What turned you into a rennie?

[Eddie]

I got started in 1996 at my older brothers wedding at Scarborough Faire he met his wife while they were both working at the medieval times.

[crazyrennie]

The non genetic family

[KeeperoftheBar]

I can not say any specific thing turned me into a rennie.  I first went to Scarborough in 1987 and fell in love with it.  Each year thereafter I attended more weekends.  My family and friends got tired of it so I would go alone.  Being there was such a magical experience and it felt like the weight of the world lifted from my shoulders for a day.  Often I would just sit under a tree and watch the world go by, occasionally being joined by someone on cast.  After moving to Houston in 1991, I started going to TRF and finally acquired garb.  The magical feeling intensified after that and now I can not imagine NOT going.  Then a few years ago, I got StudMuffin and it got even better.  Now I can traverse the whole festival and not worry about falling, even after an ale or three.  All I can say is HAZZAH!

[Hoowil]

I'm not entirely sure what really started it all for me, probably a combination of things.
I spent alot of my childhood crawling around under and behind stage at one of the local theatres. My mom was one of the main hari and make up artisits for the theatre, and the groupd did annual 'Shakespear in the Park' events, complete with combat demonstrations. Dresssing up seemed pretty much normal. Conveniently enough, my mom stopped doing hair and make up to work at a fabric store and as a part time seamstress.
Aside from that I was spending my free time studying history, primarily ancient European, medival and renaissance, pretty much as far back as I can remember being able to read, so I must have been maybe seven or eight.
I used to spend my summers in San Diego, where one of my unces ran an armory when I was little, so he was always showing me swords, or whatever else he was working on. He also introduced me to the SCA when I was a preen. I think I must have been maybe 13 or 14 the first time I went out to a SCA heavy fighter practice, in full gear and had the most amount of fun getting thouroughly bruised.
It would have been about that time that I went to my first faire. Even not having gone to one before, it seemed simply wrong to go in mundanes. Since then, I've gone to as many faires as I could, and its been maybe 2 where I was out of garb. Granted, I spent a few years in rural Alaska, and didn't have good enough transportaion to get to any faires so I missed out for a time.
I guess I could say I never really had a chance.

[LadyAsh]

I was always into the medieval/renaissance/fantasy type stuff when I was younger. I loved books such as The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, or disney movies that pertained to that period like The Sword in the Stone, or all the princess movies. I went to my first faire in 2006, with my family. I instantly fell in in love with it, and instantly began to look for garb, or search up vids of other faires. I have been going every year ever since then in garb, although my mother and father think of it a little crazy of me to do so. My younger brother is also beginning to turn into a rennie! I'm going to be finding garb for him during the off season. Huzzah!

[Jack Daw at Work]

As a kid, my dad told me what our last name meant in Scottish Gaelic, so I asked why are we in America instead of Scotland.  He didn't know for sure, so I started working on our genealogy.  I discovered that our ancestor was forced to leave Scotland in 1747 because he fought as a Jacobite at Culloden.  So, I started researching the specific type of kilt, jerkins, doublets, sporrans, bonnets, etc., worn during the time.  I decided to get some older period gear for the earlier Jacobites, as well.  I gathered the kit over several months.  My old high school buddy was a piper in school and was a frequenter at Texas Ren Fest, so I invited him and his wife to come over from Austin and meet at the TRF.  I had entertained them at TRF befre, but I wasn't really into it as he was.  Well that changed.  My old pal was also dressed as a Jacobite while his wife dressed as Joan of Arc.  It was Halloween and it was the best time I have ever had at TRF.  Since that year, 1999, I have gone back with and without my Austin friends, and was happy to connect with Zardoz and the rest of the TRF regulars.

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

We had never heard of anything like a Ren Faire back in 1980.  I ran brass rubbing  workshops out of an art gallery in Safety Harbor, FL.  Somehow, the Ringling Museum of Art (which held the Sarasota Medieval Faire in their grounds) got hold of my name and contacted me and asked if I would have a booth in the faire - free to us.

