As my comrades have already detailed, last week marked the first opportunity to produce a draft of our theses beyond a proposal. I used this time to re-evaluate the state of af-fairs (ha) of Renn Faires in the United States, and select those which I intend to use as "cases" for my argument!
Initially, I had planned to use my "home" Faire, the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, as well as the New York Renaissance Fair (closest to RIT) for case studies as a subcomponent of my thesis paper. A quick search of events in the US, however, turned up some interesting data. I had known that the oldest Faire in the US (considered to be the first ever anywhere, and the blueprint for Faires to come) is the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in California, inaugurated in 1962. What I didn't know, however, was that that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Some fun facts and figures for you*:
- The Texas Renaissance Festival pulls in the highest yearly attendance of 500,000-600,000 guests!
- The Colorado Renaissance Fair has the largest physical space, clocking in at 338 acres!
- Pennsylvania (though my personal favorite of course) rests in the middle of the pack, founded in 1980 as a publicity stunt that turned wildly popular and now pulls in around 250,000 visitors yearly.
With all of this information, I changed my initial plans and have settled on a trifecta of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, Texas Renn Fest, and PA Renn Faire as my case studies. These events really run the gamut of what Faires have to offer, and I have been dutifully researching them each as a valuable foundation for my project.
To summarize: My first draft arrives at the intersection of exciting things, and I can't wait to use this information I've been gathering to better my work. Long live the Faire!
*Information accessed & summarized via Wikipedia; corroborated by each Faire's official website.
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