Do they live in extended stay hotels or on the fairgrounds in motor home or tents? Do the fairs provide the housing or do performers have to provide everything themselves? Is it any different for the more famous performers?
How are things that require permanent addresses handled such as taxes, banking, having a consistent doctor, and receiving mail? What is the home life of a traveling performer and what amenities do they have?
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It’s very common for the shops’ second story to be housing. My grandparents started out with a decade long ground lease, and built their shop to suit. They spent the weekends in their unfinished shop attic, showering from a hose in a back room. That sucked, so they got a travel trailer and finished out the attic to let out to some of the Mud Men. Some of the more enterprising early fair people leased enough land to build a row of shops, and sublet out both the store spaces and upstairs quarters during the season. The Fair is a business, and everyone gets their cut all the way down.
If you pay attention at the fair, you’ll notice the streets are often larger than the map indicates. Many streets encircle what is essentially a mini RV park. Vans, busses, trailers, tents, workshop sheds, or even storage cubes are all viable options for staying on-site. The family on one side of me was a sweet bunch of homeschooled hippies. Other side was a tweaker who played hand drums in his hatchback at midnight. Different fairs will have varying regulations, but it’s generally pretty lax as long as no one draws official attention.
There were all the unofficial economies you would expect in such a spot. The fair bar might be open all week, as long as workers kept buying. Maybe a meat-on-a-stick place would turn into a reasonably priced cafe on Wednesday. Some dude might have bought a van load of smokes in a low tax state, and sell them at the next fair to local labor. Less legal drugs, of course- opium was popular at one of the fairs I worked as a teenager. Side note: don’t take acid at a Ren Fair at night. There’s *a lot* of dragons painted on things, and it’s terrifying.
Taxes got somewhat complicated working in several states every year. Lots of cash transactions “simplified” that paperwork. Mail could be held up at the home post office, forwarded by the box to whichever fair was in season, or strategically limited. Lots of bills can be cancelled if you expect to be 1000 miles from home 8 months of the year.
So that’s my ramble about Ren Fair logistics in the ’90s.
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