What lead YOU to the dark side ... mwhahahaha?!

[daBaroness]

I was thinking about this last night and I don't know if we've had a thread here about just who or what brought you to your first renaissance festival. (We know why you got hooked - you're a rengeek like the rest of us!) So ... you got some 'splainin' to do Lucy!

[daBaroness]

I'll go first. It was the fall of 1973 in Shakopee, Minnesota. One of my dearest, most-beloved friends of all time, the late Kevin Ford invited me to go to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival with his family because one of his sisters was playing in school musical group. The following year I sang with our high school madrigal choir. And so it began ...

[Lady Sarah]

I remember going to Scarby years and years and years ago... LONG before the pavillion was there behind the gate (where they have wedding ceremonies now). it was a huge sloping hill. I remember part of it vividly because my asshole brother paid Christophe the Insulter about $25 to target me. I tried walking away but he kept following me and my brother was laughing his ass off. Even when I broke down in tears, Christophe kept at me, mocking me. My dad finally paid him to go away. I was... young. I don't remember how old I was, really. I didn't go back for years.

I went back to Scarby, oh, about 10 years ago or so. I was heavily involved with the Celtic/Scottish Festivals and my counterpart in MacLellan and I went on Scottish weekend. God, it was MUDDY!! We'd planned to dress out for the trip, but had no desire to drag our skirts/dresses through the mud. So, we 'daned it. It wasn't until the next year that I 'met' Tracy online through the JIF group and she turned me on to the IWG.

[MillieWylde]

I was in Madrigals Choir two years in high school (the max allowed, it was only open to juniors & seniors). That's where I got my first Ren-style outfit. I ran away with it, after that. I went to college the next year, met two women who are STILL some of my greatest friends (and one of whom looks like my twin sister). We got involved - as much as we could - with the SCA on/around our campus. My "twin" took us to her house over fall break to go to MDRF. We kept playing with the SCAdians. We took about 3 times as many people to MDRF the next fall. I took "Military History of the Middle Ages" during January short-term, and we got greatsword practice every day after lunch (what an awesome class). Sometime between then and the next fall's MDRF trip we heard about the IWG... but it took me the next 7 years to collect enough spare monies to join!

[surlywench]

it was 1989, I was 10, loved horses, and my mom saw an ad for the PA Ren Faire in the Philly Inquirer.
done.

[Kathryn Blakeley]

Well my friend Sarah brought me my freshman year of high school to ren fest and I never looked back. :P And then the credit for bringing me to MIRF cast lies equally between my friends Ozzy and Adriana and Rachel and Blair. Adriana introduced me to Ozzy, who was on cast, and he said I should audition. Rachel and Blair then had me drive with them to auditions on a whim. Aaaaaaand it all went downhill from there. :P

Honestly, I can't imagine how much different my life would be without the friends I have made on cast and off. They have become my family.

[LdyJhawk]

My parents went to KCRF the year it opened. Then my brothers wanted to go back..and every year after. First time I was at a renfaire I was 6-7 months old

[lady Amalthea]

My brother started going to MDRF in 1995, came home and wouldn't stop talking about it. I was around 16 at the time. To be honest I thought it sounded really dorky at the time, he was also into D&D and that stuff too. not me. The next year when it rolled around again my brother said I had to go, it would be awesome, I didn't want to. In the end I decided to go, I figured it would shut him up when he saw I didn't like it. Needless to say after the first hour I was hooked, and the next year I dragged my friend up and we've been going every year since.

My brother still never lets me forget I never wanted to go and he had to drag me up the first time.

[Margaret]

My friend Alex had press passes and asked a group of his friends to go - including the hubby and myself.

[Seodora Dragonfly]

I did a craft fair on the grounds of The Mt Hope Winery and I think I got a free or discounted ticket to attend the very FIRST Pa Ren Faire to be held later that year - in the now PARKING LOT ! ! ! (Before the grounds/buildings were ever built).
A few years later I joined the Friends of Faire. A few more years after that Rhiannon talked me into joining the IGW. And a few more years after that, Ysobelle helped me sign onto the wench board.
I know I'm dating myself - but I feel like any Ren faire is my own little Brigadoon ( a mini vacation in another world, 1 day a week for however long the season runs) & I don't have to wait 100 years for the next opening in time. =j=