2. The people!
Yeah, the White People!
This was very striking. The fair was very, very white. Yes, you’d reasonably expect disproportionately few racial minorities at an event that costs what this does (though it’s not that high-priced, and for opening weekend the prices were reduced — a discount for adults and free for kids) and has no mass transit access. But it seemed to me that almost the only black attendees I saw were halves of interracial couples, or their children. There were actually more black employees than attendees, from what I could tell. Of Asians, there were more, but still few, except for one group which seemed to be an immigrant or expat or tourist family from Japan. There were a couple Muslim women, that is, hijab-wearing. Hispanics? Didn’t particularly notice.
But was this an indicator that this particular sub-culture of “Renaissance Faire-goers” (which comprises both “hey, that’d be something fun to do this weekend” and highlight-of-the-year types) is simply of no interest to anyone outside the “white majority culture” and that blacks and other minorities, even when living in middle-class, majority-white neighborhoods, steer clear?
Which would be unfortunate.
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