Sounds Like A Cult - The Cult of Renaissance Faires

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

Hear ye, hear ye! These culty wenches doth have-est a new episode for thine ears. Grab your turkey legs and your chainmail because we are galavanting into the culty lair of Renaissance Faires! Amanda and Iman are joined this week by the fair maidens of Morbid (@morbidpodcast), Alaina Urquhart (@alainatothemax) and Ash Kelley (@ashkell83) to discuss the cult-like rituals, language, and charismatic leaders of the Ren Faire, from ye olde accents to full on immersive experiences. We’re talking the tight knit communities, the rules of the realm, and asking the real questions like: when does cosplay become identity? How many “huzzahs” does it take before you’re fully indoctrinated? And why is Mark Hamill here? Is this a Live Thine Life, Mind Thy Back, or Get Thee to a Nunnery? Subscribe to Sounds Like A Cult on Youtube!Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod, @amanda_montell, @reesaronii, @chelseaxcharles, @imanharirikia.  Thank you to our sponsors! To Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain, Head to ⁠⁠⁠https://www.squarespace.com/CULT Thanks to Article for sponsoring this podcast! Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit ⁠https://www.article.com/discount/cult⁠ and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout. If your glasses are overdue for a refresh, now is the time. Use code PODCAST15 for fifteen percent off your first order at bit.ly/3OdtU5X Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is proudly brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform to help entrepreneurs stand out and succeed online. I am a longtime Squarespace user. Building Sounds Like a Cult.com was incredibly easy, and I happen to think our website looks very pro. And that is thanks to Squarespace's glorious features, including their design intelligence, which combines two decades of industry-leading design expertise with cutting edge AI technology. Squarespace payments also makes it incredibly easy to sell anything on a Squarespace website. I also love that you can set up a church.

fundraiser, managing all your donors in one place. There's honestly nothing you can't do with a website using Squarespace. Head to Squarespace.com for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash cult to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. The views expressed on this episode, as with all episodes of Sounds Like a Cult, are solely host opinions and quoted allegations. The content here should not be taken as indisputable fact. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. What other rituals and practices did you pick up on? The whole thing that it's a language.

They have a specific language that they go by, you know, like the hazzas. They love a hazah moment. The merry meet when you get there. Mary part. Instead of like peace out, merry part. Mary part. And I think they're held to pretty strict standards for sticking to that language. Yeah, like not breaking character.

Like you can't just be like, oh my God, what's up? You'll get in trouble for that. And a lot of people who go to the fairs also adhere to it. They slip into character. people, yeah, everybody kind of slips into this world. Yeah, the language piece is very compelling, and there are so many, like, special little acronyms and, like, clicky phrases. I mean, it's just such an easy, invisible, and seemingly commitment-free way of sucking someone into a subculture. And making others feel like they're missing out. That's culty. This is Sounds Like a Cult. A show about

the modern day cults we all follow. I'm Amanda Montel, author of books, including The Age of Magical Overthinking Out Now in Paperback. I'm Imondriakia, author of female fantasy, the most famous girl in the world, and 100 other girls. Every week on the show, we discuss a different zeitgeistie group or guru that puts the cults in culture. From sparkly Sephora shoppers to book talk romance girlies to try and answer the big question. This group sounds like a cult, but is it really? And if so, which of our cult categories does it fall into? Live your life?

Watch your back. Or a get the fuck out. For some reason, there was kind of like a Renaissance Shakespearean tone to your voice. I had to bring my performance up a notch because we're talking about the one, the only Renaissance fairs today. And we deserve to because here's the thing. Renaissance fairs might not fit the description of like a Manson-level cult, but cultishness falls on a spectrum. And sometimes the most destructive groups are not the ones that seem the cultiest on the outside. and vice versa. So yeah, there are really fringy, ritualistic aspects of diehard horse girls,

for example, but they are kind of harmless. And yet, there are other groups that are so much more cultishly insidious than they might seem when you break it down, even if they've been given a mainstream stamp of approval, like Mark Zuckerberg or Mr. Beast. This show is all about determining the differences among these various groups as we move through these ever-culty times and having a laugh, if we may, along the way. Some subcultural communities built whole alternate worlds that you can step into for a day. There are staged battles. There are archaic accents.

There are juicy, juicy turkey legs and head-toe, period, garb. And this week, we will be partying like it's $1599 as we discuss the cult of Renaissance fairs. Do do do do do do do. Wait, no, what is that? Green sleeves. It sounded like a lute to me. Okay, great. A modern obsession that stages and romanticizes the past with both theatrical gusto and irresistible whimsy. These events are definitely nerdy.

They're ritualistic and they're kind of French. But do they ever resemble classic cults in a more intense way? Ooh, that's what we're going to find out. Amon, what is your relationship to Renaissance Fares personally? So, I've never been to a Renaissance Fair, even though I really deeply believe that I would enjoy them. That is shocking to me. Everyone says that to me. Literally why? I am a huge fantasy reader. I'm a huge romanty reader. I just love costumes. I love cosplay. I love everything that makes up a Renaissance Fair. My sister has been, my husband has been, my friends have been, but for some reason, I have always just had a conflict, and I haven't made it to one. Your jousters missing one another in the night. No, and like nobody loves to verbally joust as much as me,

so I'm sure a physical joust would take me to the next level. Wow, that's gorgeous. What about you, Amanda? I have been me to a Renaissance fair. I will never forget my very first Renaissance fair experience. I was 15 years old. I wore heels, which was a mistake, because the ground is dirt. Grassy knolls.

