Student Writers-Ren Fest
"T-shirts and souvenirs; right over here! Don’t just walk on by and eat that turkey leg Sir; buy your lady something nice." Goblets, steins and tankards, this way. I think your lady is in need of a new t-shirt!" Such sayings as these can be heard all around the Renaissance Festival, right out of the lips of a teenage worker.
Ashley
People from everywhere attend the Renaissance Festival each year and thousands walk through those opening gates to the festival every day. Yet before those people enter the gates, the workers, who make the Festival possible, go on through and set up all of their merchandise.
I am included as a worker in the festival and I work with my Forensics group selling t-shirts and souvenirs throughout the day. 
The Renaissance Festival helps pay for our trip to Mackinac Island in May and other group outings. It also helps with our voices and our ability to speak loud and clear, because in order to sell things we have to hawk. Hawking means to talk with a Renaissance accent and be loud and mostly pick on people in order to sell your items.
The Festival started August 20th and runs through October 2nd. Throughout the two weekends that I have worked so far, many people crossed my path. With those people who work and those who just attend for the fun of it, there are many different kinds of outfits that they wear. They range from elegant dresses with an abundance of layers, peasant wear, pirates, people that are naked, or do not dress up at all and then those people who wear very risqué clothing. And even on the rainiest day, you are guaranteed to see handfuls of different people.
So far throughout the Festival my day has been packed full of adventures, funny moments and ultimately, having a blast with other workers, my team and random people walking by.
The start of a Festival day for me is in our main store. I stock shelves, do inventory and people watch other workers as they pass by the doors. The start of the morning is slow, but by the time the main store is done and stocked, I am awake and ready to start my day.
Next, I load up the dolly and take boxes of merchandise out to the Joust vardo. It is located right by the jousting field and the Washing Well Wenches Show. As I make my way to my vardo I pass plenty of food along the way, some which is very good by the way. I also go by other workers and we smile at one another and nod. As I get closer to the vardo I see my neighbor who sells feather wear and her homemade bead work. I usually talk to her, she is very sweet.
After I get to the vardo I unload and start stocking the shelves. This doesn’t take that long since most of the shirts are already folded. After this is done I wait until the fun part begins. This happens right after the cannon blows and they open the gates.
It seems to take forever for people to make their way to joust so to pass the time, my exchange student I am working with and I, people-watch the workers and find the craziest outfits. Sometimes you get people who have a copious amount of clothes covering their back but when they turn around it is like all of their skin jumped out from behind. Or there are the people who have the most uncomfortable shoes on and still try to hang on to their dog and learn to walk in heels.
By the time we cover most of the workers, we are surrounded by innocent people who just wanted to experience the festival. Well, as a worker I like to give the people what they want, so I make it my sworn duty to address them Renaissance style and to enjoy myself. Most of the time
they don’t give my "Good Day" a time of day and just walk on by, which only makes matters worse when I call them out with "don’t walk by me; be a man and take a look at our t-shirts." Sometimes when I think of it I’ll hold the Village Idiot t-shirt up to a guy and tell his wife it suits him. At the Festival you can be as creative as the number of t-shirts you have.
After doing this for a couple of hours we are given an hour break. My break consists of walking around the festival, eating usually a quesadilla and looking at the many stores that are placed around the grounds. Stores consist of different clothing ranging from royalty to peasant and from gypsy to leather wear.
Knickknacks are scattered the most around the festival and range from diverse jewelry to an arrangement of teas. Yet out of all the stores my favorites are the fairy dust and the henna tattoos. Although fairy dust is my top choice, because each time you use up your sparkles on yourself or little kids you can refill it for free as many times as you would like. It is a really good deal, since I have noticed that I am obsessed with glitter and I use excessive amounts each weekend on people.
After awhile of touring myself around I make my way back to my vardo. I continue my day with hawking and selling most of my t-shirts than after the cannon blows at the end of the day, the people start making their way out and I start loading up the clothes. Still I glance over my shoulder to look at people because you could walk around a million times and still miss one person’s outfit.
