I have a question for all of you all, regarding RenFaires and Renaissance Festivals and the like as you experience them here in the 2020s:
Do people smoke everywhere?
Context:
This past weekend, I went to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival near Franklin, Tennessee. For a while I had a nice time, caught some shows, did lots of shopping, ate the fried food that I normally avoid.
Unfortunately, after the gates had been open for more than two hours, I developed breathing problems. Everywhere I went, someone was smoking a cigarette. Vendors mostly did it in the Designated Smoking Areas (through which one must cross to access any of the Port-a-Potties). Tourists in regular clothes smoked as they strolled the paths; tourists in beginner level cosplay did so at all picnic table areas, or in the audience for one of the stages.
The sheriff's deputy and the fellow dressed in nothing but a kilt with some shoulder armor, they smoked right by the entry gate.
I could not even get away from it by going back to sit in my car for a while. Every third group of pedestrians, whether trekking out to their vehicles for departure or just then arriving to the festival, also included at least one smoker.
It's two days later, and I still have allergy symptoms. I honestly do not remember this much distress in the nineties and early oughties, when I used to attend a smaller RenFaire every October. I have no idea if this is a problem with that particular festival
(because whoever designed the layout is either themselves a smoker, or else lives with one. No one from a smoke-free home life would make any approach to the biological facilities require walking through a Designated Smoking Area, much less make all of them require it.)
or if I missed a widespread shift in how Nerdy Outdoor Market is done, over my decade away.
