# Can someone explain Renaissance Faires? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2006, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565 "2006-07-15T01:17:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565/181 "2006-08-10T21:45:03Z")
Although after reading the rest of the thread, you’ve got me interested in going to one of the local faires. Dang you people! Hehehe… ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565/182 "2006-08-10T22:43:09Z")
**MissPurlMcKnittington** - yes, we did try, and yes, it did fall through. If I recall correctly, the band my daughter was working for at the time had a gig elsewhere that day, so it ended up being the ONE day we WEREN’T at Bristol that season! **Dinsdale** - the toothless beauty, also known as Lady Ettie, is one of the funniest faire characters ever. She also does the Ohio and Tennessee faires, because she’s associated with the musical group Minstrels of Mayhem. I’m usually pretty easy to spot - small as I am, I’m pretty loud, and I’ve been going so long that most of the acts know me by name. It’s entirely possible we did cross paths - I’ll talk to anyone who is not actively running away from me. I so wish I’d bothered to pop in here before you went this year though, so that I could have paid attention! ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565/183 "2006-08-10T22:44:41Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > I remember reading about some Trek fans (maybe gamers) dressing in full uniform, then acting like they’ve beamed down to a primitive planet. One of our actors (who plays Robin Hood) loves it when Trekkies come to faire in Trek garb. He approaches them and scolds, “If you’re going to come play in the holodeck, the least you could do is dress the part!” ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565/184 "2006-08-11T01:18:22Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > You mean like the story somebody told in post 62? My most humble apologies—I missed that one. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565/185 "2006-08-11T15:09:39Z")
> [@RogueRacer](#): > > I’ll have to look at the Camelbaks and see if there is any way to hide one (or some variation) in my garb. Maybe if you go as a hunchback?? > [@Mrs. Purl McKnittington](#): > > I wanna move to Maryland, now. Or Vermont–I hear that’s like a smaller Wisconsin, but with more maple syrup. Just for the summer though. Stay in Vermont for the fall too…the foliage can’t be beat. Maryland was where I went to the faire for the first time. It was a lot of fun and the craft booths were cool. My friend snuck out a tic-tac-toe set (stone with glass markers) she later gave me for my birthday so I have a nice memento of that day! ---
**Author:** ![Klytus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Klytus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klytus)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565/186 "2006-08-11T15:44:51Z")
> [@Klytus](#): > > The MD Faire charges $12 for one adult. I forget how the 2-day passes scale. I usually egt a Fairever Pass which is $75, but it gets you in every day of the season, and since this Faire runs nine weeks (including Labor Day) that’s 19-days worth of Faire. Just seven visist and the Fairever pass is cheaper than general admission. If you are turly hard-core and go _every day_ (and there are plenty of folks who do) that’s just under $4 a day. Whoops - a Fairever Pass is only **$70** (I just bought mine todau), and that price has been steady for the past _10 years_. Regular 1-day Adult admission is $17, $15 for Seniors, and $8 for Kids. > **[Maryland Renaissance Festival – Revel Grove](https://rennfest.com/)** > > Maryland Renaissance Festival 2022 season begins on August 27th for nine weekends of merriment. Online ticket sales will begin on August 1st. Learn more. ---
**Author:** ![Cuppa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@Cuppa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuppa)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565/187 "2006-08-12T00:33:45Z")
I went to the Texas Renaissance Festival once. I still have the program. I was looking through it a while back (apparently I had nothing better to do) and I saw one of the acts listed as “Penn and Tell – Juggling Magical Comedy.” I wish I’d seen that. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565/188 "2006-08-12T04:06:10Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Excuse me, but has anyone mentioned [the boobs](http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/1045/renfaireweb4qv.jpg) yet ? I gotta admit that’s about the ONLY thing that would get me to one. I fell in with the wrong crowd in college (SCA types) and the idea of more of the same scares me. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565/189 "2006-08-14T00:57:05Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > It’s a piece of tail - theoretically to mean “I’m available. Want to duck behind the burlap and screw?” Another explanation of raccoon tails - they were used as a sort of flea attractor. The idea was that the fleas would inhabit the fur, rather than the person. (Remember, hygiene was rather crude back then.) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565/190 "2006-08-14T13:12:34Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Another explanation of raccoon tails - they were used as a sort of flea attractor. The idea was that the fleas would inhabit the fur, rather than the person. (Remember, hygiene was rather crude back then.) Really? I wasn’t aware that Racoons were European animals… ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565/191 "2006-08-14T15:19:06Z")
Eh, whatever they are. I don’t pretend to know anything about small European animals with bushy tails that hapen to resemble raccoons. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565/192 "2006-08-14T15:37:37Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > In my experience the two groups (and the third group - SF Fandom) have overlap, but tend to scoff at one another. SCAers entertain themselves and believe themselves to be intellectual about it (sometimes they are, sometimes they are just snobs). Rennies think of themselves as performers (and some of the perform - some of them just party on the campground and add character the next day sleeping off the hangover in costume). Both groups are amuzingly elitist, and I’ve never heard a Festie say anything kind about a dressed up tourist (unless they were a former Festie). You can add a fourth circle to your Venn diagram of fantasy geekiness: LARPers. My social life, limited as it is, dries up and blows away this time of year because I don’t do Ren Fest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-renaissance-faires/364565.md?page=9)