Finally after my boxes are packed and my dolly is loaded I make my way back to the store. Once there I start to see a change in people, they start becoming naked and taking off their outfits and getting into their comfy clothes. I change as well, and I clean up and count stock as I usually do. I walk out of the door and there is cheering and laughing from all of the workers who are already done packing up and they are playing their drums and dancing. I smile as I pass them and I take a quick look before I leave at those opening gates. That is the last thing I notice of the Festival before I leave each weekend and the next time I come back, they are there awaiting me.
The Renaissance Festival helps pay for our trip to Mackinac Island in May and other group outings. It also helps with our voices and our ability to speak loud and clear, because in order to sell things we have to hawk. Hawking means to talk with a Renaissance accent and be loud and mostly pick on people in order to sell your items. The Festival started August 20th and runs through October 2nd. Throughout the two weekends that I have worked so far, many people crossed my path. With those people who work and those who just attend for the fun of it, there are many different kinds of outfits that they wear. They range from elegant dresses with an abundance of layers, peasant wear, pirates, people that are naked, or do not dress up at all and then those people who wear very risqué clothing. And even on the rainiest day, you are guaranteed to see handfuls of different people.
So far throughout the Festival my day has been packed full of adventures, funny moments and ultimately, having a blast with other workers, my team and random people walking by.
The start of a Festival day for me is in our main store. I stock shelves, do inventory and people watch other workers as they pass by the doors. The start of the morning is slow, but by the time the main store is done and stocked, I am awake and ready to start my day.
Next, I load up the dolly and take boxes of merchandise out to the Joust vardo. It is located right by the jousting field and the Washing Well Wenches Show. As I make my way to my vardo I pass plenty of food along the way, some which is very good by the way. I also go by other workers and we smile at one another and nod. As I get closer to the vardo I see my neighbor who sells feather wear and her homemade bead work. I usually talk to her, she is very sweet. After I get to the vardo I unload and start stocking the shelves. This doesn’t take that long since most of the shirts are already folded. After this is done I wait until the fun part begins. This happens right after the cannon blows and they open the gates.
It seems to take forever for people to make their way to joust so to pass the time, my exchange student I am working with and I, people-watch the workers and find the craziest outfits. Sometimes you get people who have a copious amount of clothes covering their back but when they turn around it is like all of their skin jumped out from behind. Or there are the people who have the most uncomfortable shoes on and still try to hang on to their dog and learn to walk in heels.
By the time we cover most of the workers, we are surrounded by innocent people who just wanted to experience the festival. Well, as a worker I like to give the people what they want, so I make it my sworn duty to address them Renaissance style and to enjoy myself. Most of the time
they don’t give my "Good Day" a time of day and just walk on by, which only makes matters worse when I call them out with "don’t walk by me; be a man and take a look at our t-shirts." Sometimes when I think of it I’ll hold the Village Idiot t-shirt up to a guy and tell his wife it suits him. At the Festival you can be as creative as the number of t-shirts you have. After doing this for a couple of hours we are given an hour break. My break consists of walking around the festival, eating usually a quesadilla and looking at the many stores that are placed around the grounds. Stores consist of different clothing ranging from royalty to peasant and from gypsy to leather wear.
Knickknacks are scattered the most around the festival and range from diverse jewelry to an arrangement of teas. Yet out of all the stores my favorites are the fairy dust and the henna tattoos. Although fairy dust is my top choice, because each time you use up your sparkles on yourself or little kids you can refill it for free as many times as you would like. It is a really good deal, since I have noticed that I am obsessed with glitter and I use excessive amounts each weekend on people.
After awhile of touring myself around I make my way back to my vardo. I continue my day with hawking and selling most of my t-shirts than after the cannon blows at the end of the day, the people start making their way out and I start loading up the clothes. Still I glance over my shoulder to look at people because you could walk around a million times and still miss one person’s outfit. Finally after my boxes are packed and my dolly is loaded I make my way back to the store. Once there I start to see a change in people, they start becoming naked and taking off their outfits and getting into their comfy clothes. I change as well, and I clean up and count stock as I usually do. I walk out of the door and there is cheering and laughing from all of the workers who are already done packing up and they are playing their drums and dancing. I smile as I pass them and I take a quick look before I leave at those opening gates. That is the last thing I notice of the Festival before I leave each weekend and the next time I come back, they are there awaiting me.
Ashley
