Medieval Festival

Greeley, Colorado

We are in Northern Colorado for one month. Kris is still working and Fionnula has a few more orthodontist appointments, so we can't quite leave the state, but we are enjoying time with family, continuing to test our ideas of life and school without a true home-base, and trying to have a few adventures along the way. Our mini adventure this week was the Colorado Medieval Festival in Loveland, Colorado. Unless you want to count the trip back to the Springs for a couple orthodontist appointments, one planned, one not so much. We did get to go out for the best burgers ever at a restaurant we sadly only discovered about a month before our move. And we did get to visit with friends who we already miss lots. But I am going to have to count Loveland as our actual 'field-trip' this week.

This is only year three for this festival and it was small. Parking was an adventure as it was just in a big grassy, bumpy field outside the festival, and because we arrived ever so slightly before 10 am opening time, they didn't charge us to park either. They said they weren't going to start charging until 10. I suspect they just weren't quite set up yet to take money. Whatever. Once inside the gates, two different people suggested to us that we might want maps, then when we asked for one we were told that there were none. Haha! They have gone paperless. Good for them, except..... if you are going to refer people to your Facebook page for a schedule of events, you may want to make sure there is a cell signal in your remote location. We really didn't need a map in the end though, once we had wandered through we had a good idea of what was where.

Right away we were greeted by a magician whose vague understanding of when and where his own show was going to be guaranteed that we never did get to see said show, but he did perform a trick just for us with Fionn as his assistant.  He gave Fionnula a little foam bunny to hold in her hand, instructed her to squeeze her hand closed and make a wish. When she opened her hand--ta da!--two bunnies! He kept this up for awhile until he produced a whole litter of mini foam bunnies in her palm. Later Fionnula told me that she was impressed but that she had actually wished for fishy crackers because "it was all I could think of!"

 We got to see a few different sword fighting displays. These ranged from an almost slap-stick humorous version with the crowd cheering and booing to a pretty serious looking duel between opponents sweating in what must have been at least 100 pounds of armor and passing out baseball card-like pics of themselves complete with teams, statistics and awards listed. And then there were the two guys who took turns swinging their swords at full water bottles that the other would chuck into the air, attempting to slice said water bottles in half. By this point in the day, Noah was so thirsty that he was openly mourning each destroyed water bottle. One place let us actually hold a rapier as someone explained in an extremely enthusiastic manner all the details of his beloved sport.

At the back of the festival, behind the vendors and belly dancers and sword fighters and kids game tables, they were holding a Scottish games competition. A few of these games I have never witnessed before. Like when they stood beneath what looked a little like a football goal post and tossed an iron ball directly over their heads trying to get it to go back over the cross bar. Didn't know that was a thing. And I don't know how they avoided whacking themselves on the head either. Then basically the same thing only with a bag of straw that they tossed from the end of a pitchfork. Really. And there was the spinning hammer toss thing and the throwing a big heavy rock thing and, best of all, heaving basically an entire tree trunk and flipping it end over end. One giant of a kilted man with long, dark, curly hair, kept not quite getting his tree trunk to flip over and each time he would throw a small temper tantrum, stomping his feet and yelling like an angry three year old. An angry three year old who can throw tree trunks. Just not always accurately.

Other highlights included: curly fries, corn dogs and funnel cakes, Fionnula shooting arrows for the first time ever, and numerous attendees dressed in costumes including many fairies, lots of kilts, and one man who sported a half vest (no shirt) with what looked like chicken bones arranged along the tops of his shoulders that then ended in rabbit fur shoulder pads. Classic.