Rhonni

BONUS THREAD: 🧵 I broke down Renee Good's murder in the thread above from a female perspective but here's a fabulous video from Brian Recker:

A message from one male to another!

Love him for his empathy.

You’re not mean for reminding vendors of Renfaire show standards. You’re protecting the show.

Tell me you’re a Renfaire pro without telling me.

If certain vendors at your Renfaire have great food, products & teams but are making significantly less than others, it’s a sign that your guest flow is broken.

It can be easy to find yourself years into the Renfaire making minimum wage, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you want to make a real living off of an 8-week festival, you’ll need to be working your career and connections the other 44 weeks of the year.

What time does your Renfaire show end at night & how late do you actually get to stop working?

What is the hardest skill you’ve had to develop for your Renfaire Career?

What’s something that is dangerous when you are working at the Renfaire that you wouldn’t know unless you learned it from a seasoned pro or the hard way?

Every “tiny” breakdown adds up.

Late signage.
Untrained cast.
Bottlenecked paths.

You don’t need more duct tape.
You need Renfaire Foundry secrets.

What is the hardest truth that new Renfaire pros need to learn that will make or break their Renfaire career?

What year was your best year at the Renfaire financially?

If you work at a Renfaire, how did you practice and master your accent & dialect?

Renfaire Showrunners:

What do you do to make sure your Vendors feel respected for all the work they are putting in to make your show successful?

Renfaire show runners: What’s the #1 rookie mistake you see new Renfaire professionals make?

Renfaire days are long. The memories are longer.

The best Renfaires look effortless, but they are far from it.

If you feel like you had a bad day at the Renfaire, start counting shopping bags. You might not be failing, it may have just been a slower day at the show.

If you are having a slow day at the Renfaire, stop and count the bags. It may not be YOU having a slow day, it may just be one of the slower days of the season.

Renfaire Showrunners:

What do you do to make sure your Vendors feel respected for all the work they are putting in to make your show successful?

Renfaire Pros - what is the giveaway phrase that you hear that tells you someone works at a Renfaire show vs being a guest who has gone to some shows?

Not all of your guests at the Renfaire are looking at the show from the same viewpoint.

Remember to get low and look at your booth or the show from the height of the children at the show… there are sales to be made at their level.

Renfaire Pros: What was the hardest lesson you learned your first season?

Renfaire Pros - show me your most historically accurate costume below!

What is something that isn’t historically accurate at the Renfaire that you couldn’t do your job without? 

Mine is radios, spreadsheets, & a warmer in my kitchen.

Renfaire Pros:

What is the weirdest problem you have seen at the Renfaire that you would have to work in the industry to believe was real?

When people say how great it is to be able to make a living at the Renfaire working 8 weeks a year, they aren’t seeing the planning meetings… They just see the payoff.

For many of us in the Renfaire industry, the season is over - but that doesn’t mean the work is done.

Renfaire Pros - what are you doing in the off season to make next season better than ever?

You don’t have to be an extrovert to make a living at the Renfaire. There are countless positions that make the show run without having to entertain and socialize for 12 hours a day.

You just need an industry insider to help you figure out how YOU make it at the Renfaire.

When the Texas Renaissance Festival just wrapped up, I sat down with my team and asked the same questions we ask every year:

“What did we learn?” and “What do we need to write down now so we actually remember it when we open next year?”

You don’t know fatigue until you’ve made it through 8 weeks of running a Renfaire.