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

[Rowan MacD]

  DO-Dress for the weather.  But please don't mix garb with modern foul weather gear. 
  If you are a Platron, emergencies happen, and you might have to resort to a modern umbrella to protect the velvet,  but if you are on cast, you need to have a cape handy, or some other period solution to a soaking.  Most faires have a place for cast to get out of the rain, that the 'danes don't have access to if need be.
   
 
 

[stonebiscuit]

From my experience, patrons dressing as Trekkies, anime characters, Orcs, etc. do less to damage the atmosphere than well-intentioned patrons in historical getup playing/interacting poorly or inappropriately with other patrons. It's pretty obvious to Joe Public that the kilted Stormtrooper isn't an employee of the festival.

As to the original topic:

DO
wear sunscreen, sensible shoes, and a hat

DON'T
sexually harass anyone
put up with being sexually harassed
wear heels

[Gauwyn of Bracknell]

Their view is that they work very hard to create an Elizabethan atmosphere at a faire in the late 1500's, and they feel that the other costumes diminish the feel that they are trying so hard to provide.

And your faire even promotes a steampunk weekend 

[Rowan MacD]

Don't-Make a scene at the ticket booth if the faire doesn't offer a discount for being in garb.   

  A few faires will give you a buck or two off your ticket; but most don't (and never did).
  No matter what 'your friend that comes here all the time' told you, the ones that will give you an incentive discount, tend to advertise the fact (like Siouxland).   
  Being noisy and obnoxious about it won't get you a better deal, either.

Do-Seek out the reigning nobility and make your introductions, you will win friends, get noticed, and look gracious doing it; all while getting a chance to practice your character and mannerisms on an appreciative audience.  .

[scarletnyx]

Don't-Make a scene at the ticket booth if the faire doesn't offer a discount for being in garb.   

  A few faires will give you a buck or two off your ticket; but most don't (and never did).
  No matter what 'your friend that comes here all the time' told you, the ones that will give you an incentive discount, tend to advertise the fact (like Siouxland).   
  Being noisy and obnoxious about it won't get you a better deal, either.

Do-Seek out the reigning nobility and make your introductions, you will win friends, get noticed, and look gracious doing it; all while getting a chance to practice your character and mannerisms on an appreciative audience.  .

I never even thought of doing this! Sherwood has Robin Hood and is small enough to where I can see doing this ( As soon as I get over my awkwardness while I'm in character. ) but I would imagine it would be hard to do at TRF or a -really- large faire. Please correct me if I'm wrong though!

[PollyPoPo]

Don't-Make a scene at the ticket booth if the faire doesn't offer a discount for being in garb.   

  A few faires will give you a buck or two off your ticket; but most don't (and never did).
  No matter what 'your friend that comes here all the time' told you, the ones that will give you an incentive discount, tend to advertise the fact (like Siouxland).   
  Being noisy and obnoxious about it won't get you a better deal, either.

Do-Seek out the reigning nobility and make your introductions, you will win friends, get noticed, and look gracious doing it; all while getting a chance to practice your character and mannerisms on an appreciative audience.  .

I never even thought of doing this! Sherwood has Robin Hood and is small enough to where I can see doing this ( As soon as I get over my awkwardness while I'm in character. ) but I would imagine it would be hard to do at TRF or a -really- large faire. Please correct me if I'm wrong though!

Or at TRF look confused, lost and forlorn enough and his Majesty, the King, might just walk up and offer his most imperial help.  It did happen.  To me.  On my Daughter's wedding day  at TRF. 

She was in the Bride's dressing room, the entrance of which was hidden away from the view of almost all.  His Majesty offered me his arm and personally escorted me to my destination.  A lovely man and generous sovereign.

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

Their view is that they work very hard to create an Elizabethan atmosphere at a faire in the late 1500's, and they feel that the other costumes diminish the feel that they are trying so hard to provide.

And your faire even promotes a steampunk weekend 

Yes, and lots of entertainers and vendors don't like it at all, but Bristol is a business and the management tries to bring in more and more people,  doing whatever they think will bring more through the gates.  Most of the regular patrons don't like it either.  You almost never see regulars wearing anything but garb, but it is what it is.

[RenStarr]

The Do's & Don'ts @ faire (or what one thinks is appropriate at faire and what is not). 

For me, going to faire is something of a stepping back in time kinda thing.  More specific, going back to a specific time period with a group of other people wanting to have that experience. 

>  There wasn't stormtroopers, industrial people with goggles, or cartoon characters in those times.  Much like putting a restaurant or a pub in a faire that has nothing to do with the time period of the faire, these kinds of things rob part of that experience for me. 

>  People who walk around using their cell phone or some other kind of modern day data device.  I can understand having it with you, we all have other people in our lives (family and friends) that have things going on where having a chat is needed.  But seeing those devices in use in the lanes and hearing them go off during a show is just wrong IMHO. 

>  Seeing items being sold at faire that are obviously a mass produced item and not something that is hand crafted. 

[Rowan MacD]

  That last one is a pet peeve.  I think I might have brought it up before in a different thread.
The increasing presence of vendors selling cheap plastic 'Dollar Store' trinkets (usually from a popup tent with numerous plastic bins visible under the tables), is really, really jarring.
  Plastic recorders and toy pirate pistols (still in the bubble pack) just don't look right at a Renfaire, but if you own a site, and you can't fill it with quality crafters, you will take what you can get.
  To quote Lady Renee: It is what it is.
 
-Cell Phones are ok to have, but cell phones being used while in garb, with no attempt to get out of view before using them is questionable. If you are a Patron, you can do what you want regardless of how it looks, but it's the difference between becoming a character, and just dressing up to go to the faire.

[BLAKDUKE]

Agree with garbed people using cell phones c'mon really could you leave that at home.  I see some of these people with an ear wig
and I call out hey 7 of 9.     But patrons with cell phones ooohhhh what you can do with them

I.E.   'Hallo what are you doing   taking to air '  and it just goes downhill from there.

[BubbleWright]

Gadzooks Sir! Methinks thou art possessed for thou speaketh to the ether!!!! 

[BLAKDUKE]

ZOUNDS  thou must be a witch,  breathing in fire and blowing out smoke or thou art possesed of a dragon.................

[scarletnyx]

Hey, a couple times having a cell phone on us has saved our butts. Alex and I will routinely get split up, or want to go see different things, and while we try the whole " Meet me back here in an hour" thing, sometimes the crowds are so big you lose each other. So we use texting to figure out where the other one went off to. Now, we do try to hide it,  but I see it as a safety tool to only be used when you desperately need to find a person.

Before Celtic Christmas weekend at TRF though, we are going to find Alex some sort of Middle Eastern looking book to put his cell phone in so he can use it, but look like he's reading a book. For me, I haven't figured anything out yet, but I do have huge long sleeves to hide it in 

[Gauwyn of Bracknell]

I use an iPhone cover called the Book Book - looks like a small binded old book. I am still very discrete when using.

[PollyPoPo]

Using cell phones might also depend on the faire.  A smaller faire, if I stay in one spot long enough, eventually everyone will pass by or within my vision.  For example, at Sherwood, there are about 4 spots from which I can spot Scarletnyx or Saheed almost anywhere in the village unless they are inside a building. 

At TRF there is no way we would do without the cells any more.  It is so crowded you can be within 10' of someone and not be able to see them.  We go in a large group, break up during the faire, then meet up every so often during the day, and at closing. 

As for immersion into faire or breaking the illusion, that is long gone with TRF for me.  With 30,000+ people coming in each day, bungee jumps, advertising, etc., people on cell phones do not even register on my consciousness.