Ship Shape

04/17/2026

HOIST THE SAILS! The good word on our 2026 season is out! We can’t wait to see you in your pirate pants at a festival near you! 🏴‍☠️🖤⚔️

04/14/2026

is going to be a blast! Mark your calendars, cuties! 🏴‍☠️🤩⚔️

04/14/2026

Can’t wait to perform at Faire in the Field this June!! Will we see YOU 🫵 there??

Shiver me timbers, it’s Ship Shape! Join us for a music and comedy show complete with side-splitting piratical jests and harmonies so tight that they’ll make any landlubber a she shanties fanatic! Let this cook, swabber, and surgeon entertain you while they try to find their land legs – which might have gone down with the ship – and let the mayhem commence! Join Frankie, Swiss, and Mack for a shipload of fun!

04/01/2026

For the month of April, we are raising a spicy margarita in honor of 35 glorious years of Frankie Finelli. She is the smartest woman we know, and an absolute freak in the spreadsheets! Your tender heart is bigger than a New Jersey bagel, and there is not a friend more loyal on planet Earth. Thank you for your talents, your beautiful smile, and fierce presence.

We love you and can’t wait for a lifetime of chocolate bananas, inappropriate jokes, car jams, and wonderful memories with you. Happy birthday, beautiful!

03/23/2026

Today is all about the one and only Swiss for her 30th birthday!! She is the most passionate guitarist, the silliest chef, and the smartest, most empathetic pirate we know. We wouldn’t be a crew without her fierce joy and unending love.

So cheers to 30 years of Swiss! We know that there are many, many, MANY years of friendship ahead for the three of us, filled with music, dancing, and tons of laughter. Swiss, we are so lucky to be more than just friends, we’re sisters

03/18/2026

Once a year, we at Ship Shape take ourselves out to a 🎉CELEBRATION DINNER🎉 It’s a night to enjoy each other’s company and revel in the joy of the past season. This year we spent the evening at Gus’s Sip and Dip here in Chicago and we had a blast! Here’s to an eventful and prosperous 2026! Get ready for exciting things in the future 😉

03/18/2026

Faire in the Field is looking for vendors!

03/16/2026

A new Renaissance Faire is coming to Chicago! Sounds like a fun time 👏👏👏 Let’s show them how supportive the ren faire community can be! Give them a follow!

Hear ye, hear ye! Announcing: Faire in the Field - a new pop-up renaissance faire, born in Chicago! Built on the principal that We are the Common Folk, and the Common Folk deserve Joy! Join us on June 13, 2026 in Uptown at Clarendon Community Center Park for an afternoon filled with performers to entertain, activities to delight, and vendors to peruse. Entry and performances are free! Bring a blanket, bring a picnic, bring a friend.

More at our website: faireinthefield.com
We can't wait to see you!

03/08/2026

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY! This one’s for the girls 💅 In our experience, men greatly outnumber women on the Ren Faire circuit, so we try to forge strong connections with the other female groups we meet along the way. There are so many talented women doing amazing work at festivals, whether that be as performers, in a booth, or backstage, and we are so lucky to work and learn alongside them! 👏 Pictured here are just some of our amazing female friends (and there are so many more too!): us (hehehe), the Washing Well Wenches and the ladies of Music the Gathering, Bess and Marley, one of our incredible stage managers Love, Topsy Turvy Show and Skapa Leather, and (former) Queen Elizabeth/(future) Iris the Shrike! Ladies, we love you!!! 💖

📸: slide 1 - Chad Britt, slide 3 - Allen Castillo

02/14/2026

Ahoy Valentine, you’re lookin cute today 😉🌹❤️‍🔥 We hope you all feel loved today and every day! Thanks for being the best treasure we could ever ask for 🫶

01/24/2026

One more week to vote for us in the Renaissance Festival Awards! It’s a great way to pass the time while you’re hunkered down on this very, very cold weekend 😉

Vote for Ship Shape in the Renaissance Festival Awards!! 👏 We’re nominated in a really tight category: “Best Music and Vocals Small Group on Stage” ( #41)! There are tons of really amazing acts nominated alongside us, and we’re honored to be included 😊 Comment below after you vote, and thanks in advance!! Link below!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Awards_of_2025?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwPDwGRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEe9A6rb9FEX8050dQQHuZY6FxVuk-k10Txd4UJrBlJMxF0esyskzzolq8djlw_aem_hnpEDPQt67SiS3iP5b2P1g