Ren Faire History: From Folk Music to Fried Food

Apple  | Audible |  Spotify  |  RSS  |  YouTube (captioned)
​

Giant turkey legs, fried food, implausible costumes… and counterculture? This episode explores the roots of Renaissance Faires in the US, and how this originally hippie-centric phenomenon was linked to other forms of medievalism in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Communes, folk music, particolored tights, and a reimagined past turn out to be more closely linked than you might imagine. This episode also examines how Ren Faires have evolved and continued to thrive, and why you still — if you’re lucky — might hear Steeleye Span covers at your nearest one.

Host: Lucy

Help keep Footnoting History going, click here to find out how
​

Further Reading

Gillian Bagwell, "The Surprisingly Radical Roots of the Renaissance Fair", Smithsonian Magazine, ( 2023). 

The Byrds, “Renaissance Fair,” 1967.

Empty Hats.

Allen Ginsberg, “Renaissance or Die,” 1965, [note: this painting has the same title as the speech, which is published in Notes from the New Underground, 1968].

Kimberly Tony Korol-Evans, Renaissance Festivals: Merrying the Past and Present, McFarland, (2009).

Valdemar Lenschow, "Middelalderlig".

Terry Nowak and Les Blank, “Pleasure Faire,” trailer.

Lance Oppenheim, dir., Ren Faire (2024).

Rachel Lee Rubin, Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture [online through Ellis Library]

Steeleye Span.

​Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)