GOING VIRTUAL

Another growing form of community comes in the form of virtual worlds. These consist of online groups of people from around the world that not only discuss their specific interests but create and dress up personal avatars (virtual personas) and socialize within computer game environments. Services like Second Life and IMVU.com offer you the ability to be whoever you wish to be, show off, and meet like minded people. These computer generated worlds often offer a subculture of crafters of virtual products sell to their own communities. This has allowed fans to “live the Faire” all year round, and often culminate in real-world gatherings that allow the avatar’s physical counterparts to meet in the flesh. Over time the separations between these two worlds will become increasingly blurred, and it is up to us as designers to be nimble enough to change with the times.

Supporting Environments 
On Multiple Devices

It may not seem like it, but we are treading the grounds of a brave new world. A world where our audience is ever more connected with each other. Smart phones and portable tablets are becoming part of the paraphernalia your audience is taking with them to your event. Being careful not to whip out an anachronistic cel phone while in period dress is important, but we need to remain open minded about the ways your customers can experience our events, and take it home with them via their portable technologies. Photos and videos will be taken throughout your Faire, so look for opportunities to make your website mobile friendly, and if you are ambitious, consider creating an App that can include a Map of your Faire, and maybe even a way to get a discount on tickets if they download it. Portable devices are going to be the way we document our world, share our experiences, and make purchases, so thinking about the ways you can use it to promote and enhance the experience of your Faire or craft will have you better prepared for these changes as they continue to evolve..

Chapter Twelve

A NEW GENERATION of FAIRE

As a card carrying “old timer” it is all too easy to wax nostalgic and find agreement amongst other old timers that the Faires today just aren’t as good as they used to be. To do so is to be blind to a resurgence of the very same energies that created the first Renaissance Faire some 50 years ago. With the Internet making it all that much easier to find kindred spirits from all over the world, groups both large and small are gathering to create their own Faires, and in a variety of different ways. The big Renaissance Faires still exist and are doing well, thank you very much, but smaller, convention sized events are springing up everywhere. Like mini ComicCons these smaller events are stuffing convention centers with Faerie, Steampunk, and Science Fiction enthusiasts.

These are opportunities to meet like minded people, purchase crafts specific to your interest, listen to music created for your demographic and meet the authors and artists that keep your chosen fan community healthy and engaged. While the early Faires had their share of spill over from the Hippie era, today’s events are for all ages and tend to be a sober experience. Faires aren’t going away, they are evolving, and have grown into something different. Still, one thing they all have in common is that very same sense of community, a safe place where you can dress up and live out a fantasy just outside of your work-a-day life.

Ever-Changing Expectations of Your Audience

These new Faires challenge all us designers and promoters to keep on our toes as our audience’s expectations shift more often then before. Today visitors to a themed event come prepared to Play in very specific ways. They know what they want from their experience, and although some merely come to show off, others come to get involved and be “hands on”. Most consistently is that they want to take some of that experience home with them. They are coming to shop and accessorize their persona's, and bring tangible artifacts back to their homes, and they want to meet their idles. Our challenge as the designers of these events, and the crafts people populating them, is to be sensitive to the needs and desires of our audience, meeting those changing expectations with each event.

Chapter Eleven

INDOOR EVENTS

Bringing a Faire Indoors

Everything we have talked about so far has been focused primarily on outdoor events. Richly themed fairs and festivals can be brought indoors as well, and I imagine another entire book could be dedicated to the subject of themed indoor events. To add briefly, many of the rules we have talked about here apply equally well to indoor events. Although the challenges appear different, many are the same. You still need to find a structure large enough to hold your event, with access to a large number of potential visitors. Parking is important, as is fire safety and accessibly by emergency vehicles. Ability to get your vendors in and out of the space, especially when it comes to loading in their booths during set-up and taking them down at the end of the event. All of these are logistic problems, and are likely to be no worse then what you already experience with an outdoor event.

