Crafty Dorkitude: Renaissance Fest
This weekend in Golden Gate Park, the Renaissance Festival will be here- at Speeway, in all of its fantasy world of dungeons & dragons, seriously nostalgic, heraldic glory (photos here)
As I decided to go earlier this week, I realized that I could no longer make fun of burners (fond name for Burning Man attendees, which occurs at the same time in Nevada.) yes- days of playa hatin’ are gone now. though I still am collecting bad BM stories if you have ’em.
I was at the Chinatown fabric shop*- Fabric Depot on Stockton right before the tunnel- talking to the owner about fairs coming through town and whether anyone had been here stocking up on naturally dyed linens and leathers. “The Dickens fair was big. Lots of stuff for that.” He told me. He was impressed that I was going to try to make a dress without buttons. I wanted to be “faire legal”- despite being a newbie. Buttons aside, can we keep the Nanos & Crackberries at home?
I’m hoping the Renn Fest is Zeitgeist in costume. We can always dream.
* Making an 8-panel dress out of sky blue muslin from a historically Greenland pattern that was found in a dig. It’s easy but the shoulders are hard. “gates of hell” bodice.
Technically, the Ren Faire (Aug 25-26) and Burning Man (Aug 27-Sep 3) do not overlap.
i’ve been giving the burners a bit of a mad magazine-esque hard time myself, but it’s always meant in good fun.
lord knows, i am sure any gathering of folks in costume can get a little ribbing from others in full regalia. I mean, jeez, at comimcon there’s all sorts of degrees of cosplay, fancostumes, and more….and don’t forget the anime cosplayers that have their parade…and…and…
and in the interests of human rights everywhere, I STILL refuse to dress up as Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop anime, no matter HOW many times people ask…
tinman- yeah I didn’t check the dates of BM and just know folks who are taking the week to do it.
are you going to both? I have yet to meet someone who would be into both.
I have a perfect attendance record. I have never attended either event.
Personally, I think there would be no small amusement attending the Ren Faire in a Burning Man costume. The other way around, not so much so.
And yes, I am a native Californian and have spent the majority of my life around the SF Bay Area.
My thought is that Burning Man was actually cool when it was still on a beach, before MTV sent news crews to Nevada. Heck, maybe I’ll check out those new fire pits this year.