After 10 years talking to knights, squires and wizards, I understand why ren fairs are booming

As the loneliness epidemic worsens, young people are finding themselves and each other through the thriving culture of medieval and renaissance fairs

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“I dunno what to tell ya, mate,” a young knight once told me through his helm’s lifted visor. “Gettin’ shield bashed just feels good.”

For the knaves among thee, a “shield bash” is what it sounds like: to bash, or be bashed, with a shield. It’s simple and to the point, like a mace to the face or an arrow to the knee. Witnessing a shield bash, you understand the “haha yesss” that the basher must feel upon bashing, just as you empathetically presume a long “oh noooooo” on behalf of the bashee. So I was surprised to learn being bashed was, in itself, just as fun.

“When it’s ya bro doin’ the bashin’ it just feels good,” the knight continued, after a muddy melee at Balingup’s 2017 medieval fair. “Like, mate earned it. We’re bonded in mud.”