Re: No stupid questions? Challenge accepted!
Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 7:34 am
yep, I was told that the general public are there to learn, and that because my kit was (quoting them here) "wrong" it would spoil the educational aspect of the fair and so I should be wearing modern clothing
I should also point out that one of the times the criticizer in question had more visible machine stitching and non authentic materials in they're kit than I did, they were also wearing the wrong kit for the weather while I was warm and dry and teaching people how correct use of authentic fabrics can be both comfortable and practical
Yavion wrote: ↑Mon Jun 27, 2022 11:49 am I'm sorry that you've had that experience. I've gone through that myself. Some Ren Fairs get mad when you show up in Medieval gear and are not one of the performers/vendors and I've gotten a talking to for it...
...I didn't realize that something like Ren Fair didn't exist in your area. I suppose when your people actually lived through it and have castles it's less interesting. I recall chatting with an English friend about how infrequent SCA events are in England. More about wild west/cowboy reenactment at the time.
nowhere does it say in the event details for public medieval fairs that you can't dress up, it is a free country so I don't se why I shouldn't wear what ever clothing I want, I might have the wrong attitude, but if you're running a public event it strikes me that the whole point of it is to entertain the people who want entertainment, and educate people who want education, they have all paid for tickets after all. If it's a specific living history event where everything should be authentic then I understand fully, but those also don't happen much in the UK. At a crowded public fare where children occasionally dress as storm troopers or Spiderman I honestly don't see why it matters if an adult dresses as someone from Middle earthElleth wrote: ↑Mon Jun 27, 2022 11:58 am Sadly I can kind of understand that. Let in the MERF-ers (or even the MERS-ers) and the next thing you know you're full of Disney pirates and Star Trek landing parties*. "Strictly historical" is an easier line to draw than "somewhere north of medivalish fantasy and south of Spock ears"
I can say that I haven't heard of west/cowboy reenactment being big over here, it was in fashion for a little bit about 10 years ago tho?
Yep, no Ren Fares, I wish someone would run one tho, one of the big not strict ones where people can show up dressed as just about anything without getting yelled at, it would be fun. but that said, British people tend to be vey judgemental towards anyone who dresses up as an adult, and peer pressure is a huge problem so not many people do it, so the concept of it might not work?
There use to be a Middle earth festival but I never got chance to go to it, then covid happened and the event organiser that ran it went out of business so I doubt it'll be back, it's a shame. as for "general hippyish-midsommer festival" I guess that would be the Llangollen Fairy Festival (http://northwalesfaeryfestival.com/) where there is a traditional turnout of many steampunks, maybe I'll go to that one some year?
pirates, yep, the world has got crappier, the annual pirate festival has gone now too, same reasons