Probably the biggest challenge for your indoor event will be... lighting. When looking for an appropriate indoor venue, you may end up in a large industrial building, warehouse, or in some cases a large livestock or event building located in a fairgrounds. You can be assured that these facilities were not designed for what you plan to do with it, and most are illuminated by light fixtures that are guaranteed destroyers of magic ambiance... fluorescent and zinc lights. To gain the most control over the atmosphere of your event, the best advice is to turn those lights off and replace them with something more theatrical. This adds a lot of expense to the event, and will challenge both the landlord and fire department when you suggest not using the lights designed for the safety of the visitors of your event.
Lights mean rigging and power, and before you jump into doing an indoor event, question your control over how dark you can make the space, and how much light you can bring in to light it in a theatrical way. Ultimately, your goal is to make the space dark enough that the structure of the building disappears, and only the charming shop filled streets are illuminated. Rented generators will be likely additions to your budget, but trust me, your control over the light levels of your event will be worth the extra expense.

FAIRE IN A BALLROOM

Quickly rising in popularity is a new variety of themed event, and these are smaller hybrids of both festivals and conventions like ComicCon. Starting out as a way for niche groups of fans to get together, these are turning into events that encourage their participants and vendors to arrive in costume. All over the country events like Faerieworld, FaerieCon, and DragonCon are taking over the ballrooms and convention spaces of hotels and filling them with crafts and entertainment specific to their target demographic. This allows participants to book rooms in and around the event hotel and producers of the show a lot of existing facilities custom built to suit the needs of their event. In this case, there is much less control over the atmosphere of the event, but for a smaller show, this may just be a necessary evil, as competing with wall to wall carpet and mirrored walls may not be worth the expense and struggle. What these events do deliver is a venue for fans of the larger events to show off costumes that may be too delicate for the outdoors, a chance to visit favorite vendors to help them accessories, and a way to experience night, and late night entertainment, something less possible in outdoor Faires.
It is my expectation that we will see more of these smaller indoor events springing up all over the country. These shows feed a hunger in niche audiences, but their size makes that less of a problem. Smaller events can also act as a way to keep the fan fire burning between larger outdoor events. This allows participants to “live” the fantasy, as they patronize more events throughout the year, and act as a means of income for talented crafts people between the larger events. If you set your goal as creating a full fledged themed event, starting out with a more intimate show could be a good way to introduce yourself to the market possibilities, and your audience to your unique offering.

ADVERTISING, POSTERS & GRAPHICS

Modern Marketing and Advertising have accumulated tools in their trade for promoting events like your Faire. These skills are vital for getting the word out about your event, but the glossy, high production values necessary for promoting something like a vineyard wine tasting, or an art show in the park, may not be completely suited to communicating the atmosphere of your period event. The goal of any advertising, whether in posters, graphics, or fliers, is to communicate what is unique about the world you are trying to create. Too often flashy boiler plate layouts depicting smiling wine tasters and rolling hills of grapes, are replaced with pictures of costume maidens and energetic jousters. What I am saying is, traditional 21st century marketing visual may miss an opportunity to sell your event through more rustic visuals. Potential customers still need to see what they might experience at your Faire, but be sure that the graphic approach also supports the era and overall ambience you are working to achieve. I assure you that attention to this detail will help set your event apart from the others, and make you less willing to settle for a promotion that looks just like every other fair or festival being promoted.

Chapter 10

SUPPORTING THE STORY

Faire Map

 

As a kid growing up, a trip to Disneyland wasn’t complete without purchasing one of the oversized maps of the park. Although its size made it impractical to actually use as a navigation tool, it was that very same map that I would study with rapt attention all the months and weeks between visits, as I worked to relive my visit through its tiny details. As the promoter of a Faire, having a large illustrated Map is not only an important navigation tool, but a way to better communicate the size, scope, and highlights of your event. In many ways the Internet has replaced that giant paper Disneyland map, but that hasn’t changed the desire to experience its lands vicariously through the digital version. Investing in a fairly elaborate Map of your Faire will help communicate to your vendors the commitment you have to the period, to potential through visitors via your website, and through large print reproductions of it in newspapers and flyers.

