huzzah!

July 2, 2020 11:05 AM

Fairest Of The Faire: The 1963 Renaissance Pleasure Faire & May Market

In 1963 Phyllis Patterson of Los Angeles (d. 2014) started providing art and theater education in her backyard. These events grew into the “The Renaissance Pleasure Faire & May Market,” and started the trend of "renaissance faires"

Tracing the History and Legacy of the Renaissance Faire, a review of Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture

One refreshing aspect of the Renaissance faire tale is how Rubin traces a countercultural history that takes a different route than the familiar “City Lights to the First Human Be-in” trek. Instead, the genesis involves the mid-twentieth-century bohemian enclave of Laurel Canyon and the dissidents at Los Angeles Pacifica radio station KPFK. In 1963, the station needed money and enlisted for a fundraiser the popular backyard children’s theater program that recent Laurel Canyon transplant Phyllis Patterson had begun. Together, the young commedia dell’arte enthusiasts, some blacklisted Hollywood talent, and the Pacifica community developed the idea for the first faire. The enterprise made money and several strands of L.A. subculture convened. By 1964, attendance and revenue were up, and a soon-to-be institution was accommodating increasingly growing interest. Students of the decade’s underground press will be intrigued by Art Kunkin’s path to launching the seminal Los Angeles Free Press (Freep), the first issue of which appeared under the headline of Faire Free Press. Kunkin and friends hawked copies of the first issue in costume at the faire and generated the revenue and interest to launch a regular paper. Other scholars have traced Freep’s genesis through the faire, but by refocusing the story, Rubin effectively utilizes the tale to emphasize the festival’s centrality in forging new communities and institutions.[1] The author is persuasive in contending that the faire’s emergence in mid-1960s L.A. made the event a significant countercultural germinating ground and that the world entertainment capital’s concurrent discovery of its own bohemia was not coincidental. In Rubin’s words, the faire soon became “a place of expansive countercultural possibility” (p. 38).

The Utopian Vision That Explains Renaissance Fairs

posted by the man of twists and turns (7 comments total)

Coincidentally, this recent bio-piece on keyboardist Rick Wakeman details his Arthurian rock opera obsession.
posted by Brian B. at 11:40 AM on July 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

Ren faires are my home away from home. I feel more comfortable dressed in garb walking around a faire, with its sometimes terrible fake British accents, its incredibly expensive food, drinks, and wares, and its music and joy and laughter than I do almost anywhere else in the world. I've connected with so many of the most important people in my life either AT or THROUGH ren faires.

And, this year, as with so many other things, the pandemic is killing them. As of this writing, 54 faires across the US have announced they're not opening this year, with another 20 hoping to open on a delayed and/or shortened schedule. Some of those closed faires may not reopen next year, and many of the workers, entertainers, and vendors who rely on faires for the livelihood will have had to move on to something else to stay afloat.
posted by hanov3r at 12:17 PM on July 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Unfortunately, there's a lot of toxicity under that festive facade. Apart from the typical rape culture and racism that pervades, y'know, everything, the hobby attracts lots of folks who fetishize [their historically inaccurate idea of] medieval Europe. Look at the bumper stickers in the parking lot; you'll find Confederate flags and worse. Every now and then a silversmith will have to be told that no, the Iron Cross is not an acceptable design to be selling.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:34 PM on July 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Both of the above comments are true. Some of it is part of the broader battle for anything historical or traditional; some of it is specific to Faire culture (which differs from region to region and Faire to Faire, of course).

I was never SCA or anything like that, but I spent many happy days at the Maryland Renaissance Faire in my teens and twenties. Never worked there, but I got to know some of the people who did. People who made or did amazing things, just good people.

But there was toxicity there too: toxic heteronormativity; toxic masculinity; a certain amount of toxic whiteness (I believe more among attendees than people who worked there; but neither group was free of it.) And the kind of punters Faint Of Butt mentions.

I hope that faire has grown and changed with the times; I haven't been back in many years, but during the season I think it continues to employ a great many people, and I hope they have a good environment to work in.
posted by Pallas Athena at 1:30 PM on July 2, 2020 [4 favorites]

I heartily recommend Rubin's Well Met -- worth reading both for the early history of Faires and also because it touches on some of the other dynamics, including the undercurrents mentioned above. I love cultural history that comes from a place of appreciation for a community while also being clear about shortcomings. Her chapter on race, class, and gender dynamics at Faire is brief but super interesting.
posted by feckless at 2:12 PM on July 2, 2020

The first rock festival, the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival, was supposedly based on the Renaissance Pleasure Faire of 1963. The Fantasy Fair isn't remembered much today, because it was overshadowed by the Monterey Pop Festival, which happened only a week later. However, when the Byrds began their set at Monterey, the first song they played was Renaissance Fair. Lastly, I'd like to concur with the praise for Well Met. It's an excellent account for how Renaissance Fairs were a wellspring of proto-hippie culture & helped sustain countercultures in hostile environments in the 70s and 80s and beyond.
posted by jonp72 at 6:54 PM on July 2, 2020

Hey! The framing narration (and some of the person-in-the-street interviews) are by KPFK's Dave Ossman - later of Firesign Theatre!
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 9:18 AM on July 3, 2020 [1 favorite]