I am looking for medieval fairs or renaissance festivals that would offer me the opportunity to suffer real public punishment, like being sentenced to the public pillory, stocks or even public whipping post or ducking stool type punishment. Anyone know of such a place? That is a medieval renaissance festival?
At the Age of Chivalry Renaissance Faire in Las Vegas, there is a booth that features public punishments such as stocks, pillories and a rack. These punishments are the real thing--I know, because I have been stretched on the rack and locked in the stocks and pillory. The pillory is especially uncomfortable. Nearby, there is a pirate guild that features a pillory at which prisoners are flogged. I have danced under the lash, half-naked, in that pillory.
At the Big Bear Lake Renaissance Faire, there was a pillory maintained by a leather dealer who was into "the scene." I found myself in this pillory, half-naked, and received five lashes, well laid on, for possessing obscene pictures of the Queen.
At the Valhalla Renaissance festival in Lake Tahoe, you will face a harsh Elizabethan punishment if accused of a crime. Your hands will be shackled , and you will be paraded through the fairgrounds and then locked in jail. Then you will be tried, found guilty, and sentenced to the stocks, the pillory, the rack, or the pole of shame. In the stocks and pillory and the rack, you will be thoroughly drenched with cold water from Lake Tahoe, and at the pole of shame, your hands will be tied above your head and you will have to sing a song and do a dance. I have experienced all of these punishments.
