There's a great book on the LARP scene called "Leaving Mundania" by Lizzie Stark that's a really easy, entertaining read. It helped me really empathize with the hobby and the people behind it.

She kinda had the same perspective but approached it with curiosity to figure out what the fuss was about.

(Up until that last chapter on "Nordic LARP"... it's been ages since I read it but that stuff got weeeird.)

It's one of those things that would sound like a ton of fun to me, going all in on pretending to be some fantasy character and everybody else is in on the bit, but there's some combat rules to prevent "invincible OC syndrome" so you're actually moving playing pretend instead of plopped in a chair for 6 hours for a tabletop game.

In any case, it looks like a good way to escape playing "Bills & Bosses", a game that is near-universally reviled. hahaha

Unfortunately it's just very geo-dependent and cost intensive I'd think haha.