Ultimately, your Map will become the best tool to communicate what your event is, what it will look like (in spirit) and what visitors might expect when visiting it.

For vendors and crafts people, creating a simple version of a Faire Map can also help your customers find you within the larger event. Never underestimate the power of a illustrative depiction of your event. The more hand drawn and the more “rustic” its appearance, the better job it will do at communicating what can be expected from a visit to your Faire.

GAME BOOTHS

Game booths can be the most lucrative of businesses in a Faire, but ironically they are often the most poorly designed. This can happen when a booth is so very large, like an archery game, that themeing such an expanse can become cost prohibitive. Although I sympathize with your pain, I have to say that the ugliest booths often house games. I know there are exceptions, but before you catapult a bean bag at me or fire a dowel at my head, lets discuss opportunities game vendors have that are unique to their business.

Often the biggest challenge for any game vendor is getting visitors to actually participate in their game. This is a problem that midway games have struggled with ever since the invention of the county fair. What is unique about a Renaissance Faire is that your game can actually help transport your audience into the historical time the event is set in. Any opportunity you have of suggesting a little role playing with your game or activity will only encourage participation. Firing a bow is fun, but becoming a knight firing a bow, or wielding a sword, or winning the approving glance of a pretty booth maiden, brings your guests inside the story. If you are tossing coins, why not do it inside the mouth of a dragon (artfully painted on the canvas facade), or hurl bean bag peasants from a rampart overlooking a miniature village? Creating a large game booth can be very expensive, but it can also have the highest return for investment. Whenever possible try to stage your larger games in an environment that doesn’t overlook obvious anachronistic elements (cars, modern buildings), back your booth against a tree lined hillside if possible. If that is not possible, do the best you can to attractively block the view of un-Faire-like vistas, it will help your sales to offer an attractive experience.

Another opportunity is to elevate your barkers above the heads of the passing crowd. Building a short tower, or rigging that allows your booth people to do a better job of drawing attention to your game will succeed in letting them know how fun it will be to play your game, and add interest and energy to your corner of the Faire.

GETTING THE ACTION ABOVE THE GUESTS

Once you have broken beyond the 8 foot mark, the next obvious opportunity it to get a few people up there to help draw attention to your booth and wares. Although a structure that allows for the safe weight of a person can be more expensive, having a barker elevated above the heads of guests can add a dynamic quality to your booth that is more likely to draw customers to you. This is true of booth workers and performers sitting in the trunks of trees. Banter from over our head is just not something we often encounter in our modern lives, so take advantage of surprising your audience by making them look up for a change.

BREAKING THE 8 ft HEIGHT BARRIER

One of the challenges to designing and building a period booth with materials purchased in the 21st century is the temptation to stick with the standard dimensions offered in the lumber you buy and build with. There is a temptation to make things 8ft tall, to use up all of the materials we are given, but this tends to have the side effect of making the entire world stop at 8 feet. One way to combat this temptation is to push yourself to build both above, and below these dimensions. 6 foot tall structures appear to the modern eye as tiny, and 12 foot buildings giant, purely because we are so used to this 8 foot standard. This will also help the silhouette of your event, making the structures move your eye up and down as you wander the Faire.

Off-Season Storage

Once the Faire has ended for the season, where to store your booth or cart becomes the new problem. More often then not the collapsed parts of a booth are left to lean against the side of a garage with a loosely draped tarp over it, not always protecting it from the elements. Once the Faire is over it can seem like ages until the next one, so the care of your booth might get placed lower on your list of concerns. Fear not, I am a firm believer that Faire booths can improve with age, and if a little moss happens to grow in the corners of your beams, or mold in your thatch, it often just helps make it look the part all the more the following year. There are of course exceptions to this rule, but more often then not, a little age doesn’t hurt the overall effect... and in some cases it actually improves it.