Yeah, there's so many grassy knolls. I threw axes. I went to a petting zoo. I ate a big pickle. And my life was never the same. I definitely, well, we'll talk about this later when we experience a gorgeous little cameo from some very special guests. But I do think the Renaissance Fair kind of like scrambles multiple European periods of your. It's not like strictly Renaissance. But regardless, I like you, love the general fairy tale vibe. that these general time periods inspired. And a Renaissance Fair is a way to experience that in real life. I have gone probably half a dozen times throughout my life. I love to dress up. I love a corset. You know, I love shopping and eating funnel cake and whatever.

Like, it's just a great way to spend day. But I know more about Renaissance Fair culture from the performer side than I should because one of my very best friends, Amanda Core, it's very interesting having a best friend with your same name, We are the Amanda's. Her first full-time job out of college was being a full-time pirate at a year-round Renaissance fair in Pennsylvania. The perfect job does not exist. Wow. Okay, I love a bit and there's nothing I appreciate more than committing to said bit. Oh yeah. She had to speak in an Irish

accent for like nine months. Oh my God. Did she lose her own sense of self? Yeah. But like in a good way ultimately. There was kind of an expiration date. She had a contract. the Renaissance Fair didn't take place during the wintertime. So it wasn't going to like suck her in for life. But it did suck her in for a time. And her stories of this time in her life when she lived on Shire. Okay. That's what it's called when you live and work on the Renaissance Fair campus on Shire. Okay. So we're definitely not going for historical accuracy. No. No. I mean, what is a historically accurate Shire? I don't know. Wait, I want to look that up. I think it's a word that was invented by, Tolkien. I have to believe. Wow. Actually, you know what? No. A Shire is a county. And it apparently derives from Old English. Oh, so is it just popularized by Tolkien? That derivative motherfucker. That's just going to expose. He did invent works, though. I mean, he invented so much. I'm obsessed with J.R. O'T know, Tolkien. And we do have a Lord of Rings episode coming. No, oh my God, the least amount of shade that could ever be thrown of Tor is definitely for J.R. Tolkien. Yeah. All.

Also, fans of the Lord of the Rings and fans at reticons fairs might just be a circle. Yeah. It's me. It's me. I don't think, I don't even know if our regular listeners appreciate how geeky I can be. Yeah. Well, actually I identify as a nerd, not a geek. But this is the segment of culture that kind of challenges that identity.

I would also say, like, I identify as like, I'm a hot nerd. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Tell, to speak on it. Yeah. Yeah.

So Amanda Corr lived on Shire. It was kind of like being at adults. theater camp 24-7. There's a lot of incestuousness. Renaissance fairs are like really horny places the way that theater kids are horny. She like fell madly in love with this musician that did not live on Shire.

He was just contracted to perform at the Renaissance Fair. And did he play Renaissance-appropriate instrument? I don't remember. But probably. Yeah, he probably played the fucking liar. The dream. He was like a jester. She showed me a picture of him.

I was like, this guy. And do they stay in character while living on the Shire? Not like in a Daniel Day-Lewis way. Like they do kind of clock out, sort of, like in terms of the character, but not in terms of like their relationships to each other. And she told me about the dynamics between the full-time Renaissance performers and the regulars who were called Friends of Fair. Faf. Yes, Faf. These were devotees who would go to the Renaissance Fair.

Almost every day they had elaborate costumes. They would want to ingratiate themselves with their. the performers, like, get close to them. It was almost this, like, fourth wall breaking parisocial sort of situation. You weren't allowed to drink on the job unless a friend of fair, like, bought you a drink. Oh, wow. That's a loophole. Yeah, for sure. For sure. But yeah, your job at the Renaissance Fair Amanda Corr told me was, like, all improv. And then there was, like, a formal show at some point, like, as a pirate, but you would just flounce around the fair in character. Being a pirate. Yeah, being a pirate with an Irish accent.

I mean, that sounds really fun. It sounds so fun. And I think overall, it is really fun, but wherever you have isolated compounds and really sort of like messy interpersonal dynamics, it can get culty in a negative way. There are some stories of some lawsuits coming. But before we get too deep into it,

we probably should define a Renaissance fair for those who clicked onto this episode completely, but I don't, what? I just here because you'd love it. of us. Yeah, exactly. Who just click on whatever. So let's get into some Renaissance fair lore, some history to figure out the origin story

of this particular cult. The modern Renfair actually began with the Renaissance Pleasure Fair, which was organized by a dynamic duo, Phyllis and Ron Patterson, as a $150 KPFK radio fundraiser in the year of our Lord May, 1973. This was in Los Angeles, and I actually have been to the Renaissance Pleasure Fair. It still exists. But back then, Renaissance Fair featured about 60 booths, drew 3,000 plus people, raised about $6,000, and returned to the following year. So it is worth noting that the cult of Renaissance fairs and the cult of non-profits do kind of, yes, they do have some overlap from the very beginning. The event was kind of a hit from the beginning. It was in Los

Angeles, meaning it attracted some celebrity visitors, members of the birds, Nancy Sinatra, Harrison Ford. I can't believe he was there and is still alive. And could still be there, in fact. It could still be there. Peter Fonda, The Doors, and helped launch Mark Hamill's career. That's Luke Skywalker, right? Yeah.

