I am aware that my "sincere" tone often comes out as "passive-aggressive" and I'm working on that. So, with the knowledge I'm going for "sincere" here, I want as many people as possible to know about a key difference between renfaires and SCA events.
Renfaires have audiences. SCA events have participants.
This means that SCA events are often a lot cheaper to get into, because there are no actors practising skits, just nerds like you who have been doing it a bit longer. You still can watch people sing and swordfight, but there's no plot to follow. Because we are doing this for ourselves.
And you can join in! We want you to join in! We want to teach you how to spin flax and swordfight and forge armor and build kilns!
Because you aren't an audience. You're playing the same game as the rest of us and you have to play by the rules. We will loan you garb. It's free, we're happy to do it. But if you refuse to wear it, we are permitted to ask you to leave, because you aren't following the rules of the event.
I know you don't have to wear garb at a renfaire, but the SCA isn't a renfaire.
Anyone can reblog this. Even if you don't intend on attending an SCA event or a renfaire you should know the difference.
