Well that’s all good to know, and that’s awesome some people can make their living from this.
Wow…how does one do this?
This is what I see at our local Faire, too. Then there’s the subset of patrons they call “playtrons,” who dress up and want people to think they’re part of the actors.
My Scottish group does a big display/exhibition during the Celtic-theme weekend, and we joke about being playtrons, but I don’t think anyone with eyes could mistakes us for the real actors. It’s fun. I wear my bodice and my tartan, and get to feel like I’m polishing up by BA in medieval and Renaissance lit!
Ah, yes. I’m a Playtron now. There’s a subset of those too, who wear visible zippers and velcro, blinding white gym shoes and fanny packs around their bodices. They always seem to have a turkey leg in one fist and a Beer Yard in the other, which may have lead to *their *nickname: Turkeys With Dressing. 
Abdominal muscle control - and it isn’t easy. I know a dude who can go from his usual 5’8" 160 to almost bursting his uniform - or anywhere inbetween - on command.
Heh, I took my roomie who is a blacksmith to a ren faire ‘audition’ - she wanted to sell smithed stuff, so she took a bunch of samples of stuff that she makes. I somehow got into the cattle call for singers 
and offered a spot. Unfortunately I was working overnight as telephone CS, so working full time days and weekends, and overnight would not have worked too well.
I like history, and got sucked into 18th century living history through a jr high apprentice program. Which lead to volunteering at a local historic site and serving on their board. Its like any hobby, once you start you end up with a bunch of specialized skills and knowledge, and it’s fun to meet other people with similar interests. For example, i can make a straw hat from a bundle of rye, and i can’t exact chat about braids and styles with random people on the street.
I also do ren faires, but that sort of a guilty pleasure for me rather than living history or reenacting.
For me, it was the love of singing with a dulcimer group, polishing my storytelling, and general nerdiness at loving to dress up and “pretend”. Plus I got to flirt with guys and work with horses. Heaven!
For you Civil War buffs-do you LIKE eating salt bacon and cornmeal, with bitter offee? Civil War messes were not known for quality cuisine-maybe that is why these guys are skinny?
On the other hand, the Ren Fairs I’ve been to seem to have decent food-roast pig, etc.
I don’t do Civil War reenactment, but I’d love it for a “once in a while, get into the spirit” thing. The crappy food is part of the experience.
Plus, I hate to rat 'em out, but I do happen to know that at least some of those guys have coolers of beer and sub sandwiches hidden in those old authentic looking trunks!
Ren Faire staff food is actually better, better for you and inadvertently more “authentic” than the stuff we sell the public, at least at Bristol. Yummy stews and soups, from scratch pocket pies, real lemonade…I sometimes steal one of my friend’s Employee tags when I’m visiting, just so I can go get a cheap, good meal at the Dirty Duck instead of the public stalls!
I only do ACW maybe once a year or so; I love New Market and how that event fights. So I am not the best person to answer. But read Confederates In The Attic. That isn’t made up - I know guys who basically starve themselves to get the right look and who are known sometimes to self-inflict a good case of the trots.
Coffee - there ya got me. Something about taking green beans, roasting them over the fire, grinding them by walking my musket buttplate over them, boiling the whole thing over a flint-and-steel fire and putting that last little shot of cold water in the cup to settle the biggest part of the grounds that just makes the damn stuff taste great!!! Maybe not to anyone else but -------
I have worked the Southern California rennaissance Faire (My first year was the last year in Agoura!), I have been in a Scottish/Irish folk band, I have fought in the SCA, I have done Civil War reeanctments, I have done extensive Victorean reenactments.
I agree with everything said. the fun, the comradeship, the “dress up” the music, the history, the research, the teaching. It’s all good.
Sadly, I cannot bloat.
I went to a re-enactment today of Guilford Courthouse battle from the Revolutionary War. It seemed like the people had a lot of fun. I might even get into it myself in the future.
I think it would be a hoot. My 70-something year old aunt dresses up and does a colonial era making-cheese demo at Sleepy Hollow in Tarrytown, NY (since it’s not pasteurized, though, they can’t let anyone eat it). I would love to set up shop as a tarot card reader at the Ren Faire, unless they wanted to burn me at the stake as a witch! My cousin worked there one summer and he said he met lotsa girls - after it closed for the evening, everyone ran to the lake for skinny-dipping. 
Fun without electricity!
I’m glad some people keep the accuracy of the food. I just watched an episode of Penn and Teller’s Bullshit, and many people seemed to not realize that turkey legs didn’t exist back then.
Not that I take the show’s word for anything. They do not even pretend to be unbiased.
Heh. Authenticity is a real sore subject. I’d say there’s about 1/3 of the people there who wish things were more “authentic”, and the other 2/3 don’t give a crap, as long as it’s profitable.
I used to tease the garbage collectors. “Hey, that’s not period! I want to be standing ankle deep in effluvia for a real authentic experience! Where are you taking my authenticity?!”
We used to tell the ladies that as authentic as we wanted to be, thay didn’t need to die in childbirth on mainstage.
Of course not.
Who’s going to fill a hat for *that *act?! Stick 'em over on the Fountainside Stage. No one goes there anyway. 
I started off in the SCA because I really like hitting people with sticks. That may sound a little crazy, a bit cave-manish, but it’s the truth…it’s a lot of fun to put on armour, go out and fight hard and fast, and afterwards, be able to smile, give a brotherly hug to the guy you beat up/just beat you up, and share laughs and a beer afterwards.
When I first started, I was fighting in a suit of armour made of a chopped up plastic pickle barrel riveted inside a polyester over coat, with a horribly inaccurate helmet that I pounded together and a few other bits and pieces of inaccurate gear.
The longer I’ve been in, the more authentic gear calls to me…I now fight in a suit of nearly accurate 14th century plate and leather - why? Because the authentic stuff works, and does so much better than the crap I cobbled together when I first started. Same goes for my tenting gear - my crappy little “earth pimple” dome tent was cramped, barely had enough room to sleep in with my gear in there as well, leaked, and in general was miserable. My 13’ round pavillion, on the other hand, is roomy, comfortable, and because it has no floor and is made of canvas, I can use a heater inside of it and not asphyxiate.
All in all, the history stuff is fun, and I love it…but I’m still mostly in it to beat people with sticks. 
As long as you’re not one of Yarslav’s squires you’re OK in my book.
I do enjoy the Renaissance fairs and try to attend one at least every other year. You’ll pry my roasted turkey leg from my dead cold hands!
And although I’ve never really participated in them, I have done a lot of historical martial arts with various groups including ARMA.
It was all serious martial arts stuff though. We went through the medieval and renaissance fechtbuchs and studied directly from the manuscripts, as well as from other interpretations from well versed people/groups around the world.
Technique, martial soundness, study of the words of the masters of the priod, realistic weaponry and armor, these were all part of the experience.
As to why? I’m not sure. I’m not likely to get into any sword fights, though these types of martial arts dealt with both armed and unarmed combat. I think it goes back to the “nerd” appeal. It’s bringing back a part of history, an art that died centuries ago, along with similarly minded people. This kind of esoteric work that involves lots of reading and lots of practice is nerd food to someone like me 
We did get the occasional Larper/role-player/guy that wants to be a ninja, but most of these guys don’t last once they realize poring through old manuscripts and working hundreds of times through technique is what it’s all about, and getting to bash your fellow is only a secondary objective.