As renaissance fairs become big business, can they retain their counterculture roots?

By Katrina Stack, Ph.D. Candidate in Human Geography, University of Tennessee
Reagan Yessler, Adjunct Professor of Human Geography, Pellissippi State Community College

Within moments of entering the Newport Renaissance Faire, you are ushered to a group of fairies. They pass you a scroll and say, “You must seek out the Bone Man for the first hurdle in your quest.” As you navigate the fair, you find many men dressed in bones, both vendors and fellow attendees. When you find the correct Bone Man – an actor wearing what appears to be a mask made of human skull along with a crown constructed from deer antlers – he stamps your scroll. He then sends you to your next target: the Drunk Viking.…

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