The Experience of Working at the New York Renaissance Faire

Summer is coming, and with it, Renaissance Faires across the country will be opening their gates to visitors. For the patrons of these faires, it's a time for shopping, interacting with interesting characters, watching jousts and hearing medieval music. But there's another side to the magic, one that can only be fully experienced by working at a faire. And it's an experience you won't get from anything else, I can guarantee that.

I remember my first visit to the New York Renaissance Faire, when I was around seven years old. It was so enchanting; there was so much to see and do, so many things to buy and so many people dressed up! When I rediscovered the faire later in my life, I loved it just as much as I had that first year. I had even more of an appreciation for the friendliness of the people, and for the atmosphere in general. I decided that I wanted to work there.

Friends and I went to a job fair, held for the merchants to hire workers, and all three of us managed to find jobs. So began the start of many new friendships, and the arrival of a wealth of new experiences.

Working at a Faire is, without a doubt, a lot of fun. But it's not necessarily quite as simple as it looks. Before the season started, my friends and I were required to go to a 'language workshop', to ensure that we had a grasp of the speech of the times, a bit of the history of the specific era that our Faire was mimicking, and the basics of working etiquette. Beyond the workshop, there was the matter of acquiring garb. I lucked out, that first Faire-job was at a clothing booth, and so it was mostly a matter of picking out the pieces of my outfit... and arranging to pay the cost of it off with my paychecks each weekend. Garb doesn't come cheap, usually, but I was lucky enough to have a discount, at least.

I'll admit, the work was harder than I'd first expected. The hours were long; we usually had to be at the booth at around 8:30 in the morning, and while Faire ended at 7pm, my coworkers and I were often there until around 8:30pm, closing the booth up and making sure the merchandise was in good order. Being in a booth that year, I didn't have to contend with the sun, but in later years, when my job required wandering around the Faire, I came to appreciate shady areas and water breaks quite a bit. More so, I appreciated every moment spent sitting down, as those moments were quite rare.

Something else I wasn't entirely prepared to deal with was the level of interaction needed with patrons. I'd been a shy girl, pretty quiet... but if you've ever been to a Renaissance Faire, you'll know that the employees tend to be loud, and very friendly! I had to get over some of my timidity, but soon enough, I was comfortable with the interaction, and it became second nature. The more comfortable I became, the more fun talking and joking with the patrons was.

Working at the Faire was an eye-opening experience. As a visitor, you only get the 'good' sides of things; you don't see the exhaustion that comes with a day of work, or the discomfort garb can cause at times. Because it tends to be such a friendly atmosphere, it's easy enough to assume that everything is always peachy and wonderful, but at the truth of the matter, it's often long days, and, especially if you're working on a per-sale commission, the money isn't always great. The drama you may find in office-work still exists. Things aren't always peachy, and if the weather is harsh-be it sun or rain, you can't just go sit in the nearest building until it passes.

As it goes in many other jobs, though, the biggest problem to come up was often not the coworkers or the weather... but from patrons themselves. Anywhere you go, it's possible to encounter people that are impolite or unthinking, or downright nasty or rude. But mix alcohol and cleavage, and, at times, things can get pretty unpleasant.

Perhaps because, as a worker, you become a character of sorts, the patrons don't always see you as a person as well. When the days are hot and long, I had to keep up the happy face, make the best of things, and still make the effort to do my job and keep the customers happy. But a fair amount of customers were all too eager to make things as unpleasant as possible. Beyond the normal complaining and difficult-to-please clientele, though, were another breed-the drunken, disrespectful men. Some seemed to think that just because a girl was working at a Faire (where the atmosphere tends to be slightly flirty) and wearing a bodice, that there were no limits. It was this group of people that made me thankful for the dagger I wore at my side, and for something else, one of the greatest things about working at faire-my fellow rennies.

When I'd begun working at the Faire, I knew that there were some really cool workers there. All the same, I never expected to meet so many absolutely amazing people. Right off the bat, I found that the people working around me became like family. While I didn't camp at the fairground, I still spent large portions of the day around these others, and over my years of working at the Faire, I made friends that I will never, ever forget, and who I hope I will never, ever lose contact with.

The sorts of people that work at the Faires tend to be like-minded to begin with. Obviously, there's the common interest in the medieval time period, and often, that spills over into a love for shiny weapons, fantasy, and, in general, an open-minded view on the world. To be around people who were so open, so friendly and welcoming, and so easy to get along with was an utterly wonderful experience, and even if the days were long and the pay was meager, it was these fantastic people that made it completely worth the effort.

Beyond the people, there were a lot of other perks to working at the Faire. There was the obvious one-free entry! And while most of my time was spent doing my job, I had enough time off here and there to occasionally see part of one of the shows, or to shop around a bit. And I found that the grounds (the New York Faire, in Tuxedo, is particularly scenic!) became like a second home. I felt perfectly comfortable stretching out in one of the lesser-occupied areas and napping on my breaks, or just enjoying the views of trees and mountains and skies. The ever-present sounds of harps and bagpipes, loud singing and louder laughter, mad cheering and the yelling of workers hawking their wares became a soothing backdrop each day, and while it was wonderful to be out of that bodice at the end of each night, I always felt a little sad driving home.

When I started college, working at Faire became harder, as the second half of the season fell during the beginning of fall semester. With a busy schedule, it's been a few years since I've been able to work at the New York Renaissance Faire, and while it was exhausting, I miss the atmosphere so much. But I always make time to go and visit, and I know that around each bend in the path, scattered at their respecting booths, the friends I made are waiting to engulf me in hugs.

Nowadays, I'm still involved in the Faire-scene, thankfully. I help to run a smaller, indoor, one-weekend Faire, the Wicked Winter Renaissance Faire, near my college. It's still developing and growing, and as the chief decorator, I'm involved in a different sort of way than I was at NYRF. Even so, I can count on the fact that familiar faces will always show up, and that the sense of belonging to such a unique community is as strong as ever.