Obligatory!
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That wasn’t the last time. Only from an anglocentric perspective.
Most of the images I posted above reference this
And of course there were many before and since in many parts of the world
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Exactly, it is hard for folks outside the faire community to immediately see the difference. It doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem, just that the particular group is a bad example of it. My first job at a faire (Bristol in fact) paid me $35/weekend - and I was in the minority of people getting paid.
Now, there can certainly be a discussion of the value of the training given at any given faire (at one point BAPA had classes by 4 PhDs and a number of working professionals, in addition to being accepted for college credit) but, at the end of the day, the local cast of a renaissance faire doesn’t get paid much. In the 90’s the Ohio faire was an outlier with everyone being paid and, by a person’s third year, they were being paid the equivalent of minimum wage.
Yes, everyone is a 1099 contractor and yes, they look a lot like employees. In fact, I cannot help but wonder if faires in general might not run afoul of the same issue that Wizards of the Coast had with their “volunteer” tournament staff.
As it stands, many faires have cut way back on their street casts (SoCal being a true outlier) and, in my opinion, the shows suffer for that. The idea of local casts forming a union isn’t a bad idea, although it might also be the end of local casts nationwide depending on how the owners respond.
As an old rennie who spent too many years paying for a place to put my tent at a show that was paying me to be there? I wish them the best.
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Fixed it.
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