The Festival Up 1774 Needs 400 Workers. The Job Faire Is September 12.

Drive north out of Magnolia on FM 1774, past Plantersville, and you reach the gates of the Texas Renaissance Festival in Todd Mission. It opens October 10. The hiring happens first. The festival holds its annual job faire on Saturday, September 12, starting at 10 a.m. at the grounds at 21778 FM 1774, and it says there are more than 400 positions to fill for what it counts as its 52nd season.

The jobs are the ones that keep a small seasonal city running: merchandise sales, food prep, game and ride attendants. The minimum age is 16, which makes this one of the few big seasonal hires within reach of a Magnolia High or Magnolia West student with a weekend to spare. There is one commitment the festival is firm about. Workers need to be available for eight consecutive weekends.

Showing up prepared matters, because the application happens on the spot. Bring a photo ID and a Social Security card, and copies of a resume if you have one. Applications are filled out at the faire itself.

The season runs Saturdays and Sundays from October 10 through November 29, plus the Friday after Thanksgiving, with gates open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. For the people who work it, that is nine straight weekends of early mornings on the same two-lane road the rest of us take to Navasota. For everyone else in Greater Magnolia, those dates are worth circling for a different reason: 1774 traffic in October has a rhythm of its own, and it starts on opening day.

Seasonal work is not a career. It is, for a 16-year-old, often a first paycheck, and the festival has been handing out first paychecks in this corner of the county for five decades. If you pick one up this fall, the newsroom would like to hear what the job was like.