Okay. That's not a cult that I'm in. By the 1990s, fairs had really reached their cultural peak. They were bought and commercialized. And today, there are currently over 200 medieval slash renaissance fairs across the U.S., which are kind of defined by, like, costumed performers and attendees who bring the general era to life through jousting in Shakespearean theater, period music, artisan stalls, games like axe-throwing, themed food.

They borrow from kind of a hodgepodge of outskirty, nerdy, geeky, cultural touchstones, Viking stuff, pirate stuff, European settings, fantasy characters are cool, elves, wizards, dragons. It's supposed to be immersive. It's supposed to be outdoor. It's supposed to be interactive. It's a whole time. I actually threw a fantasy themed birthday party last year and now I'm realizing that it could have passed as a Renaissance Fair. It was outside. It was indoors, but it was basically like my own personal Renaissance Fair. Oh, I love that. Yeah, so consider me a cult leader. What kind of booths did you have? Thank you for asking. I had a fortune teller. We got a tarot reader. Oh my God. I had a magician, a traveling magician who did magic. I turned 30. I don't do this for

every birthday. And then we also had potions instead of cocktails. Like I got little potion bottles. I love. Yeah. Well, you know how much I love a themed party. And actually my, this isn't Renaissance, but again, the Renaissance Fair does kind of seem more medieval than Renaissance at times. Anywho, I want to have, not a fantasy, a period-accurate medieval-th 34th birthday party. That we need to take super, super seriously. Yes, so seriously. I was looking up... Candleight only. Yeah, Candelight only, like, sort of Arthur's roundtable style feast. I was looking up headdresses on Etsy that I could wear, and I wanted to do kind of like

a mafia-style interactive game. Oh my gosh. Surrounding the bubonic plate. Wow, okay. So we're going to be getting into like the politics of the time. Oh, yes. And I'm going to be assigning my friends based on their personality. So I guess it's like casting a different feudal role. So it's also like a murder mystery. 100%. 100%. So you can see why we're both Renfair oriented. Well, speaking of the politics of the medieval era. Indeed. Actually, there are some pretty clear political roots of the Renfair. Renfair culture was really born of the same cultural tensions that gave us so many 60s and 70s era cult movements from Woodstock to the Mansons. Wide range. In the 60s,

These Renaissance fairs blended countercultural anti-modernism with avant-garde theatricality, a deliberate rebuke to the 1950s Cold War conformity. They challenged belligerents, rigid gender roles, anti-communist orthodoxy, and narrow ideas of the nuclear family. I'm getting that. Yeah. Fun fact, actually. Phyllis and Ron Patterson recruited blacklisted Hollywood artists, mostly left-wing creatives, who used the fair as a rare outlet for their talents.

and that original experiment helped clear space for later countercultural gatherings and sounds like a cult episode topics. Coachella and Burning Man. That's beautiful. Wow. Fascinating. You know what? This actually makes sense, but one of the reasons why I think Coachella and Burning Man,

they feel less wholesome. It's because of like the elitism involved in them. Totally, totally. And I also think it's because of the drugs. And the drugs, yeah. Like, have I done shrooms at the Renaissance Fair? Yes. but is that like the vibe?

Do you have to do Shrooms at the Renaissance Fair? No, exactly. Yeah. I think all three of them have a like, release your inhibitions element to them. But that's kind of where. But maybe a Renaissance Fair attendees inhibition is like, I'm shy in school. Yeah. And like a Burning Man attendees inhibitions are like, I just bought a company and now I need to drop bass.

I would like to, I'd like to cosplay as someone who like needs to bars. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Well, in her book, well-met Renaissance fairs in the American counterculture, Professor of American Studies Rachel Lee Rubin describes the fairs as laboratories for social and creative experiment, fluid gender performance, new sexualities, alternative communal living, and drug use. Oh, I'm wrong. I'm so, okay, maybe it's changed, but when I think of the Renaissance Fair, I think of like points of beer and mead and... It's hearty.

It's wholesome and hearty. Yeah. And so here we get the quote, by the freaks for the freaks, which honestly, I love, I could see it being a little bit derogatory just in the sense that I feel like people who go to Renaissance fairs are actually really

interested to explore their shared, like, solitary activities with maybe other said freaks. Like, they just want to meet more people who have, their niche interests outside of like their Dungeons and Dragons community. Totally. Totally. Totally. But as Neil Steinberg, a columnist for the Chicago Sun Times put it, where theme parks feel safe and sanitized, the Renaissance Fair can offer a whiff of the occult, a flash of danger, and a hint of the erotic. Yeah. Okay. So here's the thing. So far it might be giving live your life. But as we mentioned, where there are these like isolated, grassy knolls,

and outskirty cultures, power and even sexual abuse can percolate. Now, the wonderful sex educator Shambudram, who I actually just interviewed for my other podcast, magical overthinkers for an episode on horniness, as she told me, sex is neutral. It can either go good or bad. And at the Renaissance Fair, that is very true. So something you wouldn't know as someone who's never been to a Renaissance Fair

is that people are wearing their sexuality on their bell sleeves. when I went to the Renaissance Fair this past year with my friend Amanda Cora, the one who worked at the fair. I swear I got called like a dirty little wench within three minutes of stepping foot onto that knoll. And I loved it, you know, like it's... Arcane cat calling. Exactly, exactly. I loved it. There is a particular drinks booth at this Renaissance Fair.

