The Original Renaisance Pleasure Faire

What happens when you combine history and culture and fantastical magic? The Renaissance Faire of course! And not just any Renaissance Faire… This Family partnered with The Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire and wait til you get a load of everything historic and cultural and just plain FUN we experienced!

How the Faire Began

Every story has a beginning… In 1963 in Agoura California some folks decided to create a living history opportunity for families and children. Since then, The Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire has become an interactive playground for over 5 million people! That’s 20,000 folks each weekend converging to dress up, speak in Olde English, perform and experience living history! In addition, This labor of love has given way to an entire industry that spans nation wide as people come together to celebrate and experience history, culture, and fantastic magical elements. (I mean, it’s Ren Faire… you KNOW there are fairies and dragons afoot!) That’s pretty cool!

The Renaissance

Renaissance literally means to be reborn. As a time period in history goes, it signifies the time of ‘awakening’ of new ideas, out of the Dark Ages and into all things light and emerging. It’s where we get so many insanely gifted artists from… you know like Michaelangelo, Donatello, and other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 😉 The Renaissance generally encompasses the 14-17th centuries as it is that time period that focused largely on the rediscovery of philosophy, literature, and art. The Renaissance Pleasure Faire celebrates this time period in history and allows people to explore the time with all the senses.

The Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire site states “We are historically based with a twist of modern fusion. We’re 56 years strong and the adventure has just begun!” It’s pretty accurate as in addition to historical players and scenes, shows and experiences, people show up in all KINDS of their own versions of historical and fantastical interpretation. It’s kind amazing really. There was everyone from BoboFet to Denaris Targarian. It’s pretty easy to spot who is there as a participant versus a guest and it’s all fun. I love dressing the part. We didn’t this year but we have before. It just adds another layer to the fun!

What to Do

Maybe the better question is what isn’t there to do? Before the gates even opened we were playing tug of war, watching a Fool dance, listening to Renaissance music and we even met a dragon!

Sometimes the Ren Faire is associated with various levels of debauchery. When I told people we were going as a family I got a few peculiar looks. Truly, there is something for everyone at Ren Faire and as in most things, you will find what you are looking for. There is definitely a different flavor each weekend and I would encourage families to look the schedule over to make sure you aren’t inadvertently exposing your child to something you might not be comfortable explaining to them. Over the years, This Family has been on various weekends. We’ve done Pirate Weekend, Steampunk, Girl Scouts, Easter and this year, Marketplace. There are marked differences to each and I’m glad we’ve been able to see so much variety.

Feast for the Senses

We watched a couple of shows. (There were a TON to pick from-honestly you can’t go wrong with any of them). There was a magic show and an acrobatic show and the ever popular Washing Well Wenches show. It’s amazing how entertaining people can be using just their talents and their wits. A bit of a lost art these days really. The Ren Faire performers are all at the top of their games and I wouldn’t enter a battle of wits with any of them. I mean, I’m as sassy as they come but these guys are wicked sharp. A show highlight for us was when Celtic Band The Jackdaws spotted Sage dancing and invited her on stage to jam out and jam she did! Check it out!

I feel like it’s obligatory to participate in a quest at Ren Faire. After all, if you’re going to step back into the time of knights, pirates, and adventure, a quest is pretty much mandatory, right? This year we did Kid’s Quest and Sage worked with a team to solve riddles, collect map pieces and ultimately defeat the evil captain Pink Beard who stole the kids’ pirate ship.

Can we just take a minute to talk about the UH-MAZ-ing food choices?! Of course there were giant turkey legs but also Scotch Eggs, Steamed artichokes, fresh roasted nuts, and the list goes on. Needless to say my diet was blown. That will be ‘renaissancing’ tomorrow…

Get Yer Pirate On

You all know I love all things pirate. It’s a mildly unhealthy obsession really. One of my FAVE things about Ren Faire is all the pirate stuff. We’ve even been known to dress up as pirates before. This year we spent quite a bit of time with one of the pirate merchants who regaled us with pirate stories, told us the reason why the pirate eye patch came to be (Hint: It has something to do with my ancestral relation Sir Isaac Newton) and we bought an authentic pirate compass. As we were leaving he gifted Sage a Black Pearl and told her it came from Jack Sparrow himself. Obviously I was totally jealous.

It wouldn’t be us if this band o’ pirates didn’t sleuth out and partake in the local coffee. We tried chicory coffee, iced coffee, and then we met this guy who combined my two favorite words. Apothecary and Coffee. Hello Apothecoffee! I feel like this is genuine proof that coffee is indeed medicinal and valuable to my health. Upon further investigation we found these flavors: The Discerning Gentleman and The Deviant Witch. Pretty much sums us up and I now may print these titles instead of names on our business cards. We totally bought some. How could we not?? Obviously this was made for us!

Kids Kingdom

We learned how to weave wheat and made favors. Sage made a doll period correct for the time. We made magical incense bags with a witch and a wizard. And then there was the Gnome Hunt. Sage has been hunting gnomes at the Ren Faire for five years running now. Every year she gets a list of various merchants and game booths that have a gnome hiding and she embarks on another epic quest to find them. Once she finds fifteen or more, she earns a certificate which she then presents to the Pewter Foundry and gets her Official Gnome Hunter pin. It is SO much fun and it’s an excellent way to explore merchants and booths we might have otherwise missed.

And the list goes on…

There were parades…Scottish parades, The Queen’s parade, Pub Crawl parade… I particularly liked The Dance Macbre where everyone wore skeletal masks and didn’t speak at all. They were fascinating. This parade was a uniquely festive way to acknowledge the impact of The Black Plague and the famines of the time. The message of The Danse Macabre is simple. Regardless of station in life, death unites us all. It really existed in medieval times as was meant to serve as a reminder of the fragility of life. They were hauntingly beautiful.

There was the jousting and the Queen but I feel like those are almost expected and you can read about those on other blogs. Not that they aren’t cool (They are VERY cool!) I just could blather on and on… The Faire boasts so many one of a kind experiences in food and drink, in shows, in quests, in shopping, in games, and in camaraderie. We’ve been five years running and will continue to go for each year is a unique experience that makes us memories that will last a lifetime. If you like history, culture, magic and fun, (And if you subscribe to this blog then you absolutely do) I would encourage you to go on your own quest to either this faire or one affiliated with them.

GET TICKETS AND SEE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS HERE

How Does This Tie in to American History

Some of you are thinking… Jen, you focus primarily on American History on this blog. I get the Ren Faire being a living history experience but how does it tie to American History specifically? Or does it??

I’m so glad you asked!

You already learned the concept of Ren Faire being an American invention (see above). Remember when I said Ren Faire included the time periods 14th-17th Century? It is a truly interesting glimpse at what the world was like for our ancestors and why they may have wanted to leave to create a new life. I particularly enjoyed the group of Puritans that went around being disgusted at some of the more gratuitous behavior. They were a bit characterized of course but all in good fun. Point is it was a completely different world then. Remember, people thought it was flat! Different beliefs and difficult lives. With the right lens, the Ren Faire can serve as a window into a past that helped create what America is now. As someone who likes to study and witness history, it’s interesting to see some things seemingly come full circle.

Read: Are you Descended From Pilgrims?

Have you been to a Ren Faire? The Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire? Tell me your experiences! I want to hear! I can’t wait to go back! Always something new to experience, to learn and to try!

Look! There is even a book about Renaissance Faire and the American Counter Culture! It’s alive and well my friends…remember Gilmore Girls?

Read: Scottish Adventures of This Family

Read: Adventure 101 Series: How to have more adventure in your life

Read: Adventures in Magic