Ren Faire Myth

[Lady Neysa]

I don't doubt that those gowns are very heavy and bulky, but does one realize just how heavy 50 lbs. feels?  We just got back from our vacation, and I was worried our suitcases would be over the 50lb weight limit where you have to pay for anything over 50. I thought for sure we were over, because my suitcase was very heavy and hard to lift  with a weeks worth of clothes,shoes, toiletries, and several big hardcover novels.  Now maybe I'm just a weakling, but my suitcase was only around  30 pounds with all that. 

[analise]

I think it's different when you're trying to carry a heavy load in your hands, where all the weight is concentrated on your fingers and wearing the weight distributed around you (so that some of it's on the arms, hips, shoulders, etc). Still heavy, but not so much.

It's sort of like the difference in stomping on somebody's foot with a stiletto heel and with a tennis shoe.

[Capt Gabriela Fullpepper]

Carring an item inhand compared to on your body is a much different case.

Having spend time in the army carring around a full pack all day long that was easily 50 pounds, you do not notice it. Carring around an M-16 all day, my arms grew very tired.

My new dress I wear is OK on my back, but my arms sure feel all that fur.

So when it's carried onthe shoulders, it's not bad, Onthe arms or inhand, it 5 pounds turns into feeling like 100 in moments.

Hold a broom out with both arms, you will feel it. Carry that broom on your back, you won't hardly notice it.

[ladyecho]

     Not sure wether or not this fits here but here goes. What about how a person is dressed or the certain item they wear "telling" something about them. Like a woman who wears her chemise off her shoulders leaving them bare is considered a 'wench' or 'doxie'. Or about wearing a flower in her bosom. If anyone knows the true reasons behind this I would like to know. Also ( and this isn't very popular) that if you wear a Disney costume to a ren-faire costume contest that you automatically lose.  O.K. last one! I heard that a man (at faire) who wears more than one ring on their fingers is no gentleman. Any truth behind this?

[Yrose]

I think there was a similar story posted on the old forums in which a bunch of Scots had their swords stuck in the ground and were relaxing nearby... when a bunch of non-Rennie teenagers came by and tried to steal one?? And then the Scots all grabbed their swords and scared the bejeezus out of the hooligans. Anyone recall the exact details of that story?

Oh lol that was me, I almost forgot about that.  Let's see if I can remember the tale.....

It was probably 15 years ago at Fresno's faire, maybe more.  It was after hours in the evening and all the guilds were at their encampments, gathered around their fires eating, drinking, singing, dancing and all that.  Now I have come to understand that some of you guys don't have guilds at your faires, but it is common for guilds/actors in our area to stay at the faire after hours and then sleep in their encampments/shops. Many people who work at faire typically stay after hours for the fun and then camp on site.

Well like the rest, the Scots were in front of their encampment sitting around the firepit.  Many people at the time stored their blades/polearms stuck into the ground, usually in front of, or just to the side of the encampment (remember this was a while ago and rules were more relaxed). The faire itself was at a park on the edge of town as I recall, and it was mainly a grass field with some trees and the whole park was surrounded by a chain link fence.

Being that this is in the Fresno area, there are some gangs/hoodlum kids in the general area (the kind with saggy pants and pocket knifes).  Anyway, as the Scots were wining and dining, one or two of the punk kids hopped over the fence and began to sneak behind, and to the side of the encampment.  Seeing the shiny blades stuck in the ground, one of them decided to steal it.  Just as he began to pull the short sword from the ground, one of the Scots noticed and sprang from his seat - the rest of the clan immediately followed.  Seeing this, the kid took the short sword and hopped over the fence and took off running.

The next thing anyone saw was a kid running down the street, sword in hand, followed a couple of seconds later by a dozen or so Scots, armed to the teeth, screaming as loud as they could, chasing this punk down.  As I hear it, they caught up to the kid, relieved him of weapon (peacefully), escorted him back to the security booth and gave him a 20 minute lecture while they waited for the cops to arrive (remember no cell phones back then).  Those that were there said it was truly a hilarious sight to see the look on this kids face when he suddenly realized that he has pissed off many large folks in kilts who took their weapons serious and could probably wield it with surprising effectiveness.  Lesson learned!

This has definitely turned into a myth as I remember this being on the TRF Forum on the old board and it being a clan camp the kid tried to steal the sword from!