The line I swear to God is like an hour long and people queue up to have like a gorgeous, gorgeous beer went. pour beer down your gullet, stare you in the eyes as you drink, and dirty talk you. She'll be like, yeah, suck it, you bad little thing. I know you want that. Oh, wow. It's like such an experience. So we enter the kink community when we're out. Yeah. No, honestly, yes.

I was going to say the Renaissance fair attendees kind of remind me of furries a little bit. I could see that. Which as I've learned, like not all furies engage in like actual sex acts. Yeah. Anyway, but these are horny places, but sometimes that can go south. So I think it's time to get into a few controversies, times when the fun and games of that horny energy crossed the line. Here's a concrete example.

In 2018, an entertainment director and performer at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival named Carr Hagerman was accused of criminal sexual misconduct after allegedly sexually abusing a freelance photographer on festival grounds. Mary Ann Combs of Minnesota Public Radio News reported that the employee was sexually and physically assaulted by Hagerman until she lost consciousness. In 2021, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights reached a settlement with the Minnesota-run Fair Production Company after finding the assault accusations credible. NPR News reported that additional civil charges were made by multiple female former workers who alleged years of abuse and harassment and very little help and support from the festival's management. One of the plaintiffs, Linda Claire Baer, said that Hagerman knew how to pray. on vulnerable women, especially since he had control over their contracts with the festival.

So, I mean, again, we said that this, like, reminds us of theater camp, of theater school, of theater kids, but that is an environment in which, again, like, sexual abuse is, yeah, not uncommon because, yeah, it's, like, a vulnerable group of people who are sometimes mistreated and exploited because of their desire for belonging and their desire to want to operate in this less than mainstream space. There have been OSHA violations and mistreatment of workers in certain Renaissance fairs. One particular scandal surrounds the Oregon Ren Fair that's held every weekend in June and welcomes more than 75,000 guests. But last year, among its visitors, the Renfair received inspectors from the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health, OSHA.

And what they found was less than magical. OSHA officials actually found about half a dozen safety violations and the fair was fined over $4,000. And this OSHA visit was actually result of an operation by a whistleblower group, the People's Fair Council, which has organized campaigns against the Oregon and Washington Renaissance Fares. The People's Fair Council claimed that both rent fares have been operating with unsafe working conditions and have mistreated workers and volunteers. In 2025, Rachel Slaslow's of Willamette Week reported that two female workers,

Christina Bowmeyer and Kerr Wood, were injured while working. at the 2004 Oregon Renfair. Despite being diagnosed with concussions after the workplace injuries, Beaumire and Wood were terminated from their jobs soon after these incidents. In 2025, Natalie Graham of Investigative West reported that the nonprofit sector of Oregon and Washington Renfares, the Washington Renaissance Arts and Education Society, had a net revenue of $1.9 million in the last three years, according to tax records. So despite the huge earnings, Shana Casey of the People's Fair Council alleges that the workers aren't compensated or treated well. Meanwhile, two board members of WRAES earned six figure salaries in 2023 and a joint $300,000

consulting fee. Oh, wow. But now I read six to your salary and I'm like, that's, um... You're like, wait a second. Wait a second. Not that's money anymore. Anyway, yeah, I think this is where you, can see the sort of suspicious nonprofit, you know how it's so common for nonprofit workers to be

exploited with the excuse being like, we're doing this for the mission, you know, it's like this martyry thing. This is a family. Exactly. Exactly. This is a cultural experience. You can see that really showing up here. So that kind of doesn't surprise me.

Yeah. And I also could see if being overly flirtatious is a part of Renfair culture, like an internal movement to protect Renfair culture and not allow the accusations to then take that element away. But oftentimes, like, lines will get so incredibly blurred at events like these because either workers or visitors will assume consent based on consent given in like previous interactions. And that leads to a lot of harassment. Yeah. And I actually think that maybe the fantasy environment, there are so many good things about it. But to certain pernicious figures, it could pave the way for plausible deniability.

