The Texas Renaissance Festival is in the spotlight this summer thanks to an HBO docuseries (our own Jeff Balke covered it here) and a new season of Crime Waves dubbed “Renaissance, TX.” The latter is a grim look inside the fantasyland whose critics say it has become a place where sexual assault and violence are enabled.
Two reporters trekked out to Todd Mission for the 2023 Ren Fest Christmas weekend and spoke to more than a dozen employees, rennies and guests. The producers were supposed to be there for a seven-day fact gathering trip, but Sean Cannon and Heather Schroering left two days early because of what they said were safety concerns, according to an emailed statement from No Smiling Studio.
Ren Fest has for years billed itself as a safe place for immersive fantasy. I started going in high school as part of a theater class annual field trip. It was supposed to be a setting for high-octane Let’s Pretend and cosplay.
But even back in the ‘90s, there were rumors. Don’t go to the campgrounds, especially after dark. “Renaissance, TX” chronicles a long, painful history of shootings, stabbings, sexual assault, and theft that has steadily increased in the community around Ren Fest. In 2023, it was widely reported that a 22-year-old woman was drugged and sexually assaulted at Ren Fest.
I’ve written before about how Ren Fest has always seemed desperately horny. The podcast makes it pretty clear that the public festival part of the yearly event is mostly there to fund what happens after dark. Despite catering to families, the vibe of Ren Fest gets a little more Frat Boy every year, the creeps get bolder, and it seems like a kink scene for people who find the rules in other kink scenes too restraining.
In that, it reflects its founder, “King” George Coulam, The famously boundary-adverse patriarch of the Ren Fest, has led to lawsuits and an atmosphere of sexual predator behavior. As the podcast says, “are people, here to live their fantasies, or [Coulam’s]?” There is a real sense that Ren Fest is trying less and less to be a theme park.
Before any readers accuse me of just being a prude, I want to remind y’all that articles on this very website are why I am the number one search result in Google when you type “Doctor Who sex toys.” I’ve spent my life in problematic communities where weirdoes feel at home. I did Rocky Horror for a decade. I lost count of the number of gross dudes wielding power for sex over fans and friends in the music and wrestling worlds. There is this tendency for men (and it is almost always men) to harness the passion of followers to make themselves a little fiefdom where their desires can run free.
Which us why “Renaissance, TX” is so heartbreaking to listen to. Ren Fest is the only place a lot of people feel accepted, and TRF is particularly easy-going when it comes to what counts as “renaissance.” You can tell that people love being there. I remember feeling at ease there specifically because it was somewhere that upended the rules of normal society that often made me miserable.
But when you tear down the walls, you also tear down protections. The podcast makes it clear that the various “clans” at Ren Fest are not adequately self-policing. Abundant liquor and drugs, inadequate security presence, few rules regarding firearms, and a county police force that owes most of its funding to the fair do not add up to a safe place.
“Renaissance, TX” tells it plainly. Magical as a trip to Ren Fest may be, the podcast casts this also as a place where the system seems far more dedicated to providing sex to dudes than anything else. The podcast’s conclusions: the Fair’s problems have only grown worse in the last decade.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
