A Medieval weekend with my Harp

During the past months I've been to many medieval festivals and there are still loads of photos waiting to get sorted. The chances that someone is interested to see my memories are small, so I decided to tell you just about a special place.

This tiny town (not village!) used to be a border town in northern Bavaria when Germany was divided by a border. On top of a hill are the ruins of an medieval castle and under the ground are still old mines. 15 years ago some inhabitants decided to have a medieval festival at the place of the castle and it grew larger over the years. 

I've been to the town several times for concerts of Dunkelschoen and Elfenthal and made friends there. Those friends had asked me every year to come for their medieval highlight of the year. This year I had no other engagement on this date and decided to go just for the fun of being with friends. Then I had the idea, to take my harp along - just for giving the visitors another medieval instrument to admire - and to practise with distractions around me.

One of my friends collected my harp and me from the nearest train station across the border and also had a guest room to stay.  Early on Saturday morning we walked to the market where the festival began. After I had tuned my harp, I took my camera for a stroll first. There were plenty of stalls and camps with knights of different areas everywhere. 

5 bands were playing on two stages and in the street - many more than I had expected, so I found it rather difficult to find a quiet corner with a seat to play my harp. The other musicians were delighted to see my instrument and some tried to play along with me. (I better learn to play more medieval songs for next time.)

At noon there was a parade of all participants: musicians, knights, monks and other medieval dressed people.

After carrying my harp all over the place I found a quiet corner behind the tower in the camp of some knights. They even asked me to play up there! It turned out as a perfect place, as the visitors enjoyed the view up there and took time to listen. 

Obviously I was also a favorite motive for cameras! 

In the afternoon the place was packed with people and stayed that way until the night. I took the chance to visit the historic basements and watched the fire show. Some people celebrated until the early hours of the morning, but carrying the harp up and down the hills left me exhausted and I went "home" at 11 pm.

Sunday started with a mass in the castle shed with a rather young but clever pastor - he held his sermon with rhymes! For lunch we had a traditional food of this event: potato ball in a sauce of sour mushrooms - delicious!

After another parade I watched a medieval punishment - a butcher, who had put too much water into his sausages was put into a cage and dipped into the fountain.

As I was one of the musicians, I was invited to free food and drinks into the staff basement under the castle shed. It felt like real medieval times down there! Since the servants who provided the food and did the dishes there missed all the fun outside, I took my harp into the basement when the festival had ended to say thank you. 

Then it was time to put the harp back into her case and carry it to my friend's home for the last night of my short holiday. 

Have a look at the parade!

You want to see more pictures - click here