Went to RenFest a few times when I was a kid. always a great time.
went back once as an adult a few years ago. Learned that a lot of the merchants travel across the country doing various festivals year round.
There I am drinking beer (ale) and eating a turkey leg (of course). Tought it'd be cool to wear a puffy shirt instead of my t-shirt. So, stop in a few booths and find that these rough ridin' shirts were +$100. apparently, quite the custom textile. Don't but it, even though I'm basically rich. I strike up a conversation with the dude in the shop. Of course, he remains in character throughout the conversation. I ask him what his job is, assuming the guy probably lives in De Soto and hauls in his wares every weekend. As it turns out, the guy says this is his full time gig, selling this crap. He, said that it was lucrative enough to buy him a Ford F-350 and a trailer. (have no idea how much either of these are, but he seemed pretty proud of it).
He also said that some of the TX renfests are basically 2, 3x bigger than the kc renfest and there are adult only renfests where people are nude and they serve more alcohol and the fests don't close til like 2 or 3am.
Anyway, there's a whole other world of renfesters just like Pete.
