While I've never worked at a Renaissance Festival before, it appears as if the pay they're offering doesn't seem to be that great if you factor in how many hours you're actually required to be at the venue.

Several of the groups I have talked with want you to arrive early in the morning for announcements and a rally before the gates finally open. Also, I believe some may frown upon performers leaving right after their shows as they don't want patrons to see you lugging their equipment through the crowds.

So, if you factor in all the time you're actually at the event to me it appears as if you're making $100 or less an hour. I realize, of course, if they like your act they will "block book" you for a series of dates. But again, the fees that I've been seeing ($350 - $650 a day) says this venue might not be as great as it seems.

I keep coming back to the fact that I might make more money working 2 birthday parties than I would landing one of these gigs.

I'm curious to hear others experiences based on these thoughts.

Thanks,

Gerry

I'd also like to point out that some of the Ren Fairs have eliminated "passing the hat," which to me would have been an "added incentive" to work these venues.

Gerry

It all depends really. If I look at it like, I want to make X amount of money and day, and they meet that, then I don't care how many hours I would be working. I wouldn't do it for that amount unless it was the $650 a day for a few days in a row. Actually, I wouldn't do it for less than $900 a day for me personally. Now, if you can pass the hat as well- that would be nice indeed!

I have never performed at a Ren Fair, but I have been to a few and always enjoyed them.

I was approached by a ren fair that offered me about what I usually make on a Saturday afternoon for two days full days of hard work. The ren fair is 100 miles from my home, and if I was out of circulation for a Summer it would be hard to restart my business the following year. The problem is that the ren fairs are accustom to dealing with college kids that have the Summer off and will take chump change for an acting job.
Al Angello

I am currently "The Kings Magician" at The Texas Rennaisance Festival, in Houston Texas. That title is a fairly recent one, maybe 5 years, I have worked there in one fasion or another since 91. First of all, let me tell you that the negative things that the original poster said are not only true, but more than true. The pay blows, the hours can be grueling, and there is little respect for quality over price. All that being said, I do it for a few crutial reasons. First, There is nothing quite like a 10 hour day to keep you on top of your game. If the crowds are good, lots of density, then you can get a serious entertainment workout using this venue. Second, exposure. Not every rennaisance festival is going to have this to offer. If they have a high enough gate count, and are willing to put your face and technical info in their program, there can be some serious value in that. Not to mention that "I'm a magician at the Townsville Rennaisance Festival" looks pretty good to the average person, on your "worked for" page. Third, I have quite a relationship with management at this festival. I have active hat, and the freedom to come and go as I please. If I get a contract in town, I go do the contract in town. If I'm tired at 3pm, I go take a nap. Not everyone will be able to manage this, and you shouldn't abuse it, if you can, but it's freedom, which seems to be one issue.

TRF entertainment does have a "crack of dawn, morning meeting". It is understood by management, that I will not be there. Never the less, every single year, after the time change, I show up to 1 morning meeting. That's because I don't know how to work a clock.

Drew
You are a better, and younger man than me.
Al Angello

PM Bill Palmer, he has a long history of working Ren fairs. He can give you a good insight into how to price and maximize your income from such venues. A lot of places really try to lowball. We have a ren fair that the church used to work selling sandwiches about an hour north of us. The promoters of this fair make a ton of money from what they charge vendors, admission, etc. Their pay is terrible. They always find some sucker to work acts for them though, and even get people to pay them to appear. I'm a firm believer that just because there is money there and an offer of a show, it doesn't mean it is worth taking. I've walked from many a gig in my life. No use doing it unless I can make something reasonable off of it either by fee, or a combination of fee, food, and publicity, etc. Be a Ferengi, if there is no profit in it, don't take it.

Greetings and Salutations,

I am not a full-time magician -- I have a day-job, which I had before I became interested in magic, started performing as a street character at renfairs, and then started performing magic at renfairs.

By all means, if you're trying to talk yourself out of doing these types of venues, please do so. They're hard work, you work long hours, the pay is short unless you are a well-known circuit performer, and you get dirty (performing outdoors with all that that entails, i.e., weather, bugs, etc.)

In my experience, you will not grow rich performing at renfests; although I know a performer who put two kids through college. He's a very good performer!

Renfairs, like the streets, is a crucible for performers. You will either get very good very fast or you will find other ways to spend your hobby dollars. The above mentioned performer puts on five or six shows a day, alternating on stage with another performer, at the faire where I met him.

Me? I've performed on stages and in the lanes, and nothing hones your act like putting it in front of an audience with a chance to tweak it three to five times a day if you're on a stage or a dozen times or more a day if you're working the lanes and passing the hat is your only form of reimbursement. Either way, you'll find out if you're any good, you'll make a good act great, and take a great act to the corporate and cruise level, like the performer mentioned above.

