Barossa Medieval Fair

Welcome back to the Barossa Medieval Fair, this year held over the 20th and 21st of August.

A special Friday opening for schools and youth groups for a Medieval Day exposing the next generation of Medieval people to 11th century life, traditional crafting, combat and animals.

Gates opened on Saturday at 10am with a huge line of eager participants waiting patiently to attend this years fair. There were approximately 12, 650 patrons visiting this year, a 60% improvement on last years numbers somewhat due to the removal of COVID restrictions on capacity.

The heavy rains in the days leading up to the event gave us a realistic medieval feel with heavy boggy mud everywhere which in turn gave quite a few people that sinking feeling while walking around in full armor.

The main combat arena was packed over both days with shows and demonstrations from the New Varangian Guard, the Ironclad Academy of the Sword, the Society of Creative Anachronisms, the Adelaide Sword Academy, The Valiant Order of Historical Entertainers and Ludis Gladatorium Pomponius.

Musical entertainment was provided at the tavern, at the second music stage and by roaming musical acts. Musical acts included performances by the Court of Camelot, Greenwood Music, Siobhan Owen, Lyrebyrd Consort, Hedgehog and Inis Mor.

The grand event this year was the SA leg of the Buhurt Cup which is a global, full contact medieval combat tournament. Held in the Buhurt Arena at the Eastern end of the event grounds the competing teams included:

Warhounds (SA)

Try's Warriors (QLD)

Berserker's (WA)

Western Wolves (VIC)

Team Havoc (NSW)

Team Kraken (VIC)

Matches included 5v5 Male, 3v3 Female, 12v12 brawl, profights, sword and shield matches, longsword fights and sword and buckler fights finished off with a few polearm fights for good measure. All fights were full contact and combatants went HARD, the thick mud made life even more interesting with many combatants getting stuck giving their opponents advantages otherwise not available to them,. Full plate armor protected them from the worst of the impacts but they still ended up covered with bruises. Armor ended up full of mud and many cans of ye olde WD-40 was used to keep everyone moving.

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This event was put on amazingly well thanks to everyone involved.