Impalement at Renn Fayre? The Truth of an Olde Reed Myth
For the past several weeks, students and alumni have gathered at the Student Union on Saturdays at 12:00pm for the purpose of Building Art for Renn Fayre (abbreviated to BARF). While I was chatting with alumni, the topic turned to safety at Renn Fayre. While we’ve all heard tales of Ye Olde Reed, it is true that preventing property destruction and prioritizing student safety has become of greater importance for Reed administration over the past couple decades. While no single event can account for this, an incident that occurred at Renn Fayre 2003 is anecdotally cited as being a catalyst for stronger precautionary measures.
Raymond Rendleman ‘06, an alum who was lending a helping hand at BARF, told us his memory of Renn Fayre 2003. Just after Thesis Parade, a student was impaled. Suddenly, what should have been a weekend of revelry became much more somber. Thankfully, the student was well enough to send his regards by the end of the weekend. Twenty years later, he has no lasting injury, and he agreed to this interview for the Quest.
In 2003, Ryan Dunn was a graduating art senior, and his thesis was about myth-building. That weekend was intended to be his final thesis show, but those plans were called off when he accidentally impaled himself on a sawed-off golf club. In the twenty years since he graduated, his injury at Renn Fayre has become a myth of its own.
Of the handful of people who recall this event, I’ve heard many variations of the story. Some have told me that the impalement happened during CHVNK666 festivities. While CHVNK666 is no longer active, they were a bike club at Reed during the ‘90s and early 2000s. Their expertise lay in building bikes that look impractical to ride, and tall-bike jousting was, for some years, a classic Renn Fayre activity. But as much as it would seem like a scene straight out of the Iliad for a student to be impaled while tall-bike jousting, the truth is that Dunn’s injury was purely an accident.
When I asked Dunn to tell his own memory of the incident, he first remarked that it had been pretty traumatic and his memory of it was certainly flawed. However, he did refute that it was associated with any organized Renn Fayre activity. The truth is that he was holding his sawed-off golf club with sharp ends, and he accidentally bent over into the club. Thankfully, he did notice right away, and the ambulance arrived shortly after. According to other sources, the ambulance that arrived drove directly from Woodstock onto the Great Lawn. Although this part of the story is a little more apocryphal, the ambulance drivers reportedly also originally thought that the Renn Fayre festivities were riots, since no one had informed them of what was happening on campus.
In light of the start of Renn Fayre creeping steadily closer, I asked Dunn if he had any advice for students regarding safety at Renn Fayre. He laughed, and said, “What happened to me was such a fluke.” However, with that said, there are things that you can prepare for. The HCC is providing Narcan trainings this Friday, April 19 at 1:00pm and 1:30pm in PAB 130, as well as drop-in training on the GCC patio from 11:00 to 2:00 on Monday, April 22. Additionally, White Bird is hosting a psychedelic harm reduction workshop in Vollum 110 at 6:00pm on Tuesday, April 23. May Renn Fayre 2024 be a safe and joyous occasion!
LINK TO PICTURE OF CHUNK TOWER HERE