Renaissance Festival War Stories September 6/7, 2025

Continued from weekend 3...

This weekend marks the halfway point in the season. I try to keep these posts dedicated towards the patrons, but today, the inspiration of the stories that hit home for me were sourced from our fellow warriors: the cast, crew, vendors, staff and more from the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.

It takes a village

The Sidequest Players is teamed as a group of 12. Of the 12 of us, three are part time; due to other circumstances, we were down to seven each day this weekend. We have not functioned as a team of seven since our first season. Leading into the weekend, I reached out to our fellow cast members and villagers for help, looking for people to help fill in 30 minute windows where they could to help us to offer sidequests, games, and riddle. We must have had about a dozen people message us or come by to help us in various capacities. Cast members we don't normally have ask: musicians, stage acts, solo street performers, and others. When I've had the opportunity to visit Query the Riddlemaster in Arizona at Fairhaven, they have a saying, a call and response, "It takes a village," and the response is, "And we are that village."

Battle Scream!

Weekend four was themed 'Bold North' which featured events in the field including armored re-enactments, specialty vendors, a best beard contest, and, a battle cry competition. As a sidequest, Rosie suggested to several people that they enter the Battle Cry Competition and then come back and show us their skills. BOTH days, people she sent took first place. Sunday, a family took all three places. Mom took first place with her battle cry of, "We don't need thoughts and prayers, we need legislation!"

The same fire

Some of the hardest, most unsung workers on site on a festival day, are the site crew. These are the people who make sure things are clean, that garbage bags are emptied and replaced, that equipment is hauled, that privies have paper, and more. Anytime I see one of these amazing staff members in passing, I take a moment to thank them for their hard work and dedication.

One of these people is known as "Trash Queen" You will know her when you see her, she's near impossible to miss when you do. She takes what could be a menial, invisible job and gives it magic.

I don't recall how the conversation began, but we started chatting back stage and it came up, my least favorite thing: gum. I loathe chewing gum. Turns out, Trash Queen hates it too. It sets off a fiery passion of frustration and disgust in my, and she felt the same.

We shared a big hug, and I knew she wasn't just a coworker anymore, she was a friend.

***

It's hard to remember what all happened this weekend, as it happened as a blur. Team members were absent, the weather was cool on the weekend for the first time in years, and I waited too long to write these war stories, and they disappeared from my memory too quickly. So I trudge on to the next week.

More war stories coming in weekend 5...