Huzzah and Gramercy
Everyone will stumble across new “firsts” in their lives regardless of their age, including myself. This weekend was my first Renn Fair. Or, should I say, Renaissance Faire.
One of my good friends is getting married. This good friend is easily a power-nerd who has adapted to civilian living quite well. By power-nerd I mean if you need info on anything about D&D you can easily find said information in his house. And this, good friends, was his bachelor party. A day at the fair.
Just as much as I didn’t know what to expect, I don’t know where to begin. I had heard stories from friends of mine who had been, some even worked at Renn Faires in various locations, but my imagination was far less grand than actuality. I expected employees in full costume. I did NOT expect to see as many people as I did getting out of their cars in the parking lot in full, and sometimes better costumes than the employees.
This place is nerd heaven. I say this as a nerd.
Where might I procure a fanciful costume for myself? There. All the shops are there. Sexy chainmail tops that many women were sporting over the tops of their not-so-era-accurate Sears bras. Swords, shields, axes, and other weaponry…available in a cost effective wood form, smithed metal, or best yet LARP approved foam. Finely crafted dresses and tunics. Leather armor of all sorts suiting the needs of both the good-willed ranger and cold-hearted rogue. Jewelry, walking sticks, hats, coats of arms, and even pickles.
I could see various stages of the appeal and addiction as we walked around. It wasn’t easy to tell who was and wasn’t an employee. It was easy to tell if a person probably went to the faire everyday it was open (19 days in total this season). But you COULD easily tell who was newly addicted. There was one couple in particular who stood out to me. The lady had a very fancy hat, but that was about the end of her costume. The man had a great pair of boots, and a well tailored doublet, but he was wearing jeans. It wasn’t that they were half-assing their costumes, it was that those costumes are expensive and they hadn’t gone to enough yet to acquire full garb.
Another good side of this nerd heaven was that all nerds are welcome. Walking amidst the sea of very accurate to totally terrible accents were small groups of nerds dressed in full costume…from non-renn sources. One guy and 4 girls were walking around together as what was described to me as Steampunks. Wild west meets technology with found wild west objects. Lots of goggles. Two couples were walking around in 1920’s style swimsuits. All costumes welcome. I don’t remember where I first heard it, but this made me want to come dressed in Renn, but as a Star Trek away part learning about a new culture on a strange planet.
The nerd coup de grace was a LARP 300 style battle in the jousting arena. All were welcome to join in. If you didn’t have your own foam swords you could borrow one from the place that sold them and when you got killed you would run back and give it to the next person in line. This next moment explains why people do this. As we were standing in a line, ready for the first attack, there was a sort of tallish, sort of doughy and sweaty kid with glasses that tint in the sun. A very traditional nerdy look. But what was the scuttlebutt around me not 20 feet away from this kid? “Look. Look! In the center! It’s the Champion! The Champion is in the center! Yeah!” There is an area in the faire where you can practice battle with your foam weapons. This kid probably gets picked on in school on a frequent basis. Here, he is a god. Here, he is Champion.