The BIG show for the year! 10,000 people a day (and the online tickets sold out inside of 36 hours!). They tried something new this year - a 'Family Fun Day' on the Friday (as well as the usual event which runs on the Saturday and Sunday) which ran for about 4 hours and was for folk who found the main event daunting or difficult to get around - families with young children, disabled folk, neurodivergent folk who don't handle crowds well. It was a good (part) day and was well-received by the attendees and most of the re-enactors :-) and after our visitors had left we finished setting up for the main event on the weekend.
I'm not usually an early riser, but make an exception at events, usually because the toilets are sufficiently far away from my nice warm bed that by the time I get back I'm no longer sleepy and so I arc up the fire and make myself a coffee... the kitchen first thing in the morning is my Happy Place :-) I have it down to a fine art LOL - put about a cup and a half of water into my tiny little copper pot, light a Flaming Cupcake (a sort of a candle made of sawdust and wax with a bit of rope in it as a wick) under it with a couple of pinecones on top and some kindling, and once it's caught add a couple of small bits of hardwood - and I have boiling water inside of about 5 minutes :-)
We set up early this time - the kids helped us load on the previous Saturday and we set up the tent shells on the Sunday and then Rob and I stayed over (the kids rejoined us later in the week before the event) and it rained and rained... by the second day the doorway into the kitchen was so boggy I had to skin a couple of firewood logs and use the bark as a door mat LOL.
People still came though, and seemed to have a fantastic time :-) even though the site got muddier and boggier - lots of comments about how 'authentic' the weather was LOL. All the bits and pieces we'd made over the past year or so came together and I must admit I was pretty proud of our encampment :-)
The Pavilion (a.k.a. dining room) and the Wayside Chapel:
The Grumpy Old People's tent (Rob and I):
My spices display in the kitchen tent:
Needless to say it's not really the done thing to run around with a camera/phone/modern item while the public are there because it spoils the whole feel of the event (evidently... something about immersion... don't get me started...), so a lot of the photos I have of the event are yoinked off facebook because they're by the very talented official event photographers... credits for them appear as a watermark on the photo :-)
The kids playing tavli:
One of my textile workshops (I did 6 over the weekend...):
A really nice photo of my tent - please excuse the loom on the altar LOL, I was setting up for a workshop...
Nat's new wall hanging:
Lyra playing with the mini-tent:
On the Sunday afternoon after everyone had left, the lovely people from the Birds of Prey group let us hold their eagle and take photos :-) Such a big bird was remarkably light weight - I guess they'd have to be or they wouldn't fly LOL.
We started packing down on the Sunday after the public had left, but did most of it the following day - an encampment that takes a good couple of days to set up isn't going to come down overnight ;-)
Did I mention how muddy it was?
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