The Hutt Valley is lovely. The tents and park reminded me of Ren Scots Festivals, of course, though the time period for this festival was about four hundred years earlier.
For the most part, a lot of effort was put into authenticity and historical accuracy. But, if the possibility exists for there to be a dragon, there should be a dragon
It was fascinating to watch the jousters warming up for their skills tests. In this case, the international competitors are at something of a disadvantage, as they are riding borrowed horses that they've only known for a few days. The international competitors included several Australians, two Swedes, and an American. Also, on a side note, my cell phone camera is pretty great - but not so much for catching pictures of things in motion, so the pictures from this event are not as great as I would like.
The horse below was a GORGEOUS mover and had excellent collection. Would loved to have seen a dressage class with this one.
The skills test had several parts, the first was to run down a line and try to catch three rings on the lance; then turn and either try to pick up a ring over a low jump or from a very low target; then pick up a sharp sword and ride down and slice a cabbage, an apple, and hit a bullseye on a target; pick up a javelin and hit a boar statute; and finally pick up a lance and hit a quintain. Point were awarded for successfully completing these tasks, all at a gallop, and under a time limit. The next two pictures are of people prepping for the boar throw.
For all you Whovians out there, here we have the War Doctor as a jouster.
There were several minstrels and jesters wandering around, but this woman was my favorite. She said it took her about six months of practice to be able to play while standing on the roller.
The garb on display was pretty fantastic. I did not take nearly enough pictures.
The reenactors did a few full contact massed battles, which was basically a fully armed game of capture the flag. Full contact with steel, a fight ended when someone was knocked to the ground.
Over in the HEMA ring, the first fights of the day were with sword and buckler - for those of you unfamiliar (as I was), a buckler is a tiny shield held in the offhand with a single handed sword in the other. None of the guys from my school participated in these fights, as we've mostly been focusing on longsword and dagger fighting (not at the same time). The fights were to the best two out of three. A point was awarded to both on any mutual hits. There were three marshals for the fight, the fights began with a salute to your opponent and a salute to all of the marshals. Despite that these are full contact fights, it's interesting that the HEMA ring didn't always draw a big crowd - people are so used to seeing long, drawn out, choreographed fights that an actual fight is over too quickly and goes too fast for most people to follow - and this speed is why there are three marshals, as sometimes it's hard for one person to accurately judge the fight.
The gentleman in the center is my instructor.
The afternoon competition was dagger. For safety reasons, the dagger fights are done with wooden wasters rather than steel.
There were more jousting competitions in the afternoon, though we didn't spend a lot of time watching them. They were playing under 14th century tournament rules, which used breakaway lance tips and awarded points for the number of pieces a lance tip broke into.
These three are all from my school, though the gentleman on the right in full armor did not compete this year. Some competitors (who were also part of the mass reenactment battles) fought in full plate, others, like the two below, went for a gambeson, fencing mask, and strategic light armor. They will add additional pieces as time goes on. The two who did compete were first and second in the longsword competition on Sunday.
The longsword competition was on day two. I was mostly taking video for this, so not a lot of pictures.
Note the full chainmail on the fighter on the right.
The longbow society did a few demonstrations as well - a good longbowman was invaluable, as a longbow was capable of taking out an armored knight.
It was a fabulous weekend!
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