BUILDING A HOOCH (Back Room)

The “Hooch” is the private space behind a booth. This is where anachronistic items are stored, extra merchandise is kept, and sleeping bags wait for overnight camping. These back rooms have an almost mythic quality, as they are tiny, private bubbles in the middle of the glorious chaos that is a Faire. Legends of quiet encounters, the conceiving of babies, and the partaking of various substances are truer then fiction, and many fond Faire memories include “what happened in the Hooch” during and after business hours. Still, a Hooch has a business function that necessitates that its contents are not viewable by the public and valuable items are safe when you are out front working with your customers. Hooch’s are famously easy to get in and out of, so it is advised that you create a simple plywood box that you can padlock for your more valuable items. The extended family that is a Faire are not here to rob you, but you might as well avoid temptation by not leaving valuables out where they might inadvertently disappear.

A Hooch can consist of simple burlap walls, or be as complex as an entire lock-able building. Some Hoochs are under the counter, some can be a penthouse on the roof of your booth. At the Oregon Country Fair, a contemporary of the Renaissance Faire, but with a more tie-died spin, has booths that one could argue are all about the Hooch, with secondary attention paid to the merchandise being sold below. The OCF is a spectacle that you could argue hasn’t truly been experience if you haven’t watched it go by from an elevated private deck perched on top of someone’s booth with a glass of some beverage in your hand. The Hooch is just another perk awarded to those participating in a Faire, made better when you are the owner and not just a visitor.

CREATIVE MERCHANDISE DISPLAYS

There are practical considerations to make when creating a display for your work. Potters need sturdy shelves, expensive jewelry needs to be in a case, and fine breakables should be out of the easy reach of children. Displays also need to be something that can be easily broken down and carted home after a Faire has ended. All this being true, there is an opportunity to think outside of the conventional crafts fair display when presenting your work at a Renaissance Faire. Using organic elements like twigs and branches can create unconventional but attractive displays. Without wanting to over power your work, think of it like a flower arrangement, where your product represents each bloom. Find ways to tell the story of how your art is made. A metalworker could display a few items on an anvil, or surrounded by blacksmithing tools. A woodworker could cover the floor of his booth with wood shavings, and weaver could display baskets filled with wool in all stages from sheep to yarn. Anything you can do to your environment that speaks to the process taken to create your products will better help your customers relate to what they are looking at and eventually purchasing.

It must be added that the original Renaissance Pleasure Faire was based with the goal to recreate history, and their early booths demonstrated how their wares were crafted. It is worth considering including a work area within your booth that would allow you to work on building more merchandise for your shop. This allows your customers to better understand the workmanship that goes into each piece, creating additional interest and entertainment, and a way to keep you busy during the Faire. One thing you can do that Walmart never can is demonstrate the love and attention that goes into everything you make.

Food merchants have a harder time displaying their products, purely because the health department frowns on the presenting of uncovered food. With this in mind, food vendors have an opportunity to suggest how the food is being made. Although just behind the plywood wall and screen a booth worker may be stirring a stainless steel pot over a gas burners, but this shouldn’t stop the owner from displaying an oversized cast iron pot in a large brick hearth with the menu items painted on its side. Also creating banners and signs that depict period people eating your food, for example Henry the Eights holding a turkey leg, or a court jester juggling meat pasties is a way to suggest to the public that to eat your food is to consume a bit of history itself. The reality of running a food booth is that the experience in the kitchen is very different then that on the street, but that shouldn’t stop you from telling a story, one that takes its audience deeper into the role playing that drew them to the Faire in the first place.

Chapter Nine

BUILDING A CART

If you like, you could always consider foregoing a traditional booth and create a cart. This is especially good if you have small items, or your larger booth has smaller products you can also sell in a satellite location. The biggest advantage to a cart is not only the smaller booth fees, but you are mobile and can rationalize moving if your first location isn’t working for you. Carts can pepper a Faire and have the advantage of being out in front of your customers and not tucked in a corner somewhere with little hope of moving. Some carts are even mobile enough to move constantly, always going where the people are.

