Craft on the Dirt Circuit: Commerce and Community at a Contemporary Renaissance Festival

Abstract

This article considers the significance of the “dirt circuit,” the cyclical tour of Renaissance Festivals in the eastern US state of Maryland that craft vendors and performers take each year, as a network through which craft community is formed. Through participant research and onsite interviews at the 2021 Maryland Renaissance Festival, I examine how the closed-world structure of the festival offers a sense of continuity and community, as well as an effective means for craftspeople to make a living. The experiences of craftspeople on the dirt circuit reveal the limitations of common perceptions of craft fairs as precarious and amateur spaces. This research reveals a gap in scholarship around the craft fair as a critical site of craft history and outlines how Renaissance Festivals and other craft fairs can be included in wider conversations around craft and knowledge exchange.