What turned you into a rennie?

[Laird Fraser of Lovatt]

I have always been a person who felt that they were born about 600 years too late.  I was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and my family can trace it's roots back over a thousand years, which got me interested in history at a very young age.  Being blood kin to THE Fraser of Lovat and spending two summers at Beaufort Castle, learning how a gentleman was supposed to act from my "Uncle" Shimi ( The 17th Lord Lovat and 4th Baron of Lovat), I grew up with being a Scot foremost on my mind.  I collected swords and knives...learned bowmanship...and read everything i could about the middle ages, historical and fiction.  In 2001, Nasty & I went to TRF on a fluke... spent over 250 bucks on beer and had a fantastic time!  Somewhere near the end of our drinking binge, a gentleman in garb came up to us and told us something that I'll never forget.  He said to us " You guys seem to be the right kind of people... Dress up, come back next year and forget who you are for a time..."  He patted us both on the shoulder and staggered off.  I didn't get a chance to act on his advice for over seven years.  2007 was a rough year for me... lost a 60k/yr. job and my life was on the rocks but i made it up, in my mind, that i would make the best of the holidays and i would start it off by going to the first Celtic Christmas on Closing weekend.  Driving rain...freezing temps...a hole in my boot...soaked to the bone... none of this stopped me from having one of the most enjoyable days i've ever had.  In '08, i got my first kilt that i've owned since i was a youngun and was greeted by others, at TRF, as a long lost cousin.  I was hooked!  I dragged Nasty into it the next year and we've been Rennies ever since.       

[Rowan MacD]

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

I wish I had a pic of some friends of mine that showed up in hastily put together garb for a St. Patrick's Day parade long ago.  They wanted to walk with us, since we were promoting the local ren faire opening in a couple of months.
   He was a credible viking, and she was a lovely wood nymph with a flaming red wig.    Her green satin tunic paired with an ivy wreath would have passed muster....except she forgot to take the green plastic rings off the top of the shower curtain she used to make it .
  I stared at that line of rings until I figured it out.   Apparently the curtain came with them already attached, and she somehow didn't notice it.  The rings were removed before the parade, and we went on to have a great time.
  They were both fun people, and both passed on within a year of each other in 2008.  A funny/sad memory ambush....

[Alexandra Johanna]

When I was a little kid, we went to visit relatives in Belgium and took a trip to Holland to the Efteling Park, which is an amusement park based on fairy tales. No amusement park has ever compared since, and I think I've always lived with one foot in a fantasy land of some sort. It sparked my love for all things fantasy, a love that was firmly cemented at 13 when an older, well-meaning friend gave me a copy of the hobbit to read, since he said I was so unhappy with this world, why not check out another! Fantasy and history are so often intertwined that it wasn't a far leap into all things medieval, especially once I started trying to research our family history in Belgium. My mother, however, detests all things historical, and believes all things fantasy are evil, so it wasn't until my late 20's that I finally made it out to Bristol to see just what the renaissance faire was all about. I don't know how many years we intended to go and then forgot about it and missed the entire season, LOL. We finally went with some friends, we all dressed in mundane clothes, and we had a blast. Our daughter was 4 years old at the time and she just fell in love with the place. A couple of years later, we decided to dress up in some thrown together, handmade costumes, and we had even more fun. This year was our 10th anniversary of going to Bristol and we went in full outfits that I spent a good month on making. It was the best visit ever! The day absolutely flew by and I was genuinely sorry when it ended, and so did the season. The rennie bug has bitten hard. A season pass for 2012 is at the top of my holiday list!

[angusmacinnes]

Short answer=Life

Now as for the story it started about the time Scarborough was shiny and new.  Went with a friend. Then didnt go again for years.  In the late 80's made a couple more trips out with other finds then along about 2004 or so when we started to think about doing the garb thing we went with a group to TRF that was 2005 I think.  2006 we gathered our first garb and made a couple trips to Scarby from then on we had season passes.  Our visits were spurottic due to illness problems.  In 2009 we had the best time ever at faire.    Since I have been attending faire as often as I can wherever I can.  The last 2 seasons I have been part of the Queens Own Highlanders and am having a ball. So yeah simply life and the fact that I enjoy Medieval and Renaissance history. 

[MrHyde]

My son actually started me going.  He asked me one year if we could go.  I had always seen the commercials and advertisements but had "heard" it was extremely costly.  I checked on it and they were running a half off promotion so we got tickets.  When I walked through the gates that first time it was like I was transported to another world.  I, like most, live a crazy life and here I really could Lift Up My Cares (the faires slogan).  After that experience I started doing hours of research each night on the topic and reading everything I could.  I also poured over people's photos and attended as many faires as I could.  My wife and I started gathering garb and craft items to build garb.  We have garbed to the faires before but this year we are very excited for the start of our home faire in a couple weeks because we have taken garb to a new level for us.  A mix of mostly homemade with some store bought thrown in the mix all 7 of us are excited to be at faire this year.

[Hoowil]

I have always been a person who felt that they were born about 600 years too late. 

