If you could choose would you work at a fair / or just go to one

[Lord Finger]

I go to Faire to get away from work and obligations. I would never want Faire to be work.

[jinx]

Like others, I do love attending, but I would really like the experience of working a Faire at least once.

Of course, there are days when I'm tempted to just sell everything I can, pack what I can't in my junker, and run off to "join the Faire."

Y'know, kinda like threatening to run off and join the circus when you were little...but with MUCH better clothes.  XD

[Robert Phoenix]

If it gets me out of my area, sign me up.

[fluffy tail]

I think I'd rather just go.  I'm way to shy to work a booth and suck at improv.
Plus I like to wander with no set path, love playing with the people with my squirrel puppet but that's the closest I get from my shyness.

[Lady Eriu]

I've done both and I think that I have more fun working at the faires I have attended. The after-hours visiting and revelry, the "families" that you become a part of in each location, it is hard to beat. I just can't do Faire once a year only; there is something magical about being in character and making patrons feel that they are in another time that has very few rewards in mundane life. If it paid as well as my mundane job (which is rewarding,too) I would work faire all year long.

[Emerald Shaunassey]

Not to tough a choice for me - I will definately work a faire.  But then again, I have the best of both worlds being a stage show.  I get hired to do so many shows per day then have the ability to wander in the lanes interacting with folks (both patrons and cast) and do some shopping when I have the cash.  This enables me to see many more faires than if I were paying for the gas, lodgings, and the tickets to get in to visit. 

Emerald

[DonaCatalina]

Faire is a vacation for us. We spent years working our B---- off at SCA events before we realized we never got time to actually enjoy the event.

Working Faire would probably turn out to be the same thing......so we'll just enjoy visiting as Playtrons.

[analise]

I'm not the sort of person to go in on being cast and I don't really have the time outside of weekends to devote to all the rehearsals, anyway! I sing, but not well enough to actually be a performer and I'm not really that talented in any other performing arts!

I do love dressing up in garb and going to wander the faire, seeing shops and performances on my own time, visiting with friends, etc.

But, for the past several years, I've also worked part-time in a booth at MDRF which I think makes for a nice balance for me. I get to wander and see the things I want to see, but for a few hours each day I step in and give the regulars in the booth a chance to take a break if they need it and in exchange I get passage into the faire and something shiny at the end of it (typically pointy AND shiny, ooooh). And I'll agree with whoever said it's nice to come in before the faire actually opens, it really really is cool.

I think I'd hate working full time, to be honest, but I like having a foot in each "world". (having my cake and eating it too? Why, yes!)

[Amras Elfwine]

Playtron - YES!
Worktron - NO!

Cheers!!

[LadyFae]

Ever since I discovered Ren Fest I've wanted to be on cast.  I'd like to try it out and see what it is like but now a lot of you have me nervous!  As it is right now anyway I wouldn't be able to audition for a few years (when the kids are older and I don't have to take them everywhere!)  For now I love attending in whichever garb suits my fancy each day, wandering around aimlessly, playing how I want and coming and going as I see fit.  There are a few acts that I would love to "help out" if I were asked but I've yet to find a booth that I feel the same about- other than Twig's!  =D  Anyway, I think that I'll start as a volunteer at a small faire and figure out from there what I'd like to do next. 

[RSLeask]

I dunno, honestly.  Working at one might be fun, to actually be a part of the story for the year.  But I have too much fun and enjoyment just being there and doing my own thing to have to pick one or the other.  So yes, if I had to pick one option, it would just be to go.  I wouldn't mind actually being on cast for a couple seasons, though.

[DonaCatalina]

It seems to me that there are a lot of people who start working fair to save on tickets and end up burning out quickly.

[angusmacinnes]

I will never work for a faire, why ruin my fun with their rules.

[raevyncait]

I've enjoyed my season this year, working part time in the Majikah Perfumery booth. I can get in early, store what I may need (cold water, etc.) behind the shoppe, play for awhile, and then report to work about 11:30, work a few hours, and then go play for the rest of the afternoon. I've met lots of folks, had lots of fun mixing scents, creating new things, and watching the people visiting the shire from a different perspective.  I'd love to work it again next year as well.

[Captain Teague]

I have attended as a patron for two decades or more. I would very much like to work a full season to see and experience the other side of things and to say that I have. But having worked many other venues such as Bike Rallies and a few setups and teardowns of standard traveling carnivals, I am well aware the magic sometimes stops on that side...being constrained to an airless booth for hours on end, constant heat, being forced to nicely fend off antics of what I call "Troll Danes" with their purely awful motivations of nothing more than poking rennies with sharp sticks and also twisting your legs into amazing chinese puzzle configurations until at last someone can relieve you to finally be able to powder your nose...etc etc.

But patrons indeed have much more free reign and free license.