A Renaissance Fair (or Renaissance Faire) sometimes referred to as a Renaissance festival, is an outdoor weekend gathering drawing on themes from pop culture perceptions of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, strongly mediated through the entertainment media and comics.
In May 1963 schoolteacher Phillis Paterson and her husband Ron put on the first Renaissance Pleasure Faire, an outgrowth of school projects. The Faire was held in North Hollywood, California and drew some 8000 people for the one-weekend event. Incorporating as "As You like it productions" and moving to larger open-air quarters, the Patterson experiment in "living history" has expanded into a North American summertime phenomenon.
A Parade of Fools, stage plays in Shakespearean or commedia dell' arte tradition entertain fayregoers, many of whom wear costume, while strolling minstrels, mimes, jugglers and jesters mingle with the crowd. The Renaissance Fayre provides men an opportunity to wear tights and ladies to display generous cleavage. For a time the Guinness Book of Records record for most beer sold at a single venue was held by a Renaissance Fayre. Stained glass panels and scented sculptured candles feature prominently in the accompanying bazaar.
A Renaissance fair or Renaissancefestival is an outdoor weekend gathering ostensibly focused on recreating life as it was during the Renaissance.
Most Renaissance Fairs are arranged to represent an imagined village in England during the reign of Elizabeth I, as this period is generally considered to correspond to the flowering of the English Renaissance (most especially because this was the time of Shakespeare).
The Georgia RenaissanceFestival, near Atlanta, is the largest in the Southeast and began in 1986 as a spring festival.
These season long festivals act as a gateway to the past, in which entire cities and lifestyles are recreated for the amusement and participation of the population.
During these festivals, actors from around the country don period costumes and act in ways attributed to the Renaissancefestival.
Much like the Renaissancefestivals, traditional values and morals are exchanged for a different way of life for a temporary period of time.
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