The art gallery owner and I thought it would be good publicity to get people to come to our classes, so we agreed.  Her husband is a glass artist, so they had a tent (metal & canvas), which we decorated to look what we figured would pass for medieval. 

The show was 4 days, Thursday through Sunday.  She was with me on Thursday and Friday, then Steve was with me on Saturday and Sunday.  We were next to Jerry Read Smith, a magnificent hammered dulcimer player, so we spent 4 days listening to his music and enjoying the sites of the faire.  Steve and I got hooked!  We were invited back the next year, so we did it again, and then were invited by the Largo Renaissance Festival to demonstrate at their grand opening (this faire has now become BARF).

Something funny to me now is to think back on our first garb. I wore a navy blue velvet floor length bathrobe (complete with zipper up the front), with a goldtone metal and orange plastic chain belt, and a wreath of artificial flowers on my head.  Steve wore a floorlength tunic I made out of a bedsheet and dyed black, and a tall conehat I made out of black posterboard.  I then made stars out of the remaining posterboard and covered them with aluminum foil.  He wore a rope around his waist, thus, a wizard.  I still have the pictures from then.  People took our pictures like crazy, and we thought we were the cat's meow!

Little did we know that started our addiction.............

[Seaman Blurt]

Something funny to me now is to think back on our first garb. I wore a navy blue velvet floor length bathrobe (complete with zipper up the front), with a goldtone metal and orange plastic chain belt, and a wreath of artificial flowers on my head.  Steve wore a floorlength tunic I made out of a bedsheet and dyed black, and a tall conehat I made out of black posterboard.  I then made stars out of the remaining posterboard and covered them with aluminum foil.  He wore a rope around his waist, thus, a wizard.  I still have the pictures from then.  People took our pictures like crazy, and we thought we were the cat's meow!

Little did we know that started our addiction.............

I love this... Can you post the pics here, Would love to see cardboard hat and bathrobe garb

[DancingDogDairy]

I was eight when my dad was hired as a musician the first year of TRF. I got to go with him every weekend and pass the hat for his shows, and we'd play in front of food booths in exchange for dinner, so we never had to spend any of the money we made.

He later decided owning a booth would be less work, and leave us more time for playing. We built a 3 story then tallest booth on the land. I grew up spending every weekend skinny dipping in the lake, and giggling about how cute the mud men were.

Later my dad went back to playing music there. I really think that period was the highlight of his life.

When I married and had children, we brought them every year.

When we bought a house in the area 6 years ago, my sister said,  "I can't wait 'tilting kids start working at TRF." I personally couldn't quite see that happening.

Since then, my oldest daughter has built up a business raising show goats and selling goats milk soap. She thought that having a booth would be a great way to get her company name out in the community and educate the public about sustainable farming practices.

I could not have been more surprised when her application was accepted. It has been nonstop work getting ready ever since we heard the news. It is probably a good thing that I did not know at the time how much work it would be, or how expensive either.

I feel honored to support my children's dreams. If you see us there, please come by and say hi, I'm pretty sure we will be the only booth with a goat outside.

[raevyncait]

My bestie & I started making an annual pilgrimage to Scarby in, ohh, about 2003, I think, initially going ONE DAY a year. In 2005 we decided to start making it a weekend thing, and add garb, sort of. In 2006 we bought belly dance outfits from Isis' store in Bedford and wore those one day and our other "garb" from the previous year on the other day. By then I'd met a friend through another organization and knew that she was part of the IWG, but hadn't yet gotten involved with the guild.  2007 I bought a FoF pass, went with that friend to the preview, and promptly, on opening weekend (in the snow), wasted my $ on a poorly made bodice, which was replaced with a better, borrowed one from that same friend, and bought fabric to make a couple of skirts & chemises so I could have "real" garb. I don't remember how many weekends I was there that year, but more than half, including my regular weekend with the bestie, plus that was the first year I experienced Middlefaire (3 times, I think), TRF (3 full weekends, I think, plus Saturday of Halloween weekend), and Carolina RF (one day only, as we'd been to a highland games the day before to see The Rogues). That season I developed a friendship with one of The Rogues, and, well the rest is history. I worked for The Rogues the 2008 season for the full run, was backup seller for them the 2009 season, spent 2010 running amok to take my mind off their absence, and then this year I worked for Majikah, and plan to do so next season as well. I first camped at TRF in 2008, and made it to Four Winds, PARF, as well as then MDRF. In 2010 I first went to Norman MF, and Sherwood.  This year I've hit Sherwood, Norman, and Scarby, and I expect I'll be at TRF for opening weekend.

