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Summer means that the Renaissance Faires are in full swing
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I even like medieval art.
When it comes to Renaissance Fairs it’s a good bet you fall into one of three crowds: you aren’t interested; you go, have a pretty good time but bemoan the price of the beers; or those who wear period dress and carrying an entire retinue of weapons and armor.
Summer and autumn play host to a variety of such events, from this past weekend’s Silver Kingdom Renaissance Festival to the more widely known King Richard’s Faire (running this year from September 5 through October 25). The former offered a chance for those into the full blown LARPing experience to test their mettle against one another while the latter offers a larger venue, a wider assemblage of merchants, jousting and an annual appearance by the tigers of the Royal Zoo.
Some of the vendors at these fairs are truly talented. While there are certainly those who deal in factory produced merchandise the majority of merchants make their own wares and travel the “circuit,” going from fair to fair across the country. Prices vary but there’s generally room to negotiate, and you can take pride in knowing that in most cases you’re getting a truly unique item.
So, you’ve gone in for the jewelry. Maybe even bought a staff or a sword or two (or three, four, you can never have enough really). Maybe you’ve even engaged in some LARPing (or Live Action Role Playing, fighting with padded weapons, they hold tournaments and some look as if they could handle a real sword pretty well if pushed to it). But what else is there for the medieval enthusiast to quench their thirst?
The Society for Creative Anachronism is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and continuation of the manners, crafts and skills of central Europe during the Middle Ages. Not simply concerned with Chivalry and weaponsmithing, they also maintain a knowledge base on heraldry, falconry, medieval brewing and herbalism. At this moment they have nineteen kingdoms interspersed throughout North America, Asia, Australia and the Kingdom of Lochac also has claims on the continent of Antarctica.
Rhode Island is known as the Barony of the Bridge while Southeastern Massachusetts is the Barony of the Smoking Rocks. Just searching out the various kingdoms, fiefdoms and smaller shires could take hours. The SCA takes this all very seriously and it’s all in good fun. For the record, anyone who dresses up completely in Red Sox accoutrements has no right to judge.
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