Ye Olde LARPeth
What’s the difference between LARPing and a Renaissance Fair?
That sounds like the set-up to a joke, but it’s a realistic question. Two groups of people dress up in pseudo medieval costumes and pretend they’re someone else for an afternoon.
It gets even more muddier when you consider historical re-enactment which, while not “cool”, is far less nerding than LARPing despite being the exact same thing. I’m sorry but just because you’re dressed like a soldier from the Civil War doesn’t make you better than the dude dressed like an elf. Except that I somewhat understand the desire to pretend to be a part of a fantasy world, a world more magical and special than our own, but nostalgically looking back at a bloody battle that shattered a country, pitted brother against brother, and left scars that still linger 150 years after seems like a curious way to spend a weekend.
Being a tabletop nerd who also re-enacts (Revolutionary War or, more often, pre-War colonial era), I noticed the same thing a few years ago. To an extent, you can compare it all to cosplay as well.