When I lost my job and had to give up my house, the family that offered me sanctuary was fairemily, not blood. A majority of my blood family just thinks I'm the weird one in the family, because I have embraced faire so completely, and that's ok, it's my life to live, not theirs.

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

Something funny to me now is to think back on our first garb. I wore a navy blue velvet floor length bathrobe (complete with zipper up the front), with a goldtone metal and orange plastic chain belt, and a wreath of artificial flowers on my head.  Steve wore a floorlength tunic I made out of a bedsheet and dyed black, and a tall conehat I made out of black posterboard.  I then made stars out of the remaining posterboard and covered them with aluminum foil.  He wore a rope around his waist, thus, a wizard.  I still have the pictures from then.  People took our pictures like crazy, and we thought we were the cat's meow!

Little did we know that started our addiction.............

We had a flood in our house when it rained 15 inches in 12 hours, so everything is all over the place, and I'd have to find the pictures we took, and I have no clue where anything is.  Plus, as many forum members know, I am hopeless with anything to do with the computer.  Our house should be back together when our son (who designs the website for a major company) comes home for Christmas, so I can ask him if he can scan it and post it.  I still have not mastered the download from the camera to the computer.  Though I have explicit written directions, it messes up every time!
I love this... Can you post the pics here, Would love to see cardboard hat and bathrobe garb

[kcdcchef]

In elementary school, a kid I went to school with and his family were in the Renaissance Academy and were performers or learning to be performers. Sounded cool, so I tagged along, in the 3rd grade. And got hooked. Funny thing is I am one of the few people who has been going for around 30 years who does not do garb, and hasnt in a decade!

[batninja]

It was my freshman year of high school, when the English Department set up their annual trip to TRF.  I had never been, and wasn't really interested in going, although I had a love of all things medieval and fantasy (we were currently reading 'The Hobbit' in class).  I distinctly remember the teachers telling us that we only needed to bring about $20 for food and such, as our admission tickets were taken care of by the school.   Needless to say, my $20 was gone in a matter of the first few hours!

Of course, we were all in street clothes, but it was still...magical!  The smells of the food, the sounds of all the different styles of music, and of course, the costumes!  At this time, TRF had an 'Oriental Garden' and every boy in my class bought the rubber nunchucks from a vendor there...money well spent, I guess.  All the stage acts were fantastic, and we got to try our hand at fencing and other sports.  I guess you never forget your first trip!

Unfotunately, it was several years before I was able to attend again, but I convinced a few of my friends to don costumes inspired from the Costner Robin Hood flick.  We had a blast!   I've been back almost every year since, and started sewing my own tunics and surcoats as the years progressed.  My best friend and I started collecting armor to wear, chain mail, more swords, etc.

In more recent years, we've switched to kilts and less armor, but it's still as magical now as it was 20 years ago...

[scarletnyx]

When I came down to visit my then boyfriend, now husband, he was the first one who introduced me to renfaires in general. We went Dane for a couple years, being broke young lovers at the time. Now, we are slightly less broke young lovers, and will be going in garb this year!

However, I can pinpoint what exactly turned me into a rennie, besides the person. The feeling of stepping outside of our current timeframe, throwing away the cares and worries of our ( usually ) too oppressive world is just such a welcome cool breeze into my life. Add to the fact that I can do this all year round, through faires or just having "rennie" days, and I am all for it!

Something that I can exercise my creativity in is always welcome And I think this draws a lot of people too it - making a character, diving into the history, educating yourself on things typically thrown by the wayside in today's fast paced world. Uncovering little "treasures" if you will.

All those things slowly turned me into a rennie.

[Seaman Blurt]

Everyone has great stories and memories. Huzzah!