Quick-Fire Quips is a speedy questionnaire where we get to know people who stand out in the State of Alabama! In this episode, Alabama Public Radio host Baillee Majors talks with the High Herald of the Alabama Renaissance Faire, Sir William of Lincolnshire (a.k.a William Freeman, when out of character).
Baillee: Good morrow, my lord! How are you?
Sir William: Oh, I'm doing well. Thank you.
Baillee: I'm glad to have you on today.
Sir William: It's good to be here. You know, I usually I appear at Renaissance Faires and other functions like that, but since you invited me, I had to come on and say hello to all your lovely listeners. I will say, I don't know quite how this works, because in my day, we didn't have this sort of technology.
Baillee: Fair enough, but you're in the modern world, and I feel like you're just gonna have to learn as you go.
Sir William: Yeah, well, I can do that. You know, my mother said, I'm quite the learner. So, ask away. We'll make it work.
Baillee: Before we get into the questionnaire, can you tell me about the Ren Faire?
Sir William: Here's your short tidbit, a Renaissance faire is basically an open air market with a historical theme, and in this case, Medieval Renaissance, that also has themed entertainment. So, I know Alabama listeners are used to go into arts and crafts fairs, flea markets. Well, take that sort of environment, but then add a historical theme on top of it with some entertainment.
Our fair has been going since 1987, and it was founded through the school system here in Florence, Alabama. The school administrators and teachers, they wanted an event that could happen during the school year... and they wanted it to be able to hit a variety of subjects that the teachers could then tie in with their students and their curriculum. And of course, if you know anything about the Renaissance, then you know that it does touch on art and math and science and English and literature and all the things...
When you come to the faire, you're going to get to see a lot of people dressed up in costume. You're going to get to see sword fighting. You can get a dragon telling you a story. You got scavenger hunts to win prizes. You can shoot a bow, or a crossbow, like Robin Hood. You can even meet the Queen of the Faire. You can have something to eat, like a turkey leg.
You can also have fun doing dances that we teach for free. I do teach medieval dancing, by the way, and you can learn to dance with me. There's just all sorts of things that you can do that won't cost you any money, because we are a free event.
Baillee: When is the Alabama Renaissance Faire taking place?
Sir William: It's always the fourth weekend of October. Now, that means, that no matter what year you're in, if you remember fourth weekend, you'll never have to know a date. But for this year, it's October, 25 and 26.
Baillee: And next year is a big milestone for the Faire. Can you tell me about that?
Sir William: It is the 40th anniversary. Now, if you look at the statistics, they typically say that a volunteer organization or group probably will not last five years, and we are an all volunteer group, so no one that's connected to the Renaissance Fair gets paid any money. We do this because we love the time period, and we want to share that love with people in the community, like those listening today.
Baillee: Well, now that introductions are out of the way, let's get you warmed up to answer the questionnaire. And to do that, I want you to say Quick Fire Quips, three times fast.
Sir William: All right. Quick-Fire Quips. Quick-Fire Quips. Quick-Fire Quips.
Baillee: That was very impressive! Okay, here's the first question. What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear Alabama?
Sir William: Oh, country bumpkin redneck. I'm sorry, but you know, Hollywood has done Alabama a disservice. Depending on what it is that you're watching, they portray Alabama as this backwoods stereotypes.
But Alabama is very cultured, and we do have lots of cultured people that are smart, that are intelligent, that do have a sophistication about them. But Hollywood typically doesn't show that. So, that's my first thought, because people, they come here, and they're always surprised, like, "Oh, it's not what I thought." And I'm like, "Well, don't listen to Hollywood."
Baillee: What is a hidden gem in Florence that more people should know about?
Sir William: Well, we do have a Frank Lloyd Wright House (Rosenbaum House). If you know anything about architecture — which I really don't, I just know that he was a famous one — he built rather unique housing. But if you like Frank Lord Wright, there is one of his houses that you can tour as a museum. And then W.C. Handy, the Father of the Blues. His birthplace is here, so you may not know that.