I had a high school history that actually put on a college letter of recommendation that I would have been better off being born in a different time. I wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing at the time.

[Laird Fraser of Lovatt]

When you find the time portal, let me know... 

[Robert Phoenix]

I had grown up watching all the swashbuckler, pirate, and monster movies on the TV's after school movie.  Errol  Flynn, Danny Kaye, etc.  When Star Wars came out it only made things worse.  God knows how many lightsabers my friends and I went through.  Princess Bride just made it worse.  When my wife and I moved to Minneapolis we took in the Ren faire there.  I enjoyed it, bought a highlander shirt, and was never able to make it back there for another four years.  We had moved back home and in 1990 our town actually had its first ren faire.  It was small,as in a back parking lot, but that's when the addiction really hit.  One local guy was giving fencing lessons and I joined up right away.  We made it back to Minnesota and through the internet I found and went to faires in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Upper Michigan.   Anyone remember the one weekend faire north of the Twin Cities?  Sadly, most of the ones I have seen are gone now with Olde World at Twig, MN being the latest to maybe disappear. 

[Imestra]

In the rather early 80's, the SCA put on a faire in my hometown.  It's tough to find an activity a twenty-something wants to join their parents in doing, and my sister & I went with Mum.  I remember being fascinated by the burly men in costume, playing chess, and saying within earshot "Oh, it takes a few years to catch on"  I watched and waited, but they never came back.

My beautiful sister, Auntie Lou on this forum, well - she can sew whatever she sets her mind to and costumes for community theater.  They have done Much Ado About Nothing, and everything from that to Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.  When the Ohio RenFair started up a few years later we would borrow from the theater wardrobe.  She has since gifted me with a simple pattern set from Patterns of History, and garbing is now my full time hobby.

However -

What really turned me into a rennie is the people I have met and the big fun we have together, and of course, this website!  Otherwise we would not have met the Castleteers! 

[DT_Masters]

Sci Fi Club mentioned once in the early 90's about going. I did, started taking pictures. As time went on, my taking pictures worked into the fantasy of Dr. Jonathan Kidd, time traveling anthropologist but the problem with that fantasy is that I was the only one who knew it.

During the cold snap at Scarborough in 2007, I was using my llama wool parka to stay warm. About 3pm, it started warming up and some passing ladies said to me, "Senor, are you not enjoying this fine weather we are having?" At that, I was no longer an outside and started coming into the group, started adding period garb to my character, and Jonathan Kidd became more and more native.........and the background of his alter persona of the past, DT Masters, grows more and more.

Granted, in many ways, it is still very much a private fantasy, but as things are added to the costume, the stories behind the accessories grow.

[The Rabbi]

Hmmmm I dont think I ever turned I simply always was. Ive been donning costume and performing since the age of 12. Performed at my first Boarshead Feast at 16 so lets see Lovely Ladies, Good Bier, Good Food, and truly great people. What more do you need in life? This was all back in the 80's and unfortunately I stepped away from the lifestyle until about 6 years ago when myself and the lovely redhead attended a fair and while we enjoyed the event it was not up to par as family entertainment adult yes family no and I vowed never again I was done with the Renaissance. Moan, groan,b--ch, and bellyache, and 3 years later I am creating my own festival because even at the aforementioned fair which left a truly bad taste in my mouth it was like visiting the obnoxouse kin folk that you can not stand but they live in such a lovely part of the country you still go visit them because they are family. I am still trying to figure out why I do this mundane thing. 

[BubbleWright]

My brother made me do it. He began attending Faires in the mid-80's and finally dragged me kicking and screaming to Faire in the early 90's. I thought it was a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. After attending a few more times it started to grow on me. By 2000 I was going in simple garb. I thought how could I incorporate my hobby of bubble making at Faire and designed the Renaissance Bubble Machine (RBM for short) in 2005. The technology was appropriate to the times (bellows and simple lever) and I documented that children did blow bubbles then. Since then I have brought the RBM to Faires/Events in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washinton DC, and Virginia. It has always been well received by patron and playtron alike. It's all my brother's fault!

Photo courtesy of Diane aka Quiet One here on the Forums

[Rani Zemirah]

I'm just a sucker for a good fairy tale... and have always been the "Dress-up Queen".  It was just a natural progression... 

[Lady Rosaline]

My Dad started taking me to TRF when I was only two, some years it was the whole family but mostly it was just a "Daddy/Daughter" day. We always went in danes. About the time I turned 14, when it wasn't "cool" to go with Dad, I started to get dropped of at fair with friends. Then in 1999 I went out to TRF on a date. I got my first set of garb that day and have been going in garb ever since. And have yet to miss a season at TRF.  I cant really say what it was that "turned me into a rennie" but I can say it has a lot to do with the people, the since of community, and a love of history.

[Grouser]

George Romero (yes, that George Romero) planted a seed way back when I was young and impressionable - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082622/ - but it had somehow escaped my attention until late last year that Ohio even had Ren Faires.

Now that I've been to GLMF a few times, I'm thinking I might be hooked.