This is very nice if you wish to park yourself at the exit when the Faire is ending, or near the stage when a big scheduled event is imminent. Carts can come in all sizes and even include places for you to sit within them. The following sketches* will give you some ideas of what a cart might be, and maybe inspire you to dream up something unique to you and your products.

* Work in progress, sketches coming.

FAKE FACADE

This example suggests that the shop building is actually behind the booth. The structure is half the size of an all timber booth and creates a sort of stall window effect. In this case the booth is purely to act as shelter for the craftspeople, shading them with an extended patchwork awning. The counter is also timber and could include a leather-covered surface. A shield shaped tavern sign finishes off the design with graphics that could suggest the crafting guild or products being sold at this particular shop.

FAUX THATCH

As discussed before, thatching is a very effective roof material, but a challenge to get right. In this example the walls are very sturdy looking and include a fake brick base. If done well, this design could look as close as possible to a real permanent Elizabethan building. Curved supports are added for detail and curved brackets help brace the roof in each of the corners of the counter window. This is a very nice look that will be the envy of your fellow participants.

ASYMMETRY

Asymmetric:
Not identical on both sides of a central line; unsymmetrical; lacking symmetry

All of the examples so far have been very symmetrical, mainly to show various material options. Asymmetry will always make your booth appear unique and stand out. In this example a square booth is made more interesting by extending the roof to create an addition and surrounding it with a railing. This booth also elevates the floor and is especially good if you need to elevate your customer’s feet, for trying on boots for example, or giving them a surface to lay on for a massage.

BUILDING AROUND A LOCK BOX

For some, extra security is a must. One method is to start with a very sturdy, lock-able structure and clad the exterior with period details. This is also good if you are able to keep this structure on-site when the Faire is not running. The base box is weatherproof; include a watertight roof membrane, pad lock door, and interior locking shutters. In the second image you see this same box with its themeing applied to it. These can remain year round, or be stored inside between Faires.  A peak is added to the flat room and boards are placed around the base to hide the concrete supports. The old Northern California site frequently flooded during the winter months, so concrete piling were a must, but your site might not need such details. Also check with regional building codes to make sure you are not violating any rules, or making sure it is understood that your structure is a non-permanent shed. Each area will be different so it pays to double check.

STURDY BOX CONSTRUCTION

If you are lucky enough to be able to leave a booth up during the off-season, or can cart in heavier lumber, this sturdy box construction suggest a rustic quality without attempting to fake the look of timber or wattle and daub. Tall center poles act as a support for a very large banner, which acts as an embroidered graphic or shop sign.

LOCK-ABLE BOOTH

For some vendors, the ability to lock down an entire booth is a necessity. One method is to create strong wooden awnings that swing down after hours to secure the structure. This example also suggests that elements like display cases could be pulled into the center of the booth as well. This design works especially well when created a Gypsy Cart style booth, which we will talk more about in the section on creating Carts.

TIMBER FRAME BOOTH

This booth design suggests a more permanent structure and yet could still easily be delivered and erected on the site without too much trouble. The railings, counter, and back wall follow the rules established in the previous section on creating faux timbers, and include a wattle and daub textured paint applied to the plywood panels. The roof is wood shingles applied to a base sheet of plywood. This design also suggests that a tavern style sign could be used to help promote your wares and draw attention to your booth. Using a hollow post, and slipping it over a “t-bar” fence pole hammered into the ground can create this effect.

CANVAS ROOF & HARD WALLS

This example depicts a rough sawn lumber structure with a canvas roof and faux timber back wall and railing. This give the appearance of being a stall rather then a building and it might be appropriate to build your counter space on stacked hay bales. Wood is period, so using it liberally is always great, just make sure you hide any lumber stamps or telltale marks that suggest your booth might actually have originated from Home Depot.

FABRIC TOURNAMENT BANNERS AS A MOTIF

Like the previous examples, this booth design uses rough poles as the basis of its construction and drapes banners and over-sized pennants as the roof, walls, and railing. This is a nice effect and works especially nicely when the booth is anywhere near the Horse Tournament area or stables.