If you go just across the way, close enough to be in the same town — but it's not — it's in Tuscumbia, right next door. You have the birthplace of Helen Keller, which is Ivy Green. There's all sorts of tidbits of history and things right here in this area that you need to come and check out wonderful.
Baillee: So, let's talk a little bit more about Renaissance Faires. How common are they in Alabama?
Sir William: Oh, they're all over the place. You know, we were the first one, but there are several. Scottsboro has one in November, and then Selma has just started one up, and there's was in the spring. Then, you've got one on the Gulf Coast, in Mobile... they're very popular.
Baillee: What makes the Alabama Renaissance Faire stand out differently from others>
Sir William: Well, one is that we're all volunteer, non profit, and two, is that we're free. Because a lot of the festivals — in fact, the majority of them — are for profit ventures.
If you've never been to a big Renaissance Faire, I like to liken it to say a medieval theme park. If you've ever been to Disney World, if they decided to create a theme park that was themed around the medieval Renaissance time period, that's what a faire is... But ours is free.
I will admit, if you come to the festival itself, some who do the professional fairs might say, "Oh, it's very amateurish." Well, yes, we are, and we celebrate it because we're not professionals. As far as theatrical acting experience, we don't have very many on our staff that are that. But we lean into that because we are amateur, and we don't want to be professional, because then we might have to start charging money and things like that. And we like who we are, and I think that's what makes us unique compared to all the others.
Baillee: And what do people get wrong sometimes about Renaissance Faires?
Sir William: This happens with all of them. I heard someone coin a phrase, "Renaissance Faires are a catch for anything old," and they can be. But most people think that you go to Renaissance Faire, and it's just all fantasy, it's all fairies and trolls and things. And it's not.
Renaissance fairs are fun, and they have lots of things for you to see and to do. And I would encourage everyone, whatever festival you go to, dress up! Dress up in some kind of attire. Because it's not just being able to attend it, when you have a costume, you can become a part of it.
Baillee: What would you say to someone if they want to dress up but are get into a character, but they're not sure where to start, or maybe they're a little bit hesitant?
Sir William: Go to our website. We have a we have a page that goes into some ideas... Sweat pants look like Medieval trousers from a distance. And what about chain mail? Well, take a marker, and you can make little chain links on them. Or just get a football jersey that doesn't have the writing or the numbers on it, and from a distance, because of the holes, it looks like chain mail.
You don't have to spend lots of money. You can spend hundreds of dollars on a costume that's gonna stop the presses, but you don't have to. You can spend very little. You just have to know what to do, and and our website has a page that really can get you started on that.
Baillee: What would you say is a must see attraction at the Ren Faire?
Sir William: Oh, we have lots of sword fighting. We have several different groups, and some of them do live fighting. We have The Egilsson Society, that's sort of our home base group. They're kind of born and raised here in Florence.
They do 17th Century. So, that's going to be 1600s. They do fighting from the 1600s, and they do a full mercenary encampment there, because that's what they are. They're a mercenary group. Mercenaries are those are soldiers that work for money. If you didn't have an army, you could hire the group, like The Egilsson Society, and they would fight for you.
But you can go in there and camp, and you can see what was the life of a soldier in the early 1632 was like. They'll show you cooking, they'll show you blacksmithing. And of course, they do live fighting with real weapons.
Baillee: What is the best food at the Alabama Renaissance Faire?
Sir William: Well, I'm just going to be honest, the food is basically fair food.... I will say we do have a root beer seller who sells root beer that is homemade. You can buy it in a bottle, and then once you drink it, then for half the price, he'll refill it for you.
Baillee: What are your duties when it comes to the King and Queen?
Sir William: Well, as the Herald, basically think of me as like an ambassador the same way that the United States. We have ambassadors to different countries. I am the Queen's ambassador, and and I'm also the official announcer. So, if the Queen wants to announce something important, and whether she doesn't want to do it, or maybe she can't do it herself, she might ask, "Oh, I'll get my Herald to do it."
