Jousting, goblins and furries: Dispatch from a UK renaissance faire

Across the world, grown men and women are dressing as medieval knights and peasants. Anna Moloney joins them for the second ever UK Renaissance Faire to find out why It wasn’t long after arriving at my first ever renaissance faire that I realised I’d made a mistake. Days before, I’d been rooting around South London Theatre’s wardrobe cupboard in a desperate bid to find something to wear. As I tried on dozens of peasant blouses and bubble shorts, their costume assistants, the oh so knowledgeable Jenny and Leah, consulted books for me on accurate medieval dress. “Too late Tudor,” ruled Jenny as I pranced out in a full brocade dress. “Too Austrian” the next. My fastidiousness turned out to be needless. In Quex Park, where I stood in a floorlength skirt, green velvet doublet and matching French hood, it was elves, fairies and furries that made up the crowds around me. My attempt to blend in was not going well. When a gothic fairy approached to give me and the two friends I’d dragged along (and dressed in equally heavily velvet) each a “trinket” – three miniature ceramic watermelons – as recognition for “making such an effort”, it was a sweet way to tell us we’d got it just slightly off. For the uninitiated, a renaissance festival – or ‘ren faire’ – is a full-costumed, immersive event that aims to create a world inspired 16th century England – or at least thereabouts. In reality, the vibe leans towards a hodgepodge of Lord of the Rings and a vague ‘fifteen-hundred-and-something’, with a heavy emphasis on fantasy. In the US, where they were first conceived in 1960s counterculture LA (partially as a way to help Hollywood actors out of work on suspicion of being communists), they have become extraordinarily popular, with over 200 ren faires now taking place annually across the country. And now they’re on UK soil, too. The UK Renaissance Fair scene There is something inherently silly about the American fixation with a medieval past they played no part in. And perhaps there’s something even sillier about us now importing their warped version back. Calypso Ellison, who set up Renaissance Faire UK with her partner Jamie Joberns-Dash in 2025, tells me the UK ren faire scene is still very much in its infancy. Her event, a three-day outdoor festival in Birchington-on-Sea, runs an eclectic programme of jousts, goblin raves, masked balls, maypole dancing and wizard wrestling, and this year attracted around 14,000 attendees.