Scottish Festival Peeves?

[Nighthawk]

I am not making this up, but I remember seeing a group of "Trekkies" show up to a Civil War living history event in full Starfleet uniform...

T.

That's something I would do!

It's one of my peeves too, but a thought occurred to me today as I was driving home. How many of us have worn our kilts to a Renaissance Faire? I wonder if these people see that and think the two worlds go together. In other words, if we wear kilts to the Ren Faire, are we not somehow inadvertently inviting them to wear their costumes to a Scottish event? They may think so. After all, a kilt is hardly a Renaissance costume and really doesn't fit in with the genre (well, maybe the earliest belted plaids might just squeeze in the later years of the Renaissance, but you get my point).

I dunno, it's just something to consider.

You're exactly right, and that's the thing- the earliest belted plaids do squeeze in at the end of the Renaissance, which is what makes it appropriate. Also, ren fests are fantasy events, and not cultural ones. If I wear my kilt, my work boots, and an Iron Maiden t shirt to a ren fest, I can't imagine anyone looking at me and thinking "Wow! He looks like he just walked out of the Highlands of Scotland circa 1650!" That can't be the thought process because the above-mentioned outfit is not a costume of any kind. I know the Maiden guys are getting up there in years, but I don't think they're that old! Or if they are, they looked really good for their age last night! Now Highland games, on the other hand, are not an attempt at mirroring another time period, and that's the thing. They're modern cultural events. Do the ren faire crowd not realize this? That's the question that comes to my mind. Do they think that Seamus Kennedy in his white Guinness t shirt is trying to mirror historical Scotland? If so... how? How can they possibly make that misinterpretation? Where do 1800's pirates fit in with the Highland games? Did Cap'n Jack throw a caber? (Actually, I'd pay good money to see that, come to think of it... )