Like, I'm just doing this through my character or like, yeah, it wasn't me. So, yeah, the good is really good of Renaissance fairs. The bad is really bad. But before we can get into our verdict, we wanted to share with you listeners a sort of special treat. The two co-hosts of the award-winning and chart leading true crime podcast, Morbid, Elena Urquhart and Ash Kelly are here to chime in on the topic of Renaissance Fares to play a little game and to help us with our verdict. So stick around for this special little morsel of Renaissance candy. This podcast is proudly brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one website

platform to help entrepreneurs stand out and succeed online. So whether you're just starting out or managing a growing brand. Squarespace makes it super easy to construct a gorgeous. website to sell anything from products to content to even your valuable time. I am a longtime Squarespace user. Building Sounds Like a Cult.com was incredibly easy and updating it is easy too. I actually just did so because Sounds Like a Cult just won a web beam and I wanted to add it to our bio. I happen to think our website looks very pro despite my lack of technical skills. And that is thanks to Squarespace's glorious features, including their design intelligence, which combines two decades of industry leading design expertise with cutting edge AI technology to help.

you unlock your unbreakable creativity. Squarespace payments also makes it incredibly easy to sell anything on a Squarespace website. Onboarding is fast and simple, easy, peasy, lemon squeezy, and you can give your customers multiple ways of paying so that the experience is effortless on their side too. I also love that using Squarespace, you can set up a charitable fundraiser, managing all your donors in one place. There's honestly nothing you can't do with a website using Squarespace. Head to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, go to Squarespace.com slash cult to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Hey, weirdos, I'm Elena, and I'm Ash, and we are the host of Morbid Podcast.

Each week we dive into the dark and fascinating world of true crime, spooky history, and the unexplained. From infamous killers and unsolved mysteries to haunted places and strange legends, we cover it all with research, empathy, humor, and a few creative expletives. It's smart, it's spooky, and it's just the right. amount of weird. Two new episodes drop every week and there's even a bonus once a month. Find us wherever you listen to podcasts. Yay! Woo! Today we are joined by two very, very famous people. They host the smash hit podcast Morbid. Welcome to Sounds like a cult. God, thank you. We are very excited to be

here and be described as two very famous people. That was cool. Well, you deserve it. Could you perfect, perfect individuals introduce yourself and your podcast to the listeners who dare not know. Yes, I'm Ash. This is Big Red, Elena. And our podcast is Morbid. We are on Sirius XM. So we're family now, you guys. Yeah. Whoa. Cousins. Cults. And Morbid covers like all kinds of weird stuff. Weird history, true crime, paranormal. Anything morbid under the morbid umbrella. We like to grab. I love the word morbid. It's a lifestyle. It's a sexual orientation. It's a vibe. It is. It's every. So we're here to talk about Renaissance fairs, which was a subject that you two felt passionate about discussing. Could you talk about your relationship to Renaissance fairs? Have you ever been to one? And if so, can you give us the deeds of the most cult-esque experience you ever had for better and for worse? I love a Renaissance fair moment. The last time I went to a Renaissance fair, I was probably like 10 or 11. And I went with my mom and I will remember the turkey legs for the rest of my life. Yes. That's what I feel the most passionate about is the turkey legs. I love the fantasy of it all. We were just talking about how we want to go to another one actually,

like very soon and even like take the kids and stuff. It would be fun. But I've always loved fantasy. I've always loved people that like unabashedly are into their passions, no matter how everyone else thinks about it. And so I feel like it's such a cool place that you can just be one with fantasy and not be judged about it. No, absolutely. And I think that a lot of people go to Renfares as a form of escapism. But what in your opinion is the cult of element of the Renfair escape. I think definitely the way that it becomes like a traveling family almost, where it's like a lot of the same people are working there all the time. A lot of the same people go there. It becomes like a pilgrimage. Everybody's like committed to their character and their

role that they play in the cult fair. It's a little ritualistic, but like not in a bad way. Yeah. To be determined. You said we haven't got there yet. We're here to get to the bottom of just that. Okay, so you mentioned, you know, you're seeing a lot of the same characters from one Renfair to another. They have this sort of parapetetic presence. They are, you know, they engage in a lot of world building, maybe even delusion. But who do you think is cultier, the entertainers who work at the Renaissance fairs or the fair goers, otherwise known as Friends of Fair? Oh, fair. I didn't even know that. I didn't either.

That's a hard one. I could see that honestly going both ways because the fair goers, it's like you're returning year after year paying money to return. That's Colty. That's true. They get you addicted to the food much like myself. Absolutely. But then you flip that on its head and you have the fairer people who work there and you take that one. I feel like the people who work there, they are so committed to these characters and so committed to the story, which is part of it, but they like really engage in that story. So I feel like it's almost like a double life kind of situation, which could be considered fairly culty. It's kind of like shared cultage.

Yeah. I wonder if it's like the cult of summer camp where if you love camp so much, you will return as a camp counselor. Yes. Oh, that's so similar. The counselor to to the pipeline. Yeah. The pipeline is for real. Yeah.

A friend of fare to entertainer. Oh, yeah. I could see that. Yes. Although, I mean, I think that oftentimes the relationship between the people who work there and the people who frequent can get sort of loosey-goosey and culty in a way that isn't always so very gorgeous. For example, we did a cult of strip clubs episode last year, and there are certain strip club

regulars who start to think that the dancers on stage are in love with them, and similar dynamics sometimes unfold at the Renaissance Fair. That's true. The lines begin to blur between performance and real life, the real life activity. Yeah. You guys already mentioned a couple of these, but what other rituals and practices and common phrases did you pick up on your visits to the run fairs? Well, the whole thing that it's like a language. They have a specific language that they go by, you know, like the huzzas and the.

