Renaissance Faires

For two years I traveled around the country doing various Renaissance Faires. If you’re unsure it is an outdoor weekend gathering ostensibly focused on recreating life as it was during the Renaissance, give or take a few liberties obviously.

I remember when my friend A. (the former punk rock traveler) and his girlfriend were headed out to Boston to do the Faire out there and asked if I wanted to tag along. An adventure? To Boston? Going through Canada to see Niagara Falls? OF COURSE I wanted to go. I had never been to either and when opportunity knocks especially when it concerns travel, I’m always up for it.

I remember arriving in Carver with them, a quaint little beach town a bit away from the city having no place to stay or no work but within two days I had a place to stay and a incredible job with a “wizard” named Artemis and his huge white dog Zeus. The house I found was rented out by a friend of mine, the flute maker, and I shared it with a dulcimer player, and a hardcore vegetarian who wore genuine buffalo hide shoes – that always made me chuckle, he played the tabor.

I sold jewelry for Artemis. Puzzle wedding rings, dragon claw/rune/Celtic necklaces, and other odds and ends. Made a living getting a solid wage plus commission so obviously the bodices I wore were very low cut and revealing and the flirtation much. I even managed to get a positive compliment or two out of a down to earth musician as he visited our quaint little festival. I didn’t realize it at the time, me being me, i.e. I rarely get excited over status all I cared about was that the guy was nice as were his kids and friends and that he complimented me in a sincere way. Basically I just liked his vibe. Oh it was Steven Tyler.

I made good friends with the gypsies, who adopted me in a way and taught me how to dance, my first experience with belly dancing, and better, taught me things I needed to know being that I was a “rennie” – a traveling renaissance faire worker, a gypsy if you will. There were four of them that were my favorite, two men who also did puppeteering at the festivals and owned a puppet making business in Vermont and led parades down in Newo, can’t remember what the other one did and a nice Italian woman who called me one of the chocolate people – in a endearing way – her English was not too good. She was a puppeteer as well.

The house I lived in was always full of music; being that I lived with musicians I guess it’s not that surprising. We constantly had people over and constantly there were jams, though with more of a Renaissance feel. Flute players, Didgeridoos, Djembes, Dulcimers, Dumbecks, Lutes, Trumpets folk singers, harp…Fun times.

From there I traveled around the country finding work at various faires, Georgia – where every Saturday night we went Swing Dancing and every Sunday we gathered at a Mexican Restaurant for Margaritas and dancing to the beats of tribal drums, Illinois, Florida, Texas, Minnesota, Michigan, Arizona, all over the states I’d go from faire to faire finding work as a jewelry seller, a candle maker, a gamer, a beer wench, etc. and hang out with musicians, gypsies, knights (men who actually jousted, as dangerous now as it was back then), actors, blacksmiths, storytellers, etc. I slept in tents for the majority of time on the Faire sites along with other Faire participants.

I remember once while doing the Chicago Faire how a family of raccoons discovered how to get into my tent by unzipping the front rather than ripping the side.... I have never been so scared in my life! Imagine waking up to the sound of your tent opening and shining a light on it only to see these crazy reflecting eyes staring right back at you in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done the Faires (I think perhaps I’ve found a new output with the community I’m involved with now but the same energy no wonder I feel so incredible and inspired with these folks) but looking back on it, it was a pretty great experience in the book of me.