Written by KT Turner

During the first weekend of May, East City Park in Moscow, ID transforms from mundane to magical. As you enter the park under the archway at the corner of East 3rd and Monroe, you are transported to a medieval celebration of spring. This is the Moscow Renaissance Fair, a creative community tradition since 1974. With deep roots in Moscow’s art and music scene, the Renaissance Fair has served as an annual event celebrating local crafters and creators, giving them space to share and sell various items from pottery, turned wood creations, artwork, clothing, and more.

With craft show origins, the talented artisans who present their work at the festival have contributed majorly to the annual success of the Fair. In the winter, Fair organizers would send invitations and applications to artisans and craftspeople in the area that have worked with the fair before or who have requested information and an application. Often the organizers would get more applications than space would allow, proving the popularity of the fair for these artisans.

Upon selection, spaces would be assigned and a program containing a directory of the artists would go into production along with stage schedules for the weekend featuring acts and performing artists.

The types of artworks displayed and sold varied greatly, and the quality of the goods sold proves that selecting craftspeople for the fair had to be a difficult task indeed. Below are some of my personal favorite examples of work submitted with craft booth applications.

The Moscow Renaissance Fair showcased the best that the artistic community of Moscow had to offer, and still does today. The artists and craftspeople who share their work are a large part of the fair culture and the fair’s continued success had folks coming back time and time again.

The artwork shown above is just a small fraction of what was found in the Moscow Renaissance collection housed at the University of Idaho’s Special Collections and Archives. To see more examples of work and to learn more about the history of the Moscow A Fair schedule a visit.

KT Turner, MFA is the 2023 Northwest Archivists, Inc. Archivist-in-Residence as well as a 2nd Year Doctoral Fellow in the History Department.

Source

MG 583 Moscow Renaissance Fair Collection