What is a Ren Fair?

[Oberu]

I'll be honest and say that renaissance festivals are what got me into kilts and my heritage. My oldest friend asked me to attend with him and I had nothing to wear. I decided I'd research and make something. That ended pretty badly in a place or two.. anyway I learned a lot. I have always tried to go as historically accurate as the references ( and my pocket book ) allow. Got me tinkering! I now make all sorts of things from swords, knives, sheaths, belts, bags, boots, yeah.. I get carried away but it's something I love. Judge if you wish but when a person looks at you and swears they just stepped into a time warp you can only love it!

There's also a bacchanal side to it. You can certainly get carried away if you wish to.

[The Wizard of BC]

Ren Faires are just plain fun. Where else can you walk around with a big mug of mead in one hand, a turkey leg in the other, admire pretty girls and watch guys on horseback stab each other with long poles.

I don't really care it it's history or just good entertainment.

[kiltedcontractor]

I frequent several Ren Faires and credit them to getting me in a kilt. Being someone who likes history and is married to a history teacher, i can see how the history 'taught ' or demonstrated at fair can be off putting. The larger part of the public spend their time and money at fair for entertainment. On many occasions I've watched people leave a performance when the history got to deep and long winded. If a faire can get someone to investigate history further once home.... job well done. My 2 cents.

[Peter Crowe]

I always thought that the irony is that Scotland did not impact on the renaissance that much, but became a cultural and intellectual superpower in later centuries.

Not to get too off-topic but the Court of James IV from the 1490's until Flodden in 1513 would belie that assumption (some historians claim with authority that James IV was the quintessential Renaissance Prince due to his patronage of Arts, Letters, and Science). In the middle decades of the 16th century, George Buchanan was a Humanist scholar and poet of European renown. I would add that the Scottish Renaissance was more known for literature than visual art, "Sir David Lindsay's 'Ane Satyre o' the Thrie Estatis", and Buchanan's "De Jure Regni apud Scotos," being the most outstanding but by no means the only examples. Buchanan and John Major (Mair) also being noted for philosophy, the former as a Humanist the latter as a Scholastic.

The Ancient Scottish Universities, bookend the European Renaissance in their timelines of establishment with the foundation of St Andrews in 1411, Glasgow 1451, King's College, Aberdeen in 1495, Edinburgh in 1582, and Marischal College, Aberdeen in 1593 (King's and Marischal Colleges since combined into the University of Aberdeen).

For a small kingdom on Europe's north-west periphery, the Renaissance was very much a part of Scotland's story and was a necessary precurser to the more widely known Scottish Reformation of 1559/60, which paradoxically was both a product of and a reaction against the Humanist scholarship and culture of the Renaissance.

As to Jock's original question I think it has been fully answered by others, my only comment about Ren Faires is that they seem to be harmless fun dressing up. I have no problem with the concept although as a historian I believe the Renaissance is an important period in the history of Western Civilisation (European and American).

[derosa]

I live on the same road as the Sterling, NY ren fair, back when I was a lot younger and in high school/early college I worked there for a number of years. It's just a great place to have a good time; there's lots of bad acting, bad historicity, and worse accents all mixed with good food, good drink, plenty of entertainment and a strong sense of fun.

[John_Carrick]

Thank you very much for this Peter. Really interesting and informative. John

Not to get too off-topic but the Court of James IV from the 1490's until Flodden in 1513 would belie that assumption (some historians claim with authority that James IV was the quintessential Renaissance Prince due to his patronage of Arts, Letters, and Science). In the middle decades of the 16th century, George Buchanan was a Humanist scholar and poet of European renown. I would add that the Scottish Renaissance was more known for literature than visual art, "Sir David Lindsay's 'Ane Satyre o' the Thrie Estatis", and Buchanan's "De Jure Regni apud Scotos," being the most outstanding but by no means the only examples. Buchanan and John Major (Mair) also being noted for philosophy, the former as a Humanist the latter as a Scholastic.

The Ancient Scottish Universities, bookend the European Renaissance in their timelines of establishment with the foundation of St Andrew's in 1411, Glasgow 1451, King's College, Aberdeen in 1495, Edinburgh in 1582, and Marischal College, Aberdeen in 1593 (King's and Marischal Colleges since combined into the University of Aberdeen).

For a small kingdom on Europe's north-west periphery, the Renaissance was very much a part of Scotland's story and was a necessary precurser to the more widely known Scottish Reformation of 1559/60, which paradoxically was both a product of and a reaction against the Humanist scholarship and culture of the Renaissance.

As to Jock's original question I think it has been fully answered by others, my only comment about Ren Faires is that they seem to be harmless fun dressing up. I have no problem with the concept although as a historian I believe the Renaissance is an important period in the history of Western Civilisation (European and American).

[Jock Scot]

Jock.... perhaps you could try consulting GOOGLE....😉

Yes I should have thought of that and I did take a look there, after your suggestion. An interesting and hilarious piece on the first page written by an Englishman about his experience of a Ren Fair in the USA. I must admit whilst I have never seen a Ren Fair, my thoughts do go along the same lines as his!

Thank you everyone for your input here.

[Tasty Rabbit]

The Pennsylvania Renn Faire has 2 Celtic themed weekends . Celtic Fling which hosts a slew of live music & the Scot/Irish weekend which has the haggis eating contest , best legs in a kilt & a highland games demo . I've been participating in the demo the last couple of seasons . Attending this is what got me into actually wearing a kilt in the first place . No matter what the theme of the weekend people show up in pretty much whatever they want so there's a great mix going on . There's a lot of fluff & silliness but I think it helps get many people more interested in history , art , heritage , or read a book & that's a good thing .

[AFS1970]

As an example of what a Ren Faire is and is not, I will relate a story that still gets me in a bit of trouble with the wife. We would occasionally go to a nearby faire, but I never got dressed up. My wife on the other hand had a dress made just for the faire. It cost a pretty penny and looked great on her, although to my eye was a bit more formal than one should be wearing to an outdoor event. She asked me to dress up also.

I had nothing I considered suitable but thought I could put something together based on what I had seen. I wore a modern Kilt with a belted plaid to simulate a great kilt. A shirt that I always though of as American colonial era although are common with kilts in some parts. I had a pair of basic black mocasin boots, and a walking stick that had been brought back from Scotland for me. I also had a very generic black hooded cloak. Looking back on it, not a thing matched in any way and most conflicted horribly with each other.

A man came up to us and introduced himself as Duke something or other and said he liked the costume and gave an invite to be in a parade. My wife started to thank him and he said oh no, not you, him (me). It has taken years to live this down, but it shows that authenticity is neither wanted or expected at a ren faire.