If money is your sole reason for performing at these type of events, please, do not work them. For one, I don't want the competition; two, these types of events are entirely too much fun to worship the dollar; three, there are many performers who love performing at these types of events, operate out a gibciere on one portable table and hone their acts (hey, that could be me); and four, the audience can smell a performer who's only doing it for the money a mile away -- it comes through the sweat glands. Just my $.02 (USD) worth. YMMV.

Joe Zeman aka
The Mage Ulysses

PS ... By all means contact Bill Palmer, he is an acknowledge expert on performing at renfests and will be able to give you an excellent rundown on things renfair. jz

Drew
Did you say Houston? I have been to Houston in the Summer time, and you have got to be crazy. 100 degrees, with 100% humidity for 10 hours, not even when I was 20 would I do that.
Al Angello

We do a lot of ren faires...We are booked for 9 weekends at 5 different faires so far this summer season. Some just one weekend, others for longer runs. It is hot, hard, exhausting work. So...
Why do ren faires?
First off...I love them. I have very close friendships with a lot of the other entertainers, and get a chance hang out and talk shop.

Second- Yes...Only one of them is what I would call close. But in the time I could drive to six gigs (the average number of shows we do in a weekend), I drive to one location. Set up once. I perform three shows spaced out during the day, and spend the rest of the time seeing the shows of the other entertainers, doing a little street magic for kicks and plotting pranks to play on the other performers (Don't look at me like that...They started it when the vikings kidnapped Sylver at the end of the act (There is a video of it on the knottybits myspace page!).

Third- After you have done these shows for a while, you can handle anything. It is a genuine test of the material and your adaptive skills. We have had cannons go off in the middle of our show, sudden downpours, squirrels run accross stage, pirates attack with swords drawn, tricks fail, injuries...These things are now childs play to cope with.

Fourth- Immediate feedback and a chance to try out new things. Remember those other entertainers I mentioned above? They come to see my shows too. They let me know exactly what they saw, and how it was reacted to. Immediately, I know why something didn't work, and can fix it. If you suddenly have something you want to change in a show, you don't have to wait more than a few hours and you can try it. In my regular rep, I would rarely do the exact same type of show twice in a week, and it might be a long time before I can try that little tweak I was working on. This aids in building new bits and improving shows dramatically.

Fifth- It combines a lot of my non-magical hobbies. I love to camp, to cook on a real fire, and to spend time with my kids. At ren faires, I get to do all of the above while performing and making some $. The kids get to watch all of the shows they want (Never missing mine of course!!) We get to camp (Usually in very nice locations) and we have the company of people very much like ourselves.

Last- The Money. Am I going to get rich doing this? Nope. Will I make some money? Yes. Will I make enough to make it worth my time? Yes.
Dollars per hour? Well...In this case I don't think about it. I look at how much I am being paid per performance (The average length of a performance is usually less than 1/2 hour). Why should I worry about being paid when I am enjoying other entertainment myself? Yes...If I was working a normal gig, I could be home playing PS2 or driving between jobs. Where is the fun in that?
But I would never work one where I was not allowed to pass a hat. Not without a lot more $ from the faire. The money I take in in tips almost doubles what I am paid per show. And for Faires- Our show is not cheap.
On top of that, I frequently insist on comped vending space. I'll use that to sell the artwork that Sylver and I come up with during the winter, or use it for a single O (A-la Doug Higley. Go to his site if you don't know what I am talking about- http://www.grindshow.com ). So, between shows, I can sit back in the shade and make even more $.

Could I make more money doing less work? Yep. And other times of the year I do! Using the same show I made and sharpened at the ren fests. I blame the ren fests for the shows success.

Is it for everyone? Oh heck no!!! Most of the performers I know outside of the ren circuit wouldn't last 15 minutes out there! You have to be a little out of your mind (More than the average magician/performer) to really enjoy it, but if you are- You wouldn't trade it.
Gwyd

It really depends where you are trying to work. Bristol has the feeling that the entertainers should work for free and collect tips. Guess its all where you work.

Ok...Scratchin Bristol off of the list I was going to try to get next year...
As much as I love doing it, I won't work for free.
G.

I had a job offer last week to do a five day festival for chump change, that sucker had the nerve to tell me "this is the going rate, take it or leave it", I left it, and gave them Kyle's phone number just to give him a wake up call about the going rate.
Al Angello

I completely agree with Joe Zeman and gsidhe. Ren Faires are a ton of fun. I've got 7 weekends booked coming up shortly and it's the event I truly look forward to the most each year. It's a nice break from the corporate stuff. The camping is great, campfires, having a few beers. I don't fish, so this is a great alternative for getting out for a bunch of weekends in the summer with a bunch of fun people.

