Any medieval fair would be incomplete without a jousting tournament. From the Medieval Times restaurant chain, to the Minnesota Renaissance Fair, jousting serves as the center piece of the event. On the surface these jousts appear to be one of the most inauthentic parts of our practice of the medieval; the jousts are carefully staged and the armor is much more for show than for practicality. This joust at a renaissance festival has two knights wearing armor from different eras of the Middle Ages, one with a great helm, and the other with the bascinet. However these anachronisms may create an atmosphere that is more authentic to the spirit of the late medieval joust than attempts to create a more realistic joust. 
One attempt that comes to mind to create a “real” joust was the History Channel’s “Full Metal Jousting.” The show had competitors wear identical protective suits of armor and compete in no hold barred jousting. The show never took of and I suspect the reason for this was a lack of medieval essence. There was no chivalry, no fanfare, no courtly love, no sense of nobility amateur medievalists are used to seeing. It did not matter if the jousts themselves were real, the atmosphere surrounding the show did not match many observers imagined understanding of the medieval joust. 
Actual medieval jousts combined the realness of the History Channel’s “Full Metal Jousting,” with the fun and fanfare of the jousts of the typical Renaissance fair. The first medieval jousts were little more than melees geared at training knights for wars. Even as the sport became more refined, the militant and deadly side of the sport remained; Henry II’s death in a tournament is an excellent example of the sheer brutality that occurred in a joust.(1) However the real violence of the joust did not take away from the chivalrous atmosphere present in a medieval tournament. Knights such as Ulrich von Leichtenstein would joust for the honor of his lover, wearing an image of Venus on his helmet.(2) 
While medieval jousting was certainly more dangerous than the stages jousts of the Renaissance fairs, the ideals espoused in both events are remarkably similar. If medievalism is truly, “fantasy built on fantasy” than the medieval joust is the perfect subject matter for modern enthusiasts to recreate. Jousts allowed medieval knights and nobles to espouse ideals that were fantasies themselves. One could not wear fancy armor mirroring Venus the goddess of love in battle, but a joust gave medieval knights the space to do so. So while the staged jousts at the Minnesota Renaissance Fair are not as dangerous as their real predecessors, they still provide an air of authenticity more than many other events at the fair. 
1)http://www.history.co.uk/shows/full-metal-jousting/articles/history-of-jousting
2) Ulrich von leichtenstein, https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472113216-ch4.pdf
Getting Medieval 