It's just become a stand-in word to describe this class of fairs. In practice, sometimes they are called medieval fairs at the event, but there's not a huge dis

It's just become a stand-in word to describe this class of fairs. In practice, sometimes they are called medieval fairs at the event, but there's not a huge distinction. No one is going to nitpick at a medieval fair that some tech or innovation didn't exist until later and if a ren fair features elements of medieval times, it's just not going to be called out. Most people mean early renaissance anyways, as the fantasy to play up to, when knights and swords still played a big role and before colonial empires and musketeers really took over.