After many years away from faire and a complete change in lifestyle, I think it would be a blast to spend the summer (or longer) working / living faire. However the closest faires are about 6 hours away ... so how does one go about finding a job with a vendor? It doesn't make sense to just show up opening day, (plus I have a lot of skills to offer with site prep and clean-up) and hope for the best. Even a faire "job fair" would be difficult to attend, (6 hours + childcare). Anyway, thought I'd see if there are any ideas. Thanks!
One thing to keep in mind that most crafters rely mainly on unpaid volunteers as booth help, so paid positions are often few and far between. The best thing I can recommend is see if you can find some forums for the nearest fair here on RF.com, or Elists or online elsewhere (Yahoo, Myspace, tribe.net) that are specific to the fairs closest to you to see if you can make some connections in advance.
Also check the official website for that fair to see if they have job openings on the site crew, food/beverage booths, or souvenir booths as a foot in the door, and give you a chance during the run to get to know some of the crafters who might be looking for traveling help.