4 ms·

first off, as a ren fest veteran, it's easier to just take "renaissance" to mean "basically any time between the collapse of rome and world war i, also with the

first off, as a ren fest veteran, it's easier to just take "renaissance" to mean "basically any time between the collapse of rome and world war i, also with the possibility of time travellers and things that never existed in the first place and anachronisms like turkeys in pre-Colombian England" and take "Renaissance" with the capital "r" to mean "from the 1300s to roughly the discovery of the new world" Second, I think it's an interesting question to ask if people craved this particular past or if they just craved a space where everything is vastly different and settled on this period because it's pretty firmly embedded in our cultural mythology and everyone has an idea, however historically inaccurate, of what this time period was like. I think it's less that we built it because this is specifically what we want and more that this was waiting for us to materialize it. The majority of what people get from the ren fest isn't renaissance specific, it's just about going to a place that's different enough to be novel and exciting but familiar enough to be comfortable. I think that if we did a Flintstone Fest where we all dressed as cave folk that would be similar enough that you have people who go to both. In fact I may be a little biased because I actually like to bring a caveman character to our local fest's time traveller's weekend. It's fun to turn the conceit on its head by walking around acting amazed at how advanced everything is. I could also foresee a successful Old West Fest. All time periods that are vastly different than now, but with a familiarity from being studied, stereotyped and riffed on in the common culture. A comfortable elsewhere and elsewhen.

bluGill 1y ago
I love camping, sleeping in just a tent, cooking on a fire. But only for a week here and there, most of the time I'm glad to live in my house with HVAC, and cooking in a modern kitchen is much easier. However it is fun to do with less - intentionally - for a short time once in a while.
- ratelimitsteve 1y ago
  You know I'd never considered it but a lot of small to medium sized music festivals probably scratch the same Temporary Autonomous Zone itch as the ren fest. It's just a somewhere else to go for a bit where things are different because we're all pretty sick of how they are here.
chrisco255 1y ago
> Old West Fest For sure, there are things like Cheyenne Frontier Days though not sure that it really goes as far as the cosplaying that is seen in ren faires. People do dress in western clothes, although they're not necessarily acting out a part. Rodeos and western wear though are still fairly common in modern day America though.
- ratelimitsteve 1y ago
  Have you ever done a ren fest? It's an awful lot like that. The paid actors are in character but everyone else is just modern folk in a weird, garish misinterpretation of pre-1900s fashion. It's kinda fun watching someone in Victorian finery try to fit a turkey leg and a beer in one hand so they can take a selfie, the anachronism of it is cute. It's a bit more audience participation-y than, say, colonial williamsburg where the idea is that you're separate from the period-appropriate folk and watching, but any sort of roleplay from the patrons is optional and silly.
throwup238 1y ago
> Second, I think it's an interesting question to ask if people craved this particular past or if they just craved a space where everything is vastly different and settled on this period because it's pretty firmly embedded in our cultural mythology and everyone has an idea, however historically inaccurate, of what this time period was like. I think it's mostly a case of the printing press solidifying all that cultural mythology right around the tail end of the Renaissance. King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable was an especially popular theme among early printed fiction (think mass market paperbacks of today) which is where I think most of this began. The motifs introduced in those books have been pervasive since the common people started learning how to read and evolved into a lot of different cultural features like renfairs.
cestith 1y ago
I think it's partly because this is what was started and caught on. There are also folk life festivals with traditional art forms from before mass production, frontier festivals, colonial festivals, Civil War reenactments, Revolutionary War reenactments, the Vintage Computer Festivals, conventions for antique radio and TV equipment, and all sorts of periods people commemorate. This is the one that has been around a few decades, caught on in a big way, and spread nationwide. There are also pumpkin festivals, apple festivals, corn festivals, other harvest festivals, May Day festivals, county fairs, state fairs, and more despite most of the things involved in all of these are anachronistic for most of the population. Very few people actually raise prize cattle, sheep, and pigs. Very few farm crops. We still celebrate these as if we’re an agrarian society though.

bluGill 1y ago

I love camping, sleeping in just a tent, cooking on a fire. But only for a week here and there, most of the time I'm glad to live in my house with HVAC, and cooking in a modern kitchen is much easier. However it is fun to do with less - intentionally - for a short time once in a while.

ratelimitsteve 1y ago
You know I'd never considered it but a lot of small to medium sized music festivals probably scratch the same Temporary Autonomous Zone itch as the ren fest. It's just a somewhere else to go for a bit where things are different because we're all pretty sick of how they are here.

chrisco255 1y ago

> Old West Fest For sure, there are things like Cheyenne Frontier Days though not sure that it really goes as far as the cosplaying that is seen in ren faires. People do dress in western clothes, although they're not necessarily acting out a part. Rodeos and western wear though are still fairly common in modern day America though.

ratelimitsteve 1y ago
Have you ever done a ren fest? It's an awful lot like that. The paid actors are in character but everyone else is just modern folk in a weird, garish misinterpretation of pre-1900s fashion. It's kinda fun watching someone in Victorian finery try to fit a turkey leg and a beer in one hand so they can take a selfie, the anachronism of it is cute. It's a bit more audience participation-y than, say, colonial williamsburg where the idea is that you're separate from the period-appropriate folk and watching, but any sort of roleplay from the patrons is optional and silly.

throwup238 1y ago

> Second, I think it's an interesting question to ask if people craved this particular past or if they just craved a space where everything is vastly different and settled on this period because it's pretty firmly embedded in our cultural mythology and everyone has an idea, however historically inaccurate, of what this time period was like. I think it's mostly a case of the printing press solidifying all that cultural mythology right around the tail end of the Renaissance. King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable was an especially popular theme among early printed fiction (think mass market paperbacks of today) which is where I think most of this began. The motifs introduced in those books have been pervasive since the common people started learning how to read and evolved into a lot of different cultural features like renfairs.

cestith 1y ago

I think it's partly because this is what was started and caught on. There are also folk life festivals with traditional art forms from before mass production, frontier festivals, colonial festivals, Civil War reenactments, Revolutionary War reenactments, the Vintage Computer Festivals, conventions for antique radio and TV equipment, and all sorts of periods people commemorate. This is the one that has been around a few decades, caught on in a big way, and spread nationwide. There are also pumpkin festivals, apple festivals, corn festivals, other harvest festivals, May Day festivals, county fairs, state fairs, and more despite most of the things involved in all of these are anachronistic for most of the population. Very few people actually raise prize cattle, sheep, and pigs. Very few farm crops. We still celebrate these as if we’re an agrarian society though.