This story was produced in collaboration with the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). For our fourth collaboration with SCAD, Rough Draft editors once again worked with students in Paige Gray’s spring semester writing class, focusing on stories surrounding film and television. With the help of Rough Draft editors Collin Kelley, Beth McKibben, and Sammie Purcell, the students produced stories ranging from rediscovering the traditional moviegoing experience and Latinas in film, to Atlanta’s independent film industry and the Georgia Production Partnership Alliance nonprofit.
As someone who loves film, I was always fascinated by the Georgia Renaissance Festival in Fairburn and the people who attend in cosplay. Every year it comes and goes during the summer, and with it, an assortment of different characters. There are Medieval knights straight out of “Braveheart” to Tudor-style royalty from the movie “Elizabeth”.
A whopping 200,000 guests travel to Fairburn each year, from April 11 to May 31. Every weekend, people like me can participate in everything from jousting and playing Medieval music to daredevil acrobatics. But one of the main draws is becoming immersed in the low-country Medieval atmosphere. Trekking through the festival, I would say around half of the attendees come dressed in some sort of costume or cosplay.
Up a dusty lane and beneath the shade of trees, I met Finley Mardis and Brandon Fields, a couple who were costumed as if they had just walked off a “Lord of the Rings” movie set. Fields, dressed in an emerald cloak, spoke about how he had been inspired mostly by games.
“You know, it’s all the classics,” he chuckled, as he recalled being inspired by role-playing games like “Elden Ring,” which will soon become a live-action film produced by A24.
Mardis also spoke about her own outfit, a regal blue dress, and how many people connected it to “Vex’ahlia” from Vox Machina, a “Dungeons and Dragons” show on Amazon Prime. The character was first introduced in the popular table-top role-playing game. “Dungeons and Dragons” was frequently cited as costume inspiration among the cosplayers I spoke to at the Georgia Renaissance Festival.
“It was ‘Star Wars,’” laughed Leffert, a teacher who was dressed as the Dragonborn from the 2011 video game “Skyrim” (picture a viking covered in iron armor). He spoke about how he loved the Star Wars films growing up in the early 1980s, which ignited his love for science fiction and geek culture. He recalled his parents giving him a Chewbacca figure. Leffert smiled as he remembered not wanting to open the box; he didn’t want to make Chewbacca sad he had to leave his home.
Leffert spoke about how his wife and friends encouraged him to follow his passions for science fiction and fantasy, which is how he ended up in cosplay.
While shows like “Game of Thrones,” and movies like “A Knight’s Tale” were also named as sources for characters, it wasn’t only films that inspired people to cosplay at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. Star-gazing, immersion in role-playing, and, due to the number of mushroom-themed costumes, a love for mushroom foraging factored into costume decisions.
Most of people spoke in very few words, committed to a character distinct to themselves. There were bandits, rogues, and kings, all who acted as if they had walked right out of a Hollywood studio. I realized I had entered a small cinematic universe right there in Fairburn.
“It’s different here, so many more people dress up,” said Martena Williams, a veterinarian donned in bright red mushroom costume. She and her partner, Brandon (dressed as a Medieval rogue with a grisly sword to match), spoke about how many different people come to the Fairburn festival and get into character. They’ve attended different Renaissance fairs across the country, from Texas to Minnesota, but the festival in Fairburn seems to inspire many more people to get into costume.
As I walked through the painted gates that bordered the Renaissance Festival, I wasn’t simply walking out of an event that day, but out of a world that existed apart from the rest of metro Atlanta. I had been in a small movie, like a background character, but behind me that movie was still playing.
