You can find any number of re-enactment events/groups across the UK from Romans to Vikings to the Sealed Knot to WW2. For most of those Medieval festivals, especially the ones celebrating an event or place (second and fourth links - the first and fourth aren’t relevant to this), it tends to be a more touristy event rather than one visitors would get dressed up and involved in (until recently with the US influence).
Definitely this, until apparently the one you’ve just linked, they didn’t exist in the American sense here. The closest you would get here before was out of work actors adding a bit of flavour to some otherwise-a-bit-dull landmarks or historically important places. And even then that wasn’t super common.
I always saw the American style as basically a medieval themed Butlins experience. Pure entertainment rather than something ostensibly intended to be educational.
That’s it, the earlier ones were awfully dull and worthy and the Ren Fair influence has made it more fun, with visitors now encouraged to dress up and get involved. I wasn’t joking when I described them as Medieval cosplay.
It’s a bit like how British comic conventions became Comic Cons - back in the day they were a few drafty halls in some relic of the Industrial Revolution or musty spaces in run-down hotels. Now they are Nerdvana, colliding with the old memorabilia shows of yesteryear where you could get a handful of old Doctors to sign something for a few quid and now have to throw a nought on the end of that. If you are lucky you’ll still find some actual comics tucked away in a side room where they won’t embarrass the starts of that sci-fi show that was slightly popular for a couple of years in the mid-80s.
You can find any number of re-enactment events/groups across the UK from Romans to Vikings to the Sealed Knot to WW2. For most of those Medieval festivals, especially the ones celebrating an event or place (second and fourth links - the first and fourth aren’t relevant to this), it tends to be a more touristy event rather than one visitors would get dressed up and involved in (until recently with the US influence).
Summer Court Renaissance Fair claims to be one of the first US-style ren fairs:
Definitely this, until apparently the one you’ve just linked, they didn’t exist in the American sense here. The closest you would get here before was out of work actors adding a bit of flavour to some otherwise-a-bit-dull landmarks or historically important places. And even then that wasn’t super common.
I always saw the American style as basically a medieval themed Butlins experience. Pure entertainment rather than something ostensibly intended to be educational.
That’s it, the earlier ones were awfully dull and worthy and the Ren Fair influence has made it more fun, with visitors now encouraged to dress up and get involved. I wasn’t joking when I described them as Medieval cosplay.
It’s a bit like how British comic conventions became Comic Cons - back in the day they were a few drafty halls in some relic of the Industrial Revolution or musty spaces in run-down hotels. Now they are Nerdvana, colliding with the old memorabilia shows of yesteryear where you could get a handful of old Doctors to sign something for a few quid and now have to throw a nought on the end of that. If you are lucky you’ll still find some actual comics tucked away in a side room where they won’t embarrass the starts of that sci-fi show that was slightly popular for a couple of years in the mid-80s.