Croft/SCA
I first became interested in period re-enacting through exposure to the Maryland Renaissance Festival, where I later worked for eleven years. I attended as a patron a few times, then was asked to participate by an enterprising man putting in a period printing press for demonstrations one year. While we only ran the press for one season, I kept going back to work for other vendors and the fair itself.
The same guy with the press also participated with a local re-enactment group called Markland, who had ties to the SCA. The major event then was a staging of the Battle of Hastings at a local winery, and it was a blast! Another friend from Markland wanted to do a Bronze Age Celtic living history demonstration for some local highland games, and asked if I would be interested in learning period spinning and weaving, and I was hooked. We constructed a period encampment, with a warp-weighted loom and a wood war chariot. It's my recollection that events for Markland and SCA sort of ran together back then, but I started to get a taste of the more serious side of re-enactment, as opposed to the more loosely interpreted renaissance festivals.
I dropped out of the scene for a few years when I started moving around for my work, but when I finally landed in Arizona, I started looking around for something fun to do, and stumbled across a group called Croft at the Arizona Renaissance Festival. Croft, which stands for Celtic Re-enactment Organization for Fellowship and Trades, along with a group called Local Yokels, does living history demonstration for ARF, something I hadn't seen at a ren fest before. Croft is a non-profit organization dedicated to education and fellowship, and I have learned so much with them! Our major event is still participation at ARF, but we also participate at smaller events throughout the year, like a few Highland Games festivals and the Devonshire Renaissance Faire. Our members are an amazing resource of all fiber-related crafts, and wood-working, cooking, and building. We add amenities to our wattle and daub period cottage at ARF every year. There is always something new to learn on the horizon, and I like how fellowship and family-oriented they are, like a real village.
Getting back into the SCA (that's Society for Creative Anachronism) I lay entirely at Saragrace's feet! The SCA is a way for us to research and have fun in other genres besides Celtic. All she needed to do to convince me was show me a class list for an Arts & Sciences Collegium at the 2002 Estrella War, and I was hooked. Members of the SCA research and demonstrate an incredibly diverse range of topics revolving around life in the Middle Ages, and our activities with them are turning out to be a truly inspiring exploration of lots of new things. There's not enough time in the day to cover all we want to try our hands at, but we're having a blast trying. Look for us at equestrian, archery and textile guild events. I'll even be teaching some classes for the first time at the upcoming Estrella War. Maybe I'll even eventually find time to develop a "persona"!