The Do's and Don'ts of Visiting a Renaissance Faire/ Festival

[Tink]

Good Eve!

I would like to request your assistance in a project for a workshop I am attending.  I am compiling a list of Ren-Fest Do's and Don'ts, and would very much like your input!  I have a few, but I am very interested in what you all would include.  (The catch is that my paper is due tomorrow morning, so I'm in a bit of a hurry :/ )

Thank you in advance for any and all suggestions!


(Please excuse me if I posted this in the incorrect place)

[DonaCatalina]

Lot of stuff here...
http://www.renaissancefestival.com/forums/index.php?topic=15555.0

[BLAKDUKE]

Well I would put this one out there.  If you are not a performer, then I don't care how wonderous your garb is DO NOT WEAR A CROWN TO TOP IT OFF.  As to the King  To steal a line "there can be only one"

[Captain Cornelius Howard Duckman]

Honestly, if yer not a performer, wear whatever makes you happy. Yer paying to be there, after all.

[Dinobabe]

It's a courtesy thing.  We have the freedom of speech but would you really cuss up a storm in front of a group of 5 yr olds?

[lys1022]

It is definitely a courtesy thing. It is rather like going to a Henrician Faire as Queen Elizabeth.  Sure, you've paid to get in and you can wear what you want, but it is really disrespectful to the performers at that festival.  So go for it if you want to, and the performers (if they are professional) will still interact with you and be pleasant.  That doesn't mean that they aren't privately thinking about and discussing amongst themselves backstage how disrespectful it is.  They would never say anything to you about it, or treat you rudely in the lanes, but it still isn't a cool thing to do.

[daggrim]

I vote with wearing whatever you want to wear.  It's a Renfaire, not a medieval town.  Fantasy rules.  If others can wear fairy wings, pirate hats, horned helms, kilts, and furs, then anything goes.  It isn't the SCA.  Anyway the "king" isn't a king, but is probably a computer programmer.  If a person wants to join a group that has a hierarchy of rank, they can obey the rules there, but they shouldn't try to make rules where there are none.

[BLAKDUKE]

That's right fantasy rules. and in that fantasy there is a King, and yes outside the gate I am a computer programmer, but inside the gate I am the King.  It's not an ego thing, but what I get paid for.  And I find it very discouteous to have some bumpkin coming into the faire in Royal robes and crown and anyone who does not know better thinks he is the King.  To carry your thinking further what if we had half a dozen Kings roaming around your faire, how would you feel.  I mean WTH they all paid to get in, let them come in stark naked if they want to right They paid to get in.   

[Merlin the Elder]

Unfortunately, courtesy is much a thing of the past... for the record, I'm with Lys and Blakduke on this. An analogy might be a heckler trying to upstage a performer. Basically, it's the same concept.

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

Do tip the performers, both on the stages and in the lanes!

Some are paid little or nothing and depend on passing the hat to make up the majority of their pay.  Don't get up and leave a show right before it ends so you don't have to tip.

[Ginette]

Do tip the performers, both on the stages and in the lanes!

Some are paid little or nothing and depend on passing the hat to make up the majority of their pay.  Don't get up and leave a show right before it ends so you don't have to tip.

This is so true! I try and give something even if it's my last $1 or $2.

[Rowan MacD]

  I know that some would prefer paper money for tips, but I use the gold dollars. There is a practical side to this: I know many performers who use tip baskets-and seen tips go flying when an errant gust of wind kicked up.  I still tip paper if they are passing the hat, and can control the cash.
   I also tip even if I only catch part of the show.
   I save the paper for food and trinkets...or to buy a CD.


   My contribution:
   If you bring your pets, particularly dogs:  Clean up after them, and keep them off the costumes, away from the fox tails, and control them around performing animals.   
   I remember trying to listen to a falconry demo with a chihuahua barking non stop next to us through the whole show.  The woman holding him was on a scooter, and kept laughing loudly at the dog.  No one wanted to say anything to her, and she ignored the frequent pauses that the narrator was making to point up the fact that she was interrupting the show.
   

   

[The Rabbi]

Naked......Would that not qualify as the Emporors new Clothes? there we go again with extra royalty. I do agree that garbing as King or Queen at a fair is in bad taste unless you in character state to patrons that you are visiting royalty but then staying in character would be a must all day, but even then I think a crown would be pushing it. Just not a class act. Tipping is very important as has been mentioned I pay my performers the best I can but rest assured not what they are worth. My best piece of advice would be ask questions and educate yourself by the other playtrons and cast members and interact as this also gives the lane and stage acts feedback and something to play with so they too know they are on the right track.

[Zardoz]

Don't ask the guys in kilts about what may or may not be worn under them; it just annoys them, and you'll likely never get a satisfactory answer....

[KeeperoftheBar]

Don't sit in the front row at the mud show.  Save that place for virgin 'danes.