In real life, if we were in historical Europe or something, I might go to your village or your city town, and I would go to the central square, and you would hear, "Oh, yay. Oh, yay, lords and ladies." If you were standing around and heard those words, you would say, "Oh, wait, something important is going to be announced. I better pay attention." And then I would simply make the announcement.
Now, at the festival, I am in charge of making the public announcements. I do the opening ceremonies and and things like that. I'm sort of the face of the fair. I am always with the King and Queen, and you can come to me, if you'd like to get a photo op or something.
Baillee: Do you enjoy those duties?
Sir William: Oh yeah. I started on doing the Renaissance Faire in 1990, and it was like '96 when I started doing this job, and I fell in love with it.
The thing you may not know is a lot of Renaissance Faires have the same monarch, the same king, same queen. Some might do Queen Elizabeth I . A lot of them might do Henry VIII... Well, we decided years ago... "What if we have a random choosing, and we have a Medieval banquet the weekend before the fair?" We thought, "If we have a choosing, and we just had a coin... we put that coin inside a dessert cake, and then we let people know what the job is. If you agree, then you get to go up and pick a cookie."
It's like a Medieval Oreo cookie, and one of those cookies has a coin. And if whoever finds that coin, totally random, they're the king or queen for that year. So, every year we have a new king, a new queen, and it's always randomly chosen at our dinner.
We even created a storyline for the festival where the kingdom's under a curse, and we're cursed that we can only have a king or queen reign for one year. But we always hope whoever finds that coin, they're going to be the one to break it. But hasn't happened yet.
Baillee: You mentioned the event is nonprofit, and essentially, the workers don't get paid. Do you take donations, if someone was interested in donating some coins to help the cause?
Sir William: If you want to donate, you can do that. You can always donate at the festival itself. We do charge for our vendors... all that money that we get from our vendors, it goes right back into keeping the fair alive.
We do have that fundraiser that we do, that Medieval Banquet where we choose our king and queen. We we charge you money to get in, $35 a ticket, but all of it goes back to the fair.... So, if you would like to donate, there's ways to do it. We never turned down free money.
Baillee: Let's get back to a little bit more Alabama centric questions. Do you happen to have a favorite getaway spot in Alabama?
Sir William: No, I'm a staycation fellow because it costs no money, right?
Baillee: Fair enough! Do you have any superstitions or irrational fears?
Sir William: I was scared of flying, but once I flew, I thought, "Oh, okay, that's not that bad."
Baillee: What is something on your bucket list?
Sir William: My bucket list is to go to Britain, since I'm doing this lovely English accent, I want to go to Europe and to Britain. To be able to see Great Britain and Europe before I kick off to the hereafter.
Baillee: Here is the last question. What does Alabama need?
Sir William: I would say what it needs more intelligent, good-thinking people within the public service. Whether it's politics or city government, local governments, it just needs people who are more concerned with the whole.
I see too many people, especially even on a local level, they have their sphere that they're focused on, and that's the only thing that matters to them is this. And I'm like, "Well, there's the bigger picture." And maybe we need more folks who are more about Alabama as a whole.
If we had the people who have the right mind that didn't talk first [and think later], maybe we might have a better reputation, and they wouldn't all consider us the country redneck bumpkin types.
Baillee: That's it for today's Quick-Fire Quips, a speedy questionnaire where we get to know people who stand out in the State of Alabama. That the High Herald of the Alabama Renaissance Faire, Sir William of Lincolnshire (a.k.a William Freeman, when out of character).
Keep up with the Alabama Renaissance Faire online and on social media:
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Website
Don't forget to check out Alabama Public Radio on Facebook and Instagram for more Quick-Fire Quips!
Local support is provided by JMF Technologies. Check out the company on Facebook and Instagram.