They love a huzzah moment. You know, what is it? I think merry meet when you get there. Mary part. Yeah. Instead of like peace out, Mary Part. Mary Part. And I think they're held to pretty strict standards for sticking to that language.

Yeah, like not breaking character. Like you can't just be like, oh my God, what's up? You'll get in trouble for that. Yeah. And a lot of people who go to the fairs also adhere to it. They slip into character. Yeah, everybody kind of slips into this world. Yeah, the language piece is very compelling.

Everybody loves to pick up on a secret lingo. It's like when you learn in Pig Latin on the playground, when you're a kid. or like, I don't know if you have this experience, Amman, when you first started working in digital media. And there are so many, like, special little acronyms and, like, clicky phrases. I mean, it's just such an easy, invisible and seemingly commitment-free way of, like, sucking someone into a subculture. And making others feel like they're missing out. Yeah, exactly. Which is hard.

And the fact that they tore together. Like, these people, like, tour together. Yes. That's culty. It does reflect the sort of, like, classic cult energy of deadheads. or even MLMers who go wherever. They're going to door. Yeah, exactly.

It's giving, it's Avon calling. It's the Renaissance fair calling. Okay, so can you talk a little bit more about like the turkey leg situation of it all? Like, I mean, people underestimate that like a great reason to join a cult is because, like, you just want free snacks. Like, my dad grew up in a cult called Sinanon, well, starting when he was 14. And before that, he lived below the poverty line.

And sorry, this is like dark, but this is part of the lore. He didn't always have access to nutritious meals, but at the cult, there was always peanut butter and bread, like out for everybody. And so, like, in a way, you know, that was kind of like a positive thing. Food is obviously deeply tied to culture, whether we're talking about, like, cults or not. How do you think, like, the cuisine at the Renaissance Fair contributes to its culty nature? Oh, I think it definitely does. It definitely does. Because one, it's getting you in. into the whole atmosphere. Like it's specifically themed to be like, oh, you're in the old time.

It makes you kind of start believing it. It's very Disney adjacent in that way where like the amount of people who go to Disney and are like going to Epcot to eat around the world or like going to Disney to get these like crazy treats that you can only get there. You know, it's like the same kind of thing. You're like writing. My God, the cheeseburger spring rolls, honey. See, this is why I would join a cult because I am a little bit of a Disney adult and I'm

still dreaming about those turkey legs from when I was. 10. So give me some good food and I'll join your cult. But the food is expensive. I know, that's the weird thing. But I do wonder if it is for the workers. It's a little culty in the way that like people will spend that extra money to get that unique experience of that food, that I can only get there and will put me in this place where I feel like I'm in this time period with this people. And they have like that mead. So they're like plying you with alcohol. And people get loosening everyone up at the run fair. Because people were so drunk back in the day that they're like, you know what? Let's just balls to the wall here, be merry. It's so true. I think obviously like this comes in many shapes and forms,

but there has been a mass embrace in recent years of nostalgia for better and for worse. Like on one side, you have trad wives who are romanticizing a time before women have had rights. And then you have like really intense homesteaders who want to go back to like a little house on the prairie vibe because a time before iPhones and digital technology felt simpler and more grounding. And then there are like so many nostalgic movie and TV reboots. Now you have the yearning for 2016. Yeah. And now today. Oh my God. Exactly. Today. What is that? What did that come from? It's nostalgia for a time when parties were fun. Okay. And so I think that nostalgia and like a longing for the illusion of a simpler time. Of simplicity. Yes. Is part of why Renaissance fairs have popped back up in the zeitgeist,

you know? Yeah, I can definitely see that for sure. And I think another reason, that they've popped up in the zeitgeist is because of the rising popularity of Romanticy. Yeah. And Romanticy as a popular book genre, which of course does connect romance and Romanticy. How do you think that the community of Romanticy readers overlaps and intersects with Renfair culture? A middle of that diagram is huge. And I think we're going to see it become more overlapped since Romanticy is exploding so much right now. I feel like it's always been there. But I feel like book It's really exploded recently. And I think a lot, especially with like the way the world is right now, I think everybody's looking for that, like, escape into a fairy realm and, like, meet a hot fairy king

and, like, have him fight somebody for you. Like, I think everybody's looking for that right now. And I think it gives people who are into romantic or, like, fantasy. This is, like, being able to kind of live in that place. It's like, in reality. Yeah. But around people who share your interests and aren't sitting there and being like, that's stupid that you're into a fairy book. Like, people are like, yeah. Check out my wings. Like, we're the same person. Like, this is awesome. Marry me. Yeah. So I think it's a lot of, like, being who you are without judgment, which is cool. It's a very cool aspect. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like Renaissance fairs too, like on the positive side, they don't have the sort of like commercial vibe that say Disney adults do or even that like Swifties do.

And so there's something like fringier and in a way more wholesome about it. But at the same time, more susceptible to like mock maybe, which, you know, feels culty. And I'm curious, too, it's like we're talking about fairy tales. Obviously, like, during the European Renaissance, like, dragons didn't exist. But it's like there are fun sides of kind of, like, rewriting history as if there were dragons. And there are potential downsides, you know? Like, there are groups in the world today. Some of them might be political that like to make up things about how society once was in order

to convince everyone that we should return to a time when dragons saved America or whatever the fuck. And so I do have a kind of light skepticism of groups that romanticize and fictionalize a history that never existed. I'm just curious if there's a negative side effect of that with red and fares. On the surface, it doesn't really seem like it. That makes a lot of sense what you're saying, because it's true that when you really look at this time period that they're larping for, It wasn't great for everyone. Like, everyone's not killing it in that time period. No, definitely not.

