of the SCA. And hanging out with friends is a part of it, too. I got into the SCA through friends from RPGing and Tolkien Soc.
I do like the dress-up part a lot, too. But that’s just the clothes horse in me, I enjoy dressing up in modern clothes too.
It’s OK, I know of one Laurel Queen of Arms (otherwise quite the authentinazi) with a pure Darkovan name.
Of course, she was MZB’s foster-daughter, but still…
Man, these guys are intense-imagine living like a Roman soldier for a week-you must really love it to do this!
Buy? meh, I live on a farm, I can raise my own sheep, dig clay out of my clay bank, chop down trees to fire the ceramic pot, shave the sheep, kill the sheep for dinner and reserve the fat and make lye out of the ash to make soap to scour the wool, use clay and wood to make a drop spindle to spin the wool, go for some plants to dye the wool, then use wood and clay to make a warp weighted loom to weave the thread, use sheeps bone to make the needle to sew it together with. Dinner and clothing =) Buying raw materials is cheating …
Jaella? If it is who I think it is, a woman in my household had a run in with her, as did I about names and arms … and she is a dumb bitch who is obstructionist even when presented with plenty of documentation as to why a name should be allowed. [And I was not trying to document Margali…]
The historical reenacting I do grew out of a program I developed to have volunteers teach visitors about a historical fort in my hometown. Fort Phoenix The small group started in modern dress, but soon decided to reenact the time in 1778 when our harbor was raided by a British fleet.
We’re now quite accurately dress, well informed on local history and set up weekend camps that are open to the public. We teach school children on fieldtrips, talk to tourists and have a great time together as a group. My wife and I and our ten year old daughter all do this together.
I got into it at first because of the access you get if you’re good at going past re-enacting to actually Living History. Anyone can visit Old Fort Niagara; I’ve stayed in the “Castle” and gotten to study a lot of the information not on public display.
Now my reason is more what we can learn that wasn’t written down very well; if at all. Things you learn by doing. For example, from supply lists and digs we’ve known the French (F&I era) carried/had a lot of sponges and part of the reason had to do with canoes and boats. Move around much in bark canoes you figure out why - its the best way to bail the durn things out. Cups make noise, leave a lot of water behind, and cause damage - sponges don’t. You can even hold it close to the water when squeezing it dry so as not to alert any pesky Brits you are trying to sneak past.
I just find stuff like that fun as Hell to be a part of.
In the U.K. at least many reenactors get onto T.V. for historical documentaries.
I’ve heard also that the camerarderie is good as are the pissups.
That’s the one.
How do the super hardcore re-enactors balance that with their present day life? Don’t these people need jobs? I’m not trying to be rude…I mean that seriously.
I’ve known people who did SCA types of stuff and it was always weekend/evening…like a regular hobby.
But living as a Roman solider for a week?? Unless they’re getting paid to do it like the Colonial Williamsburg people, I don’t understand how they can pay their bills, etc.
I mean I wish I could do that…but real life is always calling me.
What, you’ve never heard of vacation?
There’s people who every year go to visit Mom. There’s people who every year go to a different vacation spot. There’s people who every year go to the same vacation spot. For some of these, their yearly vacation spot looks like a Roman fort.
Of course I’ve heard of vacation! I phrased my statement poorly I suppose.
Looking at the website for both the roman re-enactors it appears that they have year round dates that they perform. Maybe they are all weekend dates…I only glanced at the schedule and it looked like they’re totally booked up for various events.
And maybe they do get paid for some of these, who knows.
Several things here:
1 - Not everyone makes every date on the schedule. For something bigger like F&I or Rev War its impossible to make every event. The one regional club I belonged to had as many as 3 events a weekend sometimes. Every event is different and appeals to different aspects so you read down and make your choices. Sometimes even those you would call “hardcore” (teach themselves to bloat when dead and never wash their uniforms) only make a couple events a year - life happens sometimes.
2 - Some people have gone into non-traditional jobs. One friend worked as a pipeline welder; some form of specialty welding. He made as much in a week as normal people did in a month. So he worked 6 months a year and used the other six going from event to event. A current comrade-in-arms travels 2 weeks out of four. He arranges his schedule so he is somewhere near an event for the weekend and just extends over. Often he can arrange it so his expense account covers the time out.
3 - Some do make a living at it. I know a silversmith who used to be a school teacher. He makes twice what he did as a teacher going from place to place making and selling hand crafted reproductions.
Like most things in life – you want to and you find a way.
I can break the American Rennies down into three broad categories: Artisans, Entertainers and Actors
There are people who are just there to make money. Period. They happen to have either a skill or a supplier in weird shit that won’t sell at the mall in quantities large enough to keep a permanent store running - mugs made of wood, blown glass, wooden walking sticks, carved ostrich eggs, etc. The Ren Faires have become the place to sell stuff like this, whether or not it’s “period.” The merchants don’t (generally) give a shit whether or not what they’re selling is authentic to the 1570’s, they care if it sells and makes them enough money to eat this month. They tend to travel one of a couple of “circuits” with the Ren Faires - two in the East and I think another two in the West. When your local Faire is done for the season, they pack up their ostrich eggs and drive to the next one and keep their income flowing. Scheduling is a huge issue for these folks, and there’s a hue and cry raised whenever Faires change their dates.
They’re a lot like carnies, actually. Insular and suspicious, but wonderful people who will do anything for you if you get to know them well.
The Entertainers also travel the circuits, and these are the guys you’ll see on the program. MooNie the Magnificent, Cristophe the Insulter, The Muddy Beggars, Dirk and Guido, etc. These are professionals with professional acts, who are paid appearance fees, sell CDs and may also have permission to “pass the hat”.
The Actors tend to be local, and not to travel with the circuits, with a few exceptions. They make up the “Guilds” - the groups of roving performers/musicians that wander the Faire but aren’t of the level of the Entertainers. They tend to be out of work local actors or not-yet-working or may-never-work-professionally young actors who…get this…generally PAY the Ren Faire for the privilege of working there. That’s right, not only do they not get paid, they pay the Faire for “training”, a Season Pass, a camping spot (if staying on site), food, etc. Why? Because Actors are pathetic people who crave attention and love love love playing dress up. 
The exception to this at most Faires is the Court - those players are usually paid a modest fee for the season. It’s not particularly good paying work, however.
There are also non-Guild Actors. A lot of Actors will apply for jobs in the shops run by the Artisans. Some Actors dream of becoming Entertainers one day, but a whole lot don’t, just enjoying the playacting, camaraderie and risk of heat stroke for what it is.
WhyNot,
former Actor (working in a shop) at Bristol, WI