Team Gregula both traveled overseas and backwards centuries of time, in this case, to England in the year 1574! The Count and family visited the Bristol Renaissance Faire held every July and August in Bristol, Wisconsin. This faire recreates the Renaissance and is a theme park that has rides, games, crafters, and live shows, among many other diversions.
As a theme park, the shift in entertainment at the Bristol RenFaire is moved from the children to adults. Instead of animatronics of cartoon animals, at the RenFaire you can throw axes and sharpened stars in booths. Instead of controlled parades for children, you can hear the exchange of a tomato toss at a fun and obnoxious talking head, peppered with language not for the thin-skinned. The Bristol Renaissance Faire has much more in the way of mature entertainments than other theme parks and is a popular faire that brings people from the state of Wisconsin and the Chicago area every year.
The Faire every summer is steeped in fantasy. When there, you can easily feel as if you’re in the world of Game of Thrones, or even Middle-earth. While there, you can imagine that you are in Europe in the time of the Crusades or about to witness the crowning of Charlemagne as the first person to take the title of Emperor since Roman Times. While the park is supposedly set in the Renaissance, that is just a general standard that can be creatively angled as long as you’re drawing from the past. Here you can see people costumed in clothing of premodern European eras such as medieval times, and even some ancient modes of clothing (Roman and Greek) are to be seen. Steampunk clothing and wear is also popular. Bristol this year had most of its attendees in costume, with medieval and Renaissance wear highly spotlighted. It seems that a lot of people who attend the RenFaire may have been born in the wrong century! Or, as we all know, the past is more fun than the present. It is always good to play make believe and pretend we are in a fantasy kingdom acting in a heroic story or an epic battle.
While walking the Faire, much fresh air is to be enjoyed as you wander around the shops that offer all sorts of items, from musical windchimes, handwoven straw hats, medieval armor, corsets, garland crowns, faerie doors, and exotic colognes and scents. Many of the shops specialize in the occult, specifically candles, talismans, and spells. There is a strong presence of the occult and witchery at the Faire if one looks and there is a tacit assumption at the faire that the occult and magic are something to be considered.
As we talked with proprietors and those who staffed the shops at the RenFaire, we discovered that some of them have made renaissance faires their lives. Some of the people we met go from faire to faire throughout the year, living here and there, never taking root and always living day to day, having any adventure that a life on the road would present to them. It is fascinating to think of nomadic people who would make renaissance faires central to their whole existence, never forming attachments or friendships because they know they have to get to the next town or city to participate in the next one. People who travel from faire to faire to be staff say that the Bristol RenFaire is one of the very best and is leagues in size bigger than other faires.
Team Gregula talked for a bit with Gnome & Fairy Pottery, a nice couple who sell their wheel thrown ceramics. They said that they purchased the vendor space at the Bristol RenFaire to sell their goods and deeply love what they do. Some of the people that sell and staff the RenFaire are so attached to the festivities that they make their weekends the main part of their lives.
Later on, as the Faire was closing, we ran into a Tinkerbell that used to work at the Disney Theme Parks. She said that she didn’t want to be around Disney anymore and now has a season pass to Bristol and goes there every weekend. Again the theme showed: people who love the RenFaire and make it the heart of their lives, prioritizing it over other events and the mundane world. The Bristol RenFaire seems to be a “rite of passage” each summer for all geeks in Wisconsin, the Chicago area, and the greater Midwest.
The music of the Faire was live and ranged from two person busking to deluxe drumming on stages that would put anyone into a pleasant trance. One of the highlights is to sip on a beverage of choice and listen to the live music. Another highlight of the RenFaire is that everywhere you go, it smells very good! Incense, pure oils diffused, colognes, mists, all these mix to form a buffet of scents in the air.
The Bristol Renaissance Faire is one of the finest renaissance faires to attend and goes till Labor Day Weekend. We sincerely hope to attend next summer. Huzzah!
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