Yeah. Like, everyone was like a fucking feudal surf. And, well, actually, the Renaissance was technically after the fall of feudalism. But there's a lot of blending of eras. And also, like, gender roles. Oh, yeah. Like, there was no medicine. Yeah, no hygiene.

Yeah. Speaking of, like, weaponizing nostalgia, there was some viral article that went around, like, five or six years ago that said something like a medieval. peasant had more time off than like the average contemporary worker. And for my last book, I ended up speaking with a medieval historian named Eleanor Janega. She was really cool. Who was like, that technically might have been true because there were like so many more religious holidays in the, I'm talking about the middle ages, not the Renaissance, whatever, for the purposes of the Renaissance fair, it's kind of all the same. But if you're a fucking medieval surf, you have to plow the soil and it takes a year to

make bread and you're not actually getting that much time off. You're not. You can't really compare the nine to five to that of a medieval service. But I feel like with run fairs too, it has so much magical aspects to it. Like people are fairies. They do these like certain days where it's like dark fairy tale coded. You know what I mean? So I feel like they lean so far into that part of it that I don't know. Maybe some of them are like leaning too hard into like historical. But I think for the most part, they lean like, we're fantasy. This is make leave. We're magical. We just happen to be, you know, dressing up as like kings and wenches.

Yeah. Ferrys. For sure. And there's so much humor at the Renfair. Like when I went this past year, there was like a wench comedy show, really horny show. My God. But it was kind of like reversing the gender expectations because like the horny people on stage were these like sort of Rubinesque gals in their 40s and 50s who were like cheekly preying on strapping men in the audience. And I was like, here, here. And I, like, raised my mead. Yeah, I think for the most part, the Renfair exists to allow people to bring more whimsy into their lives.

Not necessarily to interrogate the past. Like, I would go as far as to say many people couldn't actually tell you that much accurate stuff about the Renaissance, period. Renaissance. Yeah. No, I actually think that the weaponization of nostalgia by Disney is more culturally threatening than the Renaissance Fair. Totally.

because it's so commercially linked. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And like some cultural commentators have said that like the construction of Disneyland in Southern California was to kind of give like Lily White Suburbanites a respite away from like the civil rights movement in the 1950s. And so sort of dipping back into times that seemed better than the present does have downsides.

But I feel like comparatively there are other culty groups that we've discussed on the show that the risks feel more intense than Renaissance figures. That's sure. Hi, I'm Eric Voss from New Rock Stars. And if you want to know what's coming up next from the MCU, you should listen to The Sneak Peak, hosted by myself and Jessica Clemens. Sneak Peak is your one-stop shop for keeping up with Kevin Feigey

and his brain trust of nerd producers. It's a weekly roundup of all the most important Marvel News so that you can start getting excited about the MCU's next big movie or series before there's even a trailer out. What should we expect? not just from this bays or saga, but the next one too. Part of the fun of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is being excited about the next chapter, and that excitement is exactly why we make Snake Peak.

Listen for free on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Mike Berenholz. On my new show, Funny You Ask, Trivia starts the conversation, and then things immediately go off the rails. I ask a question. My guests think they know the answer. Sometimes they do. More often, they do not.

And then the conversation. takes a turn. One trivia question turns into stories about career highs, painful bombs, and behind the scenes moments that probably should have remained private. You'll hear confidence, misplaced confidence, bold guesses, wrong answers, quick laughs, and the slow realization that maybe this was a bad idea to say out loud. If you like smart comedy, sharp conversations, and trivia that exists purely to melt people's brains, this is Funny You Ask with me, Ike Barrenholz. Follow Funny You Ask with Ike Berenholtz on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Okay, we want to play a game with you.

It's a simple, would you rather, cult of Renaissance fairs edition. The best. So we're going to present to you a sequence of scenarios that compare something from the cult of the Renaissance fairs to another cult that we've discussed on sounds like a cult in the past. And you'll just have to answer, allegedly from your opinion, which you'd rather do. Love for it. Okay. Would you rather have to become a friend of fare for a year? So that means you're kind of like going to the Renaissance Fair every day.

Or live as a Mormon sister wife for a month. Oh, I go to the fair. The fair every day. Friend of fair. I'll go right now. Let's go. I'm ready. They can smell the turkey legs.

Prudent. Yeah. And they don't even have to make them themselves. Bonus. Speaking of turkey legs, would you rather eat nothing but IKEA? food court meals for a week or nothing but Renfair food for a week. Oh, Renfair food. It's so hard. It is so hearty. I love potatoes. I know. God. Cult of potatoes. Would you rather make the next year's worth of choices according to the prophecies of an Etsy witch or a Renfair fortune teller?

