KINKY MEMORIES: THE REN FAIRE

For those of you who are kinky and have gone to Ren Faires, you know that they are excellent places to let your kinky side show a tiny bit. Obviously, we’re not talking full-fledged exposure or anything, but when it comes to your clothing choices… well, leather is encouraged.

Collars, cuffs, and even the occasional flogger hanging from your belt are not out of place there. And as if to encourage the kinky crowd, you’ll find that many Ren Faires have stocks set up, not just for display, but to be used. Most people get in them for fun photos. “Oh, Look. I’m in the stocks for being bad! Hahaha”

Read more: KINKY MEMORIES: THE REN FAIRE

You will also find that just about every ren faire has at least one stall that sells leather for adults. Collars, cuffs, floggers, whips, paddles etc. I’ve never been to one that didn’t, though sometimes they keep it in a back room ‘adults only’ area so you might not have noticed it when you looked at the corsets, boots and belts.

Ren Faires tend to be a clash of worlds. The audience is diverse from all walks of life and all ages. Pretty much anything goes, within reason. I’m saying this so you know that we weren’t ‘inflicting our kink on people nonconsensually’. The things we did were mild and very much in keeping with the weird and wild atmosphere.

Kids know that everyone is playing dress-up and pretending to be things they aren’t, so they don’t really think much of anything they see. If you have a whip on your belt, it’s “Just part of their costume, honey.” And that is corroborated by the fact that whips are common in ren faire shows.

Maybe you’ve heard of Jack the Whipper and other popular performers who incorporate whips into their acts. Or maybe you’ve seen the ‘Dungeon’ that so many Ren Faires have, which include wax models displaying medieval tortures, including whips. In other words, kids don’t see these things as kinky. They see them as part of the show.

Anyway, I used to be very big into Ren Faires. Including the dressing up (and sweating to death) in five layers of gowns and cloaks. Going every weekend during the season. I even worked at one for a summer once. I still go, usually once a year, and sometimes I dress up—but not to the extent that I used to.

But back then I would get costumed up, and at times I would bring other kinky people with me. I’ve even brought submissives with me, and had them cuffed and connected to my belt with a long chain. Again, since I was in Faire garb, people didn’t really think of it as a BDSM game. They thought it was just part of my Faire persona and no one really looked twice.

When asked, I would just say “Runaway bond servant,” which explained it in character.

But it was fun because people who were also kinky looked at the quality of the leather and could tell it wasn’t the cheap adult store kind of stuff. I met and made a lot of kinky friends while wandering around a Faire. I was even invited to after-hours parties more than once—because, believe me, there are a lot of kinky people who work the Faire, for obvious reasons.

Parties and playing after the guests are gone… well, that’s not unusual either.

So, the collar, or the flogger hanging on my belt, was kind of a signal to others of the leather community. I have a ton of stories from visits over the years, just because they would migrate to me. I could tell you about the time I accidentally awakened a submissive interest in the girl selling staffs next to the torture museum.

Or the time a group of drunken pirate performers, two of whom were subby types, invited me to hang out after closing.

But this is my favorite story.

When I have had submissives, I would usually take them to the Ren Faire, if they happened to be visiting at the right time of year. I did this with several different girls, and we always had a fun time.

I would dress in long gowns and tell everyone she was my captive. Or a runaway servant girl who couldn’t be trusted, so I had to keep her chained in public. We could get away with an amazing amount of public kink without anyone thinking it was kink at all.

(Which is good. You don’t want to traumatize people.)

On this particular occasion I was with J, a very dear and much loved girl I’m still good friends with. I decided to put her in the stocks and use the hard-cord leather flogger I wore on my belt. It wasn’t meant to hurt or anything. It was just for fun, and so my husband could take a couple pictures while I was doing it.

So, I put her in the stocks, whacked her butt a few times. Had some fun scolding her and telling her she was a bad girl for running away, got a couple of pictures and then lifted the bar to let her out—except, as I turned around… I saw a line had formed.

Oops. I felt bad thinking I had taken too much time with J, and was holding up the line, so we’re hurrying to get out of their way. And then I realize they aren’t in line for the stocks.

They are in line for me.

There was a line of people who wanted me to flog them in the stocks so they could get pictures too.

I was not prepared for that, and we had plans to catch the next tiger show which was in about fifteen minutes, but… sure okay. First up was an adorable couple. They looked to be early to mid-twenties and she said, “Could you please flog my husband, so I can get pictures?”

Uh… sure, okay.  He goes in the stocks. I whack the flogger across the seat of his pants very dramatically. I doubt it hurts at all, even though this was a harder leather cord so it could sting a bit. And she says “Harder!” Well, I guess this isn’t ‘just’ for pictures then.

I did give him a few hard ones and he, well, he seemed very pleased when I let him out. They were both laughing and grinning. I have a feeling they were either kinky or were about to have a discussion about it.

I quietly mentioned that the leather stall had a wall of floggers, as they left. They looked interested, so maybe they visited before they left… who knows.

I was about to scoot down off the platform to join my group so we could go see the tigers, when an adorable college-aged girl hurries up the steps, being encouraged by her friends. She is blonde and pale, so the bright red face is very obvious. “Could you do me too?”

I mean… how could I turn that down? So, I whipped her a few times, gently and then gave her a hard-enough-to-sting one at the end. She made a delightful little gasping sound. Her friends cheered and clapped and took pictures.

When I set her loose, she was all blushes and giggles. She gave me a hug and said, ‘thank you!’ as if I’d made her whole week, and then she went to join her friends. There was more giggling.

At that point my husband was giving me looks because we’re going to miss the show, so I grinned and did a little curtsey, saying, “Sorry, I have to go, or we’ll miss the show.”

I am positive that I didn’t imagine the disappointed looks on a few faces when I left. This was quite a way back and kink wasn’t as mainstream as it is now. I think… a few people discovered a new interest that day, while others simply thought it was hilarious.

I have no idea how long I would have been there flogging people if I hadn’t been on a schedule. I am 100% sure now that most of the people standing around thought I worked for the ren faire and that my job was to beat people—which if you’re familiar with Ren Faires, is not the oddest thing they hire people for.

I didn’t realize that until I was leaving though, and clearly heard someone say “Oh, I thought she was one of the actors.”

Nope, just enjoying the day.

It’s not the weirdest thing that ever happened to me at a Faire, but it was a lot of fun. I haven’t been to that particular Faire in years, and they no longer do the tiger show, I’m told, but I have a ton of good memories from the place.