How To Enoy Our Village
	There are a few ways to enjoy our village but the most important one is to get involved with the Festival! Don't be shy about engaging conversation with street performers or if asked to join in a stage show. . . go for it! Performers work all year long at refining and developing their characters and love to see others take an interest in their work. On the obverse side, one shouldn't interrupt a character who's performing or be overly demanding of their attention. Prior to the wedding of The Black Fox and his lady, Noir Cyn, in September of 2004 at MDRF, he set up a web page to help the wedding attendees get into the spirit of the faire. If you're serious about getting maximum enjoyment out of your Festival season, check out some of his "unwritten rules" of MDRF. Becoming a "Playtron" at MDRF is not as difficult as you might think. We've found that there are a few stages in gathering your character and building what most playtrons call a "garb closet" (in fact some of us have whole rooms dedicated to garb!). Stage 1: Initial Impact The first step in getting into character is your garb (never call it a costume!). It's amazing how your personality will adapt to the outfit you're wearing at faire. . . your character should come naturally if you open yourself up to it. Your first garb could be a rental that you pick up just inside the MDRF gates. . . it could be a Renaissance Hallowe'en costume . . . or if you're significantly sewing-enabled, it could be your first homemade costume of light fabrics and very few details. We have several areas for you to check out that will help you build your character, dress apppropriately, and speak like you really know what you're doing! Within a few weekends' visits you'll find paytrons stopping you for directions to the privy or asking you if the Scottish Eggs are REALLY that good. You'll find yourself smiling and looking forward to each weekend. Stage 2: Next Year At the end of your first season, if you're pining the loss of your weekend MDRF Habit, then consider yourself bitten by the MDRF experience. If you're reading this, then you might already be a member of Friends of the Maryland Renaissance Festival which is a good way to feed your habit all year long. Before your second season starts, you've decided that you need at least one more set of garb and you might have even purchased it during the last weekend of MDRF. Having two sets of garb means you can wear something clean both Saturday AND Sunday! If you took notes the previous season then you now realize that being seen at MDRF is as fun as the Festival itself. You should also realize that it's all in the details, i.e., your garb needs highlights and accessories. Leather pouches, accurate footwear, and learning the who's who of characters at the Festival becomes important at this point. If you've made a clever and distinguished impact the season prior, when the next season starts, people will remember you. With that in mind, you probably want folks to recognize you as your character, so if you add to your garb, make sure it's within your character's . . .uh. . . character. You get into the discussion about "historical accuracy" with other Festival Playtrons and who's garb looks period and wonder why The Black Fox is always dressed like he's from the 12th Century instead of the 16th. With less $$ than you put out the year before (unless you're jewelry hunting), your second season at MDRF gives you the opportunity to begin your seasoning. . . Stage 3: Seasoning Seasoning takes another 3 years or so. Learning where all the pubs are and where all the returning entertainment appears becomes easy. During this time you start seeing atmosphere at the Festival that you hadn't before. . . small details that elude the wide-eyed folks who are still marveling in just what MDRF is. Buildings like the small multi-colored house that sits inside Kate Cox's chain maile area or all the detailed cut wood in the eves of several buildings on Stub Toe Lane or even the Renaissance Beatles posters sold in a few of the clothing shops. Its during this period that your garb grows even further because you had to buy special Pyrate garb for Pyrate Weekend, maybe a Kilt for Scottish Weekend, and you're starting to research on ebay about just what kind of Oktoberfest Renaissance stuff you could get! By this time, you've got a seasoned mug on your belt, there's a dozen Renaissance-themed books in your library, and you no longer need a cheat sheet of lyrics to follow along with the Pyrates Royale at PubSing. In fact at this point, you might even know a castmember outside of faire or at the very least be able to recognize them in their mundanes on the street. You've probably visited some other Renfaires and realize what makes MDRF better than them. . . . everything. The Black Fox's MDRF Addict Questionaire applies to you. Stage 4: Master of the Faire It's at this point in your MDRF experience when you feel like you own the Festival. After five years of MDRF experience, you can walk all day and make circles from lane to lane and skip most of the shows because you can almost do some of the schtick on your own. You find that it's fun just to sit on a bench outside of the White Hart Tavern (where lots of Friends of the Maryland Renaissance Festival hang out). You've probably already attended a Renaissance Wedding or maybe even been married at the Festival. You have a steady group of friends that you only see at Festival and you discuss the minutea of MDRF. You talk about how over-serious some of the Playtron guilds take themselves and even realize how silly the extremes of historical accuracy are. You start referring to it as "hysterical accuracy" when you realize that unless 1/3 of the garbed folk inside the gates has lost most of their family to the Black Death (i.e. plague), then none of them are accurate. . . forget about bifocals, immunization scars, or bathing every day. Anyway, the Festival has become a way of life for you by now and you relish every moment of the day. You probably attend 18 out of 19 days and your friends and relatives all know that you're "unavailable" for any events from mid-August through the end of October. You're now an MDRF veteran. . . Huzzzzahhhhh! FOR SECURITY, ADMIN AND OTHER MDRF ISSUES, CALL THE MAIN OFFICE AT: 1.800.296.7304. FOR ALL OTHER EMERGENCIES, CALL 9-1-1.