Etsy witch. Yeah, I think I might go with Etsy witch. Yeah. Tell me about that. I believe in them. I'm so interested in them. I'm so interested in them. I'm May or may not have hired one at a time. Would you rather be a part of a WWE match for 10 minutes or compete in a 10 person joust, but it lasts all day? Ooh, I'll take the 10 minutes. I can make it through a joust. All day? Yeah.

I got stamina. There are a few things that I want to do all day. I think if I read the news and then you sent me into that joust all day, I could get out. No, that's true. I could make it. Yeah. It's like a rage room. It is pure rage.

Let's go. Give me a joke. It's a period of rage room. Okay. One final question for you, and it is the most important question of every sounds like a cold episode. Out of our three cult categories, a live your life, a watcher back, and a get the fuck out. Which do you think the cult of Renaissance fairs falls into? One, two, three.

Yeah, live your life. You went further than the three. I was just ready. Yeah, live your life. Yeah, because I don't see any harm. coming from it yet. I should say, I haven't seen it yet. We'll keep our eyes peeled. And I think it just allows people to kind of like, we said like escape, but in like a way that's really not hurting anybody or hurting themselves. Yeah. And it lets them kind of like get a little for themselves out there

without judgment. I think I have to agree it's very much giving Comic-Con energy. Yep. It's cosplay. It's cosplay. And again, like when I think about the worst-case scenarios, like people getting too lost in the fantasy or people thinking that the relationships that they're forming with the performers are real. And there's some exploitation that we talked about in the intro of this episode. It's not to be discounted. But we do sort of grade our cults on a curve at this show. And I think it's giving more live your life. I totally agree. I think it's a live your life mostly because people go to Renaissance fairs for two big reasons. One, to live out of fantasy. And and to connect with community.

Yeah. And I think that there is something genuine in that, even if sometimes people can cross the line. Yeah, for sure. I also think it's interesting that you can dip in and out of a Renaissance fair easily, like whether or not you can participate casually is a question to ask when evaluating how healthy a cult is. And it's not like you have to be a devoted friend of fair as an attendee

or else you won't be accepted, you know? Like, it feels like a fair lead. accepting plays. And very funny. And I feel like Comic-Con with like cosplaying, it's like super respectable how much they put into their characters too. That's true.

Like the outfits and stuff. Like people, it's like art. That's a cool part of it. I will say part of me is resistant to fully, fully categorize Renaissance fairs as a live your life considering the OSHA violations and allegations of sexual

misconduct and assault that we discussed earlier in the episode. But at the same time, I don't know. Do we want those? those things to overshadow all the beauty that this community gives people. Maybe it is a very, very ever so slightly light, light, light, light watch your back if you're really that deep in. I think that if you are a attendee who might catch a rent fair every so often and do it for the fully immersive escapism, then I think you can live your life. But if you are someone who

wants to become a part of this community, go to the fair every year, every time it's in your city, or even work there, I think that you probably do need to watch your back because there have been enough accusations and allegations that this is clearly a problem that's permeating their culture. Totally. Yeah, I think if we called theater kids a watcher back, maybe we have to call Renaissance Fares a watcher back. Oh my God. I think it's got to be a live your life with a like wing of watch your back. Wing watch your back. I support that. Now, we do want to mention that if any listeners have counter arguments or stories that completely undo our verdict or evaluation, please feel free to share them respectfully in the comments on Spotify or on our Instagram. We absolutely love hearing from

you listeners. If people want to follow you guys and join your cult, where can they do that? Oh, if you want to join our cult, you can listen to us wherever you listen to podcasts. We're on SiriusXM. We're really mostly on Instagram at Morbid Podcast. And for listeners who are interested in cults want to start out on an episode of your show, which episode do you think would appeal to them? Ooh, we have a Blackburn cult. It's a mini morbid, so it's a great place to step in. It's one of our earliest episodes.

But it's like a mother-daughter duo cult, and they were sometimes sisters. There's mummies. There's sketchy characters from the 1920s. It's great. Yeah. Oh, my God. Juicy. Weird.

That sounds perfect. Big Red. You want to plug your book. I would love to. Big Red wrote a book. I have a series of books, the Dr. Redmuller series, but my third one is going to be out August 11th. It's called The Butcher Legacy. You can pre-order it now at Butcherlegacy.com.

You can get it anywhere you feel like you want to get the book. Go get it. Go pre-order it. Indie bookstars are the best. Hell yeah. Love that. Well, that's our show. Thanks so much for listening.

Stick around for a new cult next week. And in the meantime, stay culty. But not too culty. Sounds Like a Colt was created by Amanda Montel and hosted by Amanda Montel and Aman Haririya. Our managing producer is Katie Epperson. Our theme music is by Casey Cole. Additional research for this episode by Lexi Peary. If you enjoyed the show, we'd really appreciate it if you could leave it five stars on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

It really helps the show a lot. And if you like this podcast, feel free to check out my book, Cultish, the Language of Fanaticism, which inspired the show. You might also enjoy my other books, The Age of Magical O overthinking, notes on Modern Irassion, personality and word slut a feminist guide to taking back the English language. Thanks as well to our network studio 71. And be sure to follow the Sounds Like a Cult cult on Instagram for all the discourse at Sounds like a cult pod or support us on Patreon to listen to the show ad-free at patreon.com slash sounds like a cult.