I've been neglecting my blog for the last couple weeks. Trying to cram too much in the day, because I'm coming up on the busiest time of my year. Not Christmas, but the Ohio Renaissance Festival. It runs Labor Day weekend through most of October, and it is the most fun I've ever been paid to have. My 9-5 won't let me off the hook, so the next 2 months are going to be a crazy 7 day workweek. This will be my third year. Let me share with you how you can enjoy it too. This is tailored to O-Ren, but may be similar to other faires.
At the beginning of summer, the owner holds auditions. They cast the queen, court, and a number of street characters. Peasants. Your chances of being queen.....not good. They put the peasants through some training in Elizabethan accent, and turn them loose to entertain the patrons. This could be fun, except for the pay. It's per diem, which means per day, not per hour. The amount might cover your gas and maybe a meal at McDonalds. I have never done this.
There are the people who work the food and drink booths, and the ones on trash detail. The ones picking up trash wear tabards over boy scout uniforms. I gather that the faire owner gives a generous donation to their troop in return for their help. The food & drink servers are a mix of volunteers and minimum wage workers. If you have worked fast food, you've a good chance of being hired. They are cut loose pretty quickly if attendance is poor or the weather is bad- good if you want to wander the faire, bad if you're there to make money. In any case, it gets you an employee pass and a little money. Email the faire if you want to learn more about that.
There's one more way I know of for the average person to work faire. It's what I do, and I'll cover it in my next post.
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