Renaissance Festivals: Merrying the Past and Present

by Kimberly Tony Korol-Evans

This ethnographic study of contemporary American Renaissance fairs focuses on the Maryland Renaissance Festival, in which participants recreate sixteenth-century England through performances of theater, combat-at-arms, processions, street hawking, and meticulously faithful historical reconstructions. It is also partly an autobiographical account of interactive improvisation, subcultures within the festival framework, the delineation between living history and historical elaboration, and a new understanding of performers and patrons.

Genres: Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published August 27, 2009

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I go to the Maryland Renaissance Festival every year, so it was interesting to read this history and academic analysis of it.

Rated down from five stars because of the academic words that I couldn't find in the dictionary.

[Phil Wujek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoiler alert and shameless self promotion....I know the author and worked with her at the Maryland Renaissance Festival while she was working on this book. I am mentioned within the pages. This is a serious work detailing how people interact with the actors at the Renaissance Festival, not just at Maryland, although this is where the book was thoroughly researched, but throughout the Renaissance Festival circuit in the United States. Putting this simply, there are three degrees of involvement between the actors and the paying customers. To quote from the back cover...."This ethnographic study of contemporary American Renaissance fairs focuses on the Maryland Renaissance Festival, in which participants recreate sixteenth-century England through performances of theater, combat-at-arms, processions, street hawking , and meticulously faithful historical reconstructions. It is also partly an autobiographical account of interactive improvisation, subcultures within the festival framework, the delineation between living history and historical elaboration, and a new understanding of performers and patrons."