I want to talk about what the Corona virus situation means for the ren faire community, because I’ve seen a lot of misinformation and misunderstandings.
First, a little background about the ren faire circuit. It’s a niche community, after all, and historically pretty private (though American Princess got a lot of things right, it never really delved into some of the harder aspects). I’ve done enough traveling that I’m familiar with the lifestyle, but it was never mine. Road rennies, please feel free to correct me where I’ve stumbled or overstepped.
If you’re not/have never been a road rennie, I kindly request you sit this one out.
First: renaissance festivals are only open on weekends. There are occasional three-day weekends or mid-week student days. Every faire is different, and every year is different, but from my experience figure two paid working days per week, plus two extra days per season. Most major faires run anywhere from 6-8 weekends. Because of the nature of outdoor festivals, most faires are concentrated in the spring, summer, and fall; with the exception of a couple of very southern faires, winter is a dead zone. A “full season” is four 8(ish)-week faires. The community is just coming out of the traditional winter break, which is a time to refresh and renew, but also a time without steady work.
Second: very few people working at a ren faire are getting paid on W2s–maybe the faire’s office staff, the food service workers hired from temp agencies, and some of the people who work for vendors (disclaimer: I don’t know much about how ground crews operate). Some get paid by the festival; some get paid by the vendors they work for. People who get paid* are overwhelmingly getting 1099s and/or cash (whether in tips or under the table). That means no unemployment benefits, no workman’s comp, and no health insurance. Health care is already extremely difficult to access for many rennies, due to the nature of travel and poverty and the harshness of the lifestyle.
Third: most people who work the circuit, i.e. travel from one faire to another throughout the year, live in the campgrounds behind the faire they’re working, whether in an RV or otherwise. When the faires close, so do the campgrounds. When a faire is forced to close because the state has declared an emergency and forbidden gatherings of more than 10/20/50 people, that leaves rennies without employment and a place to live, often thousands of miles away from where they winter.
Fourth: there are more than just entertainers and vendors traveling the faire circuit. There’s also the people who run games, the people who work booths but don’t own them, the people who sell roses and make coffee and braid hair and paint faces and manage booths and sling beer. And behind the scenes there are ground crews, babysitters, teachers, kids, and more.
Fifth: the pay is not great. Some people make bank. Many, many more people are living on $100 a day (or less)—and remember, that’s for a two-day work week, so that’s $200 a week. Or less. When a faire doesn’t open, it’s vanishingly rare that anyone will get paid.
Now that the essential background is out there, let’s talk about the current crisis.
Here are the major faires that I know of which have closed early:
- Arizona (AZRF) – last two weekends
- Florida (FLARF) – last two weekends
- Bay Area (BARF) – last two weekends
- Sherwood – last five weekends
So far these major faires have announced a delay in opening:
- Georgia (GARF) – first two weekends
- Scarborough – first two weekends
So far these faires aren’t opening at all this year:
- Renaissance Pleasure Faire
- Philidelphia
That’s only so far. And that’s far from all of them. You can see a full list here, including the dozens of smaller, one-weekend faires, because I only have so much time, and frankly cataloging this was making me even more anxious than I already am.
Here is the crux of the matter: When you’re living on a few hundred dollars a week, a bad day (rain, competing events, just mysterious weirdness) means tightening an already tight belt. The loss of one day’s work is a major problem. The loss of weeks’ or months’ worth of work with no end in sight is a catastrophe. There are people without the money for gas to get to their next destination. There are people who don’t have a next destination, because remember, most of the faire campgrounds are closed too. Public RV parks and campgrounds are not cheap. The community at large lives on the edge of disaster, and while we are very good at rallying to support our own in times of trouble, there’s only so much we can do when everyone is in trouble.
And now, the call to action:
If you have ever enjoyed a ren faire, and especially if you consider yourself a super patron/playtron/regular/Friend of Faire, now is the time to act. The community that makes your weekend passion project possible is suffering. People are unemployes and stranded. People will starve. People will die. If you’re still working, the ren faire community needs you. Open your hearts, yes, but most importantly, open your wallets. Check out the Rennie Relief Fund and No Rennie Left Behind. If your local faire has been canceled, reach out to management to ask what they’re doing to help. Buy from vendors. Look for artists and entertainers on Patreon. Search for fundraisers. And share, share, share.
If you want a renaissance faire to come back to next year, you need to help the people who make it happen.
Before I go, I’d like to briefly address some of the suggestions I’ve seen from well-meaning (and not-so-well-meaning) patrons.
- Online sales/shows – this is something the community has been exploring for a while, hindered by the extremely unreliable internet on faire sites (most are very rural, after all). When you see links to online sales or shows, get involved!
- Side hustles – I promise you, everyone has thought about this, or already has one or more. “Week work” is pretty common, though it’s difficult to find outside of the community owing to the transient nature of the lifestyle (it’s hard to get hired somewhere for two months when you can’t work weekends). Anyway, lots of side hustles are suffering right now too—my day job is closed. Unless you have a very solid lead (i.e. “I am hiring for X thing immediately”, this is not a helpful suggestion.
- “Stop whining” – fuck you, buddy
*It’s impossible to make blanket statements about all ren faires, but most of them have huge networks of unpaid volunteers, “apprentices,” etc.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: coronavirus, fundraising, pandemic, ren faire, ren fest, renaissance faire, renaissance festival
What Is This I Can't Even 