A Vendor’s Guide to Renaissance Fairs Part 1: Applications
Hello, faire friend! If you’re reading this, then two things must be true: 1) you are a vendor who wants to sell your goods at renaissance fairs, and 2) you need a little help with your applications, your booth, product planning, and more. I’m happy to help!
In case you’d like to know more about me first - my name is Sara and I’m a leathercrafter who has been selling at local renaissance fairs in the northeast Georgia and South Carolina area since 2019. I literally picked the worst possible time to try to start a business, but it still worked out! In this series, I want to dive into my experiences as a renaissance fair vendor. Topics will include:
Applications (this post)
Booth design
Product planning
Costumes
I might add more later, but for now those are the 4 main categories I want to address.
This first post is going to be the shortest of them all, but we’re going to go over applications.
First thing’s first, every event will have its own application process, but the basics will be the same. Most applications will ask for some kind of informative blurb about your business to use for marketing, a list of the items you make with prices/price ranges listed, and photos for the jurying process. Every renaissance fair will be a juried event. If it’s not, I honestly don’t think I would consider applying. But we’ll touch on that more in the Products post.
Fees
The lowest vendor fee I’ve paid for any event in 2025 was $85 for a 10x10 booth for a single-day event. If I hadn’t chosen a spot with electricity specifically, then I could have only paid $35. Should have done that, didn’t end up needing the electrical after all. The highest that I’ve paid so far in 2025 is $375 for a 10x20 booth for a 3-day event. Prices will also vary depending on what spaces are available. Most of the events that I’ve attended offer a standard 10x10 size or a larger 10x20 size with a different price for each. Other booth sizes may be available depending on the event. For example, CastleFaire 2025 did offer a single table option for smaller vendors inside the castle walls, but that option is not available this year.
Thus far, all of the events I’ve attended have been either single-day or single-weekend events. I have just submitted my application for a 6-weekend (Saturday only) event though, and if accepted, that will be an $800 fee for the full event. I don’t say that to scare you off, but to prepare you. There will be a bit of an investment required for these events, but if your product is good, then it’ll be well worth it.
About Your Business
When it comes to writing a blurb about your business, some events will ask for this as part of the application while others won’t. Some may come back and ask for this information later on just to use as marketing material, too. It is still a good idea to have this information written up ahead of time. As an example, this is what I use on apps that require it:
Solhest Leather Goods specializes in handmade artisan leather goods for costume, faire, and LARP. My product line includes many ren faire favorites, such as teacup holsters, book holsters, belt pouches in many different styles, pirate hats, and armor elements. Come see me at the gold and burgundy tent!
For application purposes, you’ll want to keep your blurb short while also making sure it’s an accurate representation of your products and your business. For advertisement purposes, this works well because it gives customers an idea of what I carry, a few specific examples, and information on my booth so they can look for me the day of the event.
To Demonstrate or Not To Demonstrate
If your craft is something that would allow you to do demonstrations on site, I would recommend it - cautiously. Examples of crafts that would make great demonstrations might be blacksmithing, leathercrafting, basketweaving, knitting/crochet, or anything else hands-on such as those. The reason I would recommend it is that generally demonstrators are prioritized in the application process as renaissance fairs have a specific vibe they’re going for that demonstrators lend themselves well to. Many events will even state on their applications that demonstrators are prioritized.
That said, approach this option cautiously if you don’t have extra hands to help you during the event. Demonstrating isn’t always a practical or feasible choice, especially if you’re more of a high-demand product such as leather goods or if the foot traffic is expected to be very high.
Depending on the event, sometimes not only do demonstrators get a certain amount of priority in the application process, but you may be able to negotiate a reduced booth fee. I have also heard of some events that will pay demonstrators to come rather than asking them to pay a vendor fee. I haven’t found one of these local to me yet so I can’t speak to this option, but I have been told they exist.
List Your Goods
When it comes to listing your goods, some events are fine with just checking a box for whichever category that your products fall under, such as “Leather goods,” while others may require more in-depth information. In my case, leather goods are a very saturated market and not something I would recommend trying to get into at renaissance fairs unless you have a very unique product and/or you’re able to niche down well. When I list out my products for events, I tend to get pretty meticulous so the event coordinators know what I make. I will also include everything I plan to bring no matter ow big or small. If I only plan to bring a single pirate hat, it’s going on the list. If I’m bringing my $5 mushroom keychains, they’re going on the list. As an example, this is a snapshot of what I listed out for the big, 6-weekend long event I mentioned earlier:
Teacup holsters - $50-$70
Teacup holster accessory sets - $25-$30
Fan holsters - $20
Potion bottles - $20
Belts - $30-$75
Skirt hikes - $10-$15
Pirate hats - $100-$300
That’s not the full list, but it does give you an idea of how specific you might need to be for some applications. That way, if someone else is selling leather journals and the event wants to approve us both, they’ll be able to scan my list, see that I don’t have leather journals included anywhere on it, and make their decision much easier. This might be more difficult depending on your craft medium, as there are some crafts that are pretty specific. Blacksmithing, for example, tends to be more narrow than, say, crochet.
Product Photos
When it comes to product photos, you’ll want to spend time on these and send in the best photos you can of the best products you have. All these events have to go off of during the jurying process is these photos, so if your products aren’t shown in the best light, your chances of acceptance immediately go down. Additionally, many events I attend use the photos sent to them from applications as part of their marketing efforts, so if I’m going to be advertising for my business, I want my best foot forward there, too.
You’ll also want to either take photos of your booth at events, or set up everything at your house just like you would for a renaissance fair and take photos. Most, if not all, renaissance fairs will require at least one booth photo to make sure your setup will also meet their expectations. I have taken photos of my booth at almost every event I’ve attended and I try to keep updated booth photos listed on my Portfolio page so if there are any judges viewing my website, then they’ll be able to see a lot more than what I may have been limited to on my application.
Typically photo requirements are somewhere in the 5-10 photos range, usually around 5 or so products and 2-3 booth photos.
There’s so much advice out there on how to take good product photography so I won’t go into detail here, but I will recommend Kristina Nicole’s YouTube channel as she is an absolute wealth of information. She also comes highly recommended by Starla Moore, an Etsy coach who I’ve followed for quite some time.
Additional Event Requirements
Depending on the event you attend, there may be additional application requirements. One example is the CastleFaire application requires the signature of every person attending as an employee of your booth. There is also a section of their application where you have to initial various terms, including that you’ll remove your trash, specifically food trash, at the end of each night because bears are a legitimate concern in the area. The last thing any of us vendors want is for a bear to tear through the event on the hunt for someone’s leftover sandwich.
That wraps it up for this post. Next up, I’ll be going over information on booth design, along with pretty standard requirements that many renaissance fairs have.
