I’d imagine they fake an American accent. Maybe Burbank, CA?
What makes you think there are Renaissance festivals in the UK?
There’s indeed renaissance festivals in UK.
I’m pretty sure they pretend to speak old English there.
Why wouldn’t they?
Because we have a lot of history. If we’re doing an historic festival it would be more specific about the period, not just some homogeneous “past”. But that said, such festivals are quite rare anyway
The Renaissance is not “some homogeneous past”, it’s a pretty specific time period: the 15th and 16th centuries.
Yes, but renaissance fairs in the US are not actually about the renaissance. They are pretty much just “vague Ye olden days”/fantasy fairs.
Thats two hundred years and would cover the end of Plantagenet reign and the Tudor era.
Henry VIII reign happened during that period, at the beginning of your time period everyone would be catholic and at the end Queen Mary of Scotts was executed because the idea of a Catholic on the throne was unthinkable.
The UK is littered with castles and estates, normally they focus on specific historic events which happened at that location.
Wouldn’t they just speak renaissance English?
Middle or old english?
Renaissance fairs are an American thing. They don’t exist in the UK.
I watched a catapult fire projectiles into a castle moat outside of Cardiff at a medieval fair. Also got propositioned by a Welsh girl, but couldn’t understand what she was saying.
You say that very confidently and are pretty well upvoted but I found several in a quick search:
https://jorvikvikingfestival.co.uk/ https://tewkesburymedievalfestival.org/ https://fantasyforest.co.uk/ http://www.renaissancefaire.co.uk/
Is this ‘renaissance fair’ branding is a new thing? I did a few historical/fantasy weekend larps when I was younger but they were never called ‘renaissance fairs’.
Renaissance Faires are a more casual event versus LARPs. It’s usually for families. Some people do dress up but it’s not expected. Usually you just go for a few hours, watch a joust, do some shopping, and eat a turkey leg.
I’ve never heard of a renaissance fair over here. And one of the examples you give, jorvik viking festival, is surely set several centurias before the renaissance.
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:
On the 6th of August 2022, we hosted one of the first American-style ren faires to make it to the UK!
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.
It’s not really been a big thing here until the American influence has sparked interest.
When you can go and watch the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, tar barrelling or the Haxey Hood, there’s less interest in Medieval cosplay.
That’s fair. In the UK if you wanna see some old stuff you can just… go see some old stuff.
Meanwhile my entire town(and actually the majority of the state lol) barring like three houses was burned quite literally to the ground during the civil war so nothing predates that.
That’s fair. In the UK if you wanna see some old stuff you can just… go see some old stuff.
You have effigy mounds, Pueblo villages and no end of fascinating ancient sites.
Anyway, this did inspire me to start [email protected]
Pueblo villages are the other side of the country afaik. I’d like to see one, but I’m not driving two or three days straight for it.
I haven’t heard of effigy mounds before, though, that’s really cool.
