Hayner Burgfest, Dreiechenhain, Hessen; 11, 12 & 13 September 2009
The full Hayer Burgfest photoalbum 2009 with over 500 pictures can be found here
Not long ago we (Jr. & I) went to the Hayner Burgfest not far away from here. We were there already last year and enjoyed it so much we decided to go again this year. We also got the invite and reminder from a friend which happened to be there with his horse. We borrowed our clothes from our loyal Russian and headed towards the gates of the Hayner Burg
Once inside we were again overwhelmed by the number of Händler, selling their goods to the people.
or showing off what they could do, like the fakir, which just pulled out a 10cm long nail out of his nose:
or the Lords of the Fire, showing off with loads of fire, as expected:
A bit of practice was also included; like “how heavy is a real chain”:
watching the real trained birds:
Following instructions to Jr.s favorite hobby at the moment:
And a bit of axe throwing: - for adults with only 1 hand, but for kids with 2 hands (these were *real* axes btw, sharp & heavy!)
The person that instructed Jr. here wanted to know where Jr. got his muscles from. Well , from *not* sitting in front of the TV or the WII and be active; karate, walking, playing and such :)
We had to be careful though, death was luring around:
and if these round monks were going to safe us, not sure ;) They liked the met more (honeywine ;)
We headed towards the arena (twice) where a big group of knights and evil witches had gathered together to have a fight about a sword called Excalibur which was won, as we all know, by Sir Arthur. It was a big battle however to get it to the point it was accepted by all knights.
The knights had to show off who they were
Then they prepared the table with some food:
Tried to show off with something they had to grab from a tree (and missed in this instance:)
or grabbed it:
And sometimes kicked more dust around than was necessary ;)
After that there was a real fight going on:
Followed by a race where all helmets had to be cut off:
Then all of a sudden, one of the “normal” people had pulled out the sword Excalibur out of the stone:
and everyone kneeled down in honour of the new king
Although a few disagreed, Sir Arthur became king:
But then…
The witch came in and cursed everyone around the new King Arthur
During a Rittermahl, being prepared by the maids…
The group of knights
all of a sudden got attacked by a group of Kelts
And the witch showed up saying …
… she had all done this: She bewitched the knights from King Arthur
all knights fell to the ground and remained bewitched, like they were frozen:
King Arthur was furious:
Then the Kelts’ King showed up on a carriage pulled by 2 beautiful horses:
followed by two hughe wolfshounds:
and some more fights happened:
One of the kelts was a blacksmith, and it was great to see the ease he swirled his weapons around. It was a pleasure watching that :)
The kelts king got really excited:
Then the knights showed off again what they could do - with fire:
A big battle between the people which sided King Arthur, and the knights which sided the witches side followed:
which got closed off by the knights fighting eachother, on horseback:
The witch got involved, and set all the swords on fire:
Despite all the witchery, she got caught and sent to hell,
as well as her followers:
and that was the happy end. I must say, a great thank you to all the participants, I know how much effort it takes to get something like that “rolling”. Great show with the horses, but please, try to be kind to them, people, noise and fire are not the daily thing things they see. A bit softer hands and preferably bitless would be preferred as well by me.
Later in the evening there was also Saor Patrol performing a show, 3 people with drums and 1 person on the Bagpipes. Really great, immense, and just amazing how those 4 could just “catch” the public.:
All together, a *great* day out, from the early morning till the late evening. For children, it doesn’t seem to matter what ‘time” they live in, it just fits their fantasyworld. It’s their world, for the parents and elderly to adapt to.
I have to say .. some typical arab, normally known as very brave warrier horses (like mine would do), but here quite confused and trying to hide of all the mess around her: :)