It's about being part of something larger than yourself. You become part of a living village. Money is in no way a motivator.

To argue that it's not worth your time if you're not making $100 an hour or whatever, is like saying I won't work in restuarants for $30/ hour because my time is worth more than that. You work restarants to polish your close-up and troll for clients. Same thing at a ren fair. If you want a chance to work a comedy show is a venue that is there for the entertainment, than there isn't a much better chance than a ren fair.

On a side note, if you ever get a chance to see Brother Paul perform, take advantage of it. He's fantastic.

How exactly do you research a role for a RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL. I'm interested in learning the tricks and character required to get a gig like this. Not that I'm going to run and try to do this, but I'm interested in how you become good at this.

Greetings and Salutations,

Use the search function here for "renaissance festival" for starters. Read everything by Bill Palmer on the subject, he wrote the book on performing at renfaires -- literally. And once you've read everything on the Café on the subject, order his book. Master Payne also has worlds of experience in the venue.

Basically, you're performing outdoors, in all types of weather conditions, and you may or may not be on a stage, and you're as likely as not to have a sound system.

The tricks are easy, and as you search you'll find more references than you're likely to need as well as advise on character development.

As they say, God's Speed and Fare Thee Well!

Joe Zeman aka
The Mage Ulysses

Well thank you very much. I will take your advice and run with it. Do you find much success in this field? Is it worth going into?

As the greenest frog in the pond when it comes to Ren fairs, to me it looks very much like fairs in general. They don't appear to be something you can do commercially unless the alternatives are few. On the other hand, they appear to be a lot of fun.

At age 62, I restrict my performances and try to avoid all outdoor fairs. There is one old friend and movie producer who can still get a few out of me but even that has to be compensated elsewhere. (He is in a position to do that.) My weak link is that I'm a sucker for good causes. They can get me when money can't.

I have only worked Ren Fairs as a sponsored "hired gun". It was usually my 22 minute show and then I was gone. I gathered that they were essentially a very specialized flea market and reminded me of a car, gun or bird show. Obviously, I'm wrong.

Bill Palmer has been very kind in trying to educate me about these. Several people/groups have discussed using our place, Magic Valley Ranch for the venue. Since Lucy does magic with live unicorns and we have a theater, arena, barns, rolling open pastures and a lake on the place we get asked. They also like the location (only one turn from the interstate), privacy, facilities and control available here. The fact remains that neither of us has ever spent the day at one.

The only "all day" magic I do is for corporate clients. Coupled with consulting reports it makes these fairs financially unattractive. Recreationally, they seem like a lot of fun. Is that the real focus?

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

Greetings and Salutations,

Is it worth it? Well, that's up to you. I'm not being flip. You have to decide.

I know a mage/entertainer who has put kids through college, he works the circuit, working weekends throughout most of the year, from March, or so, through November. He lives out of an RV while he's on the road. He's well respected and a heck of a good guy. And he is not alone, there are many successful renfaire/fest entertainers -- musicians, jugglers, and magicians.

Keep in mind renfests/faires are a weekend thing and take place, generally, rain or shine -- and they're not kidding about you being on a stage in the rain, or the wind, or the dust storms, or the heat of day -- or cold. Keep that in mind when you're deciding on your routines. And, as you are your own front end, back end, and stage manager, I'd plan on packing light as you have to pack you show both on and off the stage, and you generally have a 30-minute slot on the stage. And don't even think about going long!

I love performing at them, but they are not my primary source of income. If money was no object, I'd perform at as many of them as I could. I love the atmosphere, the patrons, the performers, and knocking off at the end of the day and enjoying a tall, cool, chewy beer.

I've performed on stages and in the lanes. I like the lanes because I can pick and choose when and where I work, and I also have to work and work and work because I am then working strictly for hats.

Is it worth it. I certifiably think so. But this is also certifiably a situation where YMMV!

Joe Zeman aka
The Mage Ulysses

As I said before...You aren't going to get rich. If you are really good and it is a good faire, you can do fairly decently. I have never come away from a weekend without what I consider a decent wage for the amount of work done.

Could I make it my only source of income? Nope. I still need to take on other shows in the off season. The Faires only run (At least around here) from May through September.
But I don't know many performers (Ren fest or otherwise) that could make enough in five months to coast for seven.

This type of work is not for everyone.
It can be hot, cold, miserable, wet, and windy all on the same day. No lighting, no sound, no recorded music, no curtains, no wings to stages, no civilized facilities, other shows and activities going on within shouting distance, audience members that are actors or performer wanabe's that think they are clever enough to "Help" your show. Squirrels that can get into your props...(That might be just me...)
But if it is for you, you will know it.
Gwyd