[Lady Neysa]

Yes, I see what you mean now about the weight of the dress being distributed around your body, I guess that would make a difference.  I've never worn anything that heavy.

[RumbaRue]

I have worn a very heavy 50 pound costume (in a sci-fi masquerade and won Best of Show) and it's not easy.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/RumbaRue/Peacock%20Ball/6976.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/RumbaRue/Peacock%20Ball/2361.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/RumbaRue/Peacock%20Ball/78ab.jpg

Bet you didn't know that most of those beaded dresses the actresses on TV/Movies wear down the red carpet for awards weight up to 30 pounds! They are very, very heavy. I know, I've hemmed up a few of them.

[Lady Neysa]

Wow, that dress is amazing!

[Wolfram_Stout]

Hi,
   This topic is very interesting and a bit surprising. I was a street actor at the Tenn. Ren Fair back in the mid-late 90s.  And I don't have anything but personal stories.
  I was barely in the SCA, never got serious, very in and out.  But I know a dozen stories that involve persons of legend (most notably Sir John the Bearkiller).
  With all of the traveling acts and merchants, I wonder why there is not a bigger body of Myth-like stories.

Wolfrum.

[Valiss]

Well, then perhaps you could share some of your dozen of stories with us!  Those are always the most interesting.

 

[Wolfram_Stout]

Well, then perhaps you could share some of your dozen of stories with us!  Those are always the most interesting.

 

Just one here, since I don't want to over threadjack.  And King Al (known here I believe as Blakduke) can back me up on this one.

My first year as a street actor.  I am playing Father Pious the good priest playing against Cardinal Paine (the obviously evil priest).  We do tons of bits together through out the day and we go separate ways as well.
We are walking together doing some bits, and we walk past a trio of Scots (playtrons).  As we walk by, he lets out with a "Baaaaa" and we keep walking, then I notice he is not with me.  Being an idiot I keep walking thinking he has peeled off.
A couple hours later, I learn that the Scots had turned around and pull a knife on him (the girl scot actually held it to his throat). 

Scary, but not the worst.  The worst was, Faire Management decided that he had provoked them, so while they made the trio take all of there weapons back to their car, they were allowed to stay at the faire.

Wolfram

[Adriana Rose]

There is one that I have heard about a woman who had a metal bodice chiller in and she had managed to get second degree burns on her cleavage and then she managed to get frost bite between the girls.


As for the blade stealing thing I have seen that happen not to that level but I have seen it happen.

It was the first year that I was working at fair and it was right after a drencher of a rain storm and the streets were empty and there was a pair of teenagers that thought that it would be a good idea to steal some blades from a sword shop, What I saw was two scrawny boys booking it down the hill then there were guys jumping the counters of the food booths and the guys from the sword boothrunning after them.
The next time I saw the pair they were in hand cuffs being led out by state troopers.

[teener]

Myth or legend, King Richard's has its share -

After our dearest King, Ray Nelson, passed away, it became a well-known fact that he joins us every year embodied in the dragonflies that are prevalent in the fall in New England.  Whenever a dragonfly lands on your costume, you're supposed to greet it as "your majesty".

We also have a patron (not even a playtron - just a lady in civvies) who joins us EVERY DAY, and has for over 25 years....and it is often said that if "Loretta" isn't there, we can't do the show.

And...no.  Contrary to popular opinion, the faire owner is NOT Beelezbub.  Altho I have heard she holds him under contract...

[Charlotte Rowan]

Myth or legend, King Richard's has its share -

After our dearest King, Ray Nelson, passed away, it became a well-known fact that he joins us every year embodied in the dragonflies that are prevalent in the fall in New England.  Whenever a dragonfly lands on your costume, you're supposed to greet it as "your majesty".

Teener - thank you, I LOVE this!! perfect.

I just thought of another one. The church of the rubber duck - I don't know much about it. How did it start? What does it mean?

[Lady Toadflinger]

I don't know if this fits in here, but I recently read a fantasy anthology of stories set at Ren Faires. (Renaissance Faire, edited by Andre Norton and Jean Rabe) While it is, overall, a good read, it had a good few stories where the Queen at Faire seemed to have real power over the other actors.  She had the power to sentence them to terms in the stocks or the ducking stool, and demote actors and actresses form their roles. Huh?