My husband Tom and I went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire in Wisconsin twice this summer! We had a great time, except for a couple of hiccups for me. Let me tell you about the biggest one. This hiccup is the reason I decided to write about going to the Faire in the first place, because it illustrates the problems I have with schizoaffective disorder, anxiety, and my knees. What happened was that I was taking a picture of a faerie who was perched on a balcony. Yes, it’s the picture you see above, and the faeries are part of the roaming cast at the Renaissance Faire. I contorted my body in a weird way to get the shot, and I stumbled and almost fell! It was very scary–if I fall on my knees, it may ruin my knee replacements that I had to get due to my bone-on-bone arthritis.
That was part one of the biggest hiccup at the Faire during our second visit. We were actually leaving the Faire, wrapping up this second adventure there. But part two was yet to come. I was tired, freaked out about almost falling, and my head was pounding even sheltered from the sun in my Art Institute of Chicago baseball cap. As I went into the “privies” (bathrooms) for the last time before the trip home, the pounding in my head got worse. It was really crowded at the Faire that day, so I had to wait in line. Finally, when I closed the door to my stall, the voices hit, those auditory hallucinations that used to plague me all the time.
Okay, so maybe it was only 45 seconds at most in this case. But I haven’t heard those kinds of voices in years. When I say “those kinds,” what I mean is loud, screaming, angry voices. I have heard voices that sounded like someone was watching TV in the next room, and they were very quiet, but ever since my mood stabilizer dosage was raised a few years ago, I haven’t heard voices that were so distressing.
Like I said, the episode only lasted about 45 seconds, maybe 30, and all the voices were saying amounted to mockery of me for taking a long time to pee. Even though I knew they weren’t real, I couldn’t help but think it was ironic that I was hearing them at the Renaissance Faire, amid the faeries. A long time ago, when I thought the voices were real, I thought they were faeries. Remember, this very short episode was indirectly related to a faerie.
I also had to remember that, when I used to hear the disturbing type of voices regularly, I’d be like, “Okay, I know the drill, gotta pop some antianxiety pills, drink a crap load of ice water, and watch Tori Amos: Live from the Artists Den.” When they happen less often, they’re scarier. Not that I want them to happen more often again! My therapist thinks this was just a fluke, and I’m going to talk about them with my psychiatrist in two days.
It really wasn’t that big of a deal. And I hate to make it sound like that was my only takeaway from these two fun days at the Renaissance Faire. We did have a great time. There were lots of laughs, like when Tom bought us Sassafras (root beer with licorice) and asked the servers if they sold Black Cows (Sassafras floats). When they said they didn’t, and he made his patented sad face but tipped them anyway, they rang the bell for tippers and cried, “Huzzah for… the sad tipper!” (They always ring a bell and shout, “Huzzah for the tipper!”)
We did lots of shopping, too. The Renaissance Faire is pretty much the only time I go shopping in person, meaning not online. During the first visit this summer, Tom bought me everything I wanted! Lots of jewelry. The second time, I wanted to buy myself something. I found a journal with a three-dimensional face on the cover! I think it’s one of the weirdest things I’ve ever owned (and that’s saying a lot), and I love it! Since she has a face, I named the journal Agatha.
On our first day, Tom got me lots of water-themed jewelry because our 17th wedding anniversary is coming up, and both our bridesmaids’ and groomsmen’s attire was aqua blue, and there just so happened to be a huge, major flood after torrents of rainfall on our wedding day! Tom said, “If it’s good luck to have rain on your wedding day, we are going to have the best marriage ever! Well, flash-forward 17 years to our first day in the summer of 2025 at the Renaissance Faire, there was a 20-minute downpour. We thought it was so appropriate! And people were singing and dancing in the rain (while we took shelter in a shop).
This coming weekend is Cottagecore weekend at the Faire. Cottagecore romanticizes the kind of lifestyle emulated by hobbits. It’s all about escaping to coziness. Cottagecore interests me since it reminds me of hygge, which is also a philosophy of coziness that I was obsessed with a few years ago. But this is the first summer I’ve been to the Renaissance Faire more than once already, and it’s supposed to be hot and sunny (yuck), so we’ll forego Cottagecore. Maybe next year.
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