Medieval Festival Education Day

By Andrea Jermacans

 

The Third Annual Kingdom of Osgoode Medieval Festival still has spots available for kids ages 4 to 16 to participate in its brand new Education Day.

 

Friday, July 9^th is designed for children and is packed with games and demonstrations on everything from chivalry and armour to medieval music and dancing. “Students will rotate through six stations and learn about life in medieval times,” says Education Day Coordinator, Maureen Silva. “And the passport we give them actually covers the kids’ admission fee for Saturday or Sunday, too, if they come back with a parent, which is pretty cool!”

 

Currently 140 children are signed up for the day, but  Silva says there’s room for 200. “It’s good for groups, or even just individual kids. Accompanying parents get to go around to all the presentations too,” says Silva.

 

The gates to the Medieval Festival will open around 9:30 a.m. on July 9 and the kids will rotate through the stations until 4 p.m. with a break in the middle for lunch and shopping. The day ends with a live demonstration by professional knights on horseback, the Knights of Valour. “That’s definitely worth seeing,” says Silva. “The kids just love that.”

 

Children will also get to do some boffing and try their hand at using a trebuchet, catapults and stilts.

 

“The whole thing is like a one-day summer camp,” says Silva. “It’s fun and educational and it only costs $5.  What a deal!”

 

To register for Education Day please contact Judy Carey at 613-826-1622 or check out www.osgoodemedievalfestival.com.

 

Medieval Festival

By Andrea Jermacans

 

The Third Annual Osgoode Medieval Festival is less than a month away and organizers are putting out a final call to vendors to peddle their wares this July 9, 10, and 11 – especially if they’re edible.

 

“There are no snack food vendors,” says Medieval Coordinator, Judy Carey. “Here’s your chance to make good money if you sell food and drinks. There’s very little competition right now.”

 

The Medieval Festival runs concurrently with Bluesfest, which draws most of the city’s street meat peddlers each year. As a result, Carey says few have applied to work Osgoode that weekend.

 

“Foodland will have a BBQ going, the Red Dot Café is close by, and of course, there’s the great Medieval Feast Saturday night for $35 a head, but we could use more munchies stands for Saturday and Sunday. People will want somewhere to grab a pop.”

 

Carey expects festival goers to work up quite an appetite, especially those taking their turn throwing wet sponges at the folks in the stocks. Ottawa city councilor Doug Thompson will be the main target on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.

 

“That always draws a big crowd,” says Carey. “He’s very good about it. In fact, he usually pays for people to throw things at him. They can’t bring their own rotten fruit, or anything, but last year Doug got pretty soaked with the wet sponges.”

 

Carey also invited Stephen Harper and his family to join the festivities and watch the jousting with the King and Queen, but he declined the invitation. “We really are getting more sponsors, more media attention, and more grants than ever before, like the grants from Trillium and the city of Ottawa.” Via Rail has also donated a trip for four to Quebec City as a door prize for the King’s Feast on Saturday night, one of the highlights of the festival.

 

Carey says that raffle ticket sales are also starting to take off as people hear about the prize – two tickets on any regularly scheduled flight anywhere West Jet flies. “This is an awesome deal because we’ve only printed 600 tickets and most people are buying 3 for $20 rather than 1 for $10. That means there could be as few as 200 names in the draw when we pick the winner on the Sunday.”

 

The public will get a chance to buy the usual swag at the festival, including swords, flower circlets, and T-shirts but Carey has produced some new memorabilia, too. “We want to give the public something to remember us by, especially the kids,” she says. “We’ll be selling trading cards that they can collect and keep. We’ve got the knights, horses, blacksmith, all the dancers on them. All the entertainers will have trading cards with their pictures on them.”

 

As volunteers scurry to ready the site for July’s festival, Carey points to the gates as her personal favourite new item this year. “Our biggest complaint last year was that you had to walk all over town to get to everything. Now the festival is all in the same spot, next to the Osgoode Market Square. The grounds have been cleared out and leveled and we’re putting up fencing. Because we were able to fence it all in, we’ve made these rustic, Medieval-looking gates that everyone will walk through. They really add something.”

 

For more information visit www.osgoodemedievalfestival.com or to buy raffle tickets, or tickets for the King’s Feast call Judy Carey at 613-826-1622.

 

By Andrea Jermacans

 

The Osgoode Village Community Association is calling all volunteers, vendors, and sponsors for its Third Annual Medieval Festival this summer.

 

This July 9, 10 and 11, the Village of Osgoode will transform itself into the glorious and brutal Medieval Kingdom of Osgoode - an enchanted place where maidens wear flower circlets and knights best each other with chivalry and swords. 

 

The year is 1199 and a new King and Queen (played by locals Brent and Natalie Currie) hold court. And Medieval Organizer, Judy Carey, expects that the royal couple will reign over Osgoode’s most prosperous festival to date.

 

“In 2008 we had about 800 attendees and last year there were about 2500,” she says. “For the 2010 festival we are expecting up to 5000 people.”

 

While time-tested favourites, such as live music throughout the grounds, food merchants, and vendors peddling everything from jewelry to swords will still be available all weekend, the festival has expanded. “Its popularity has grown and we’ve decided to add an extra day to the 2010 Festival – an Education Day for children.” 

 

School teacher Maureen Silva will head up this program and lead kids up to age 14 through demonstrations of sword play, belly dancing, archery, and music. “The program will run on Friday and is geared toward summer camps and school-aged children,” says Carey. 

 

But the fun is for adults as much as the kids and many come decked in their snazziest Medieval duds. “You certainly don't have to dress in period costume to attend but many do,” Carey admits. “Some are in armour, some in royal finery, wenches come dressed in peasant blouses and skirts. There are crowns and circlets, leggings and chain mail,” she says. “It’s an eclectic mix. Even the children come dressed in costume. But many also come in shorts and T-shirts.”

 

But the Kingdom offers more than just child’s play and lovers will enjoy the spotlight, too, as the King and Queen host a Hand Fasting Ceremony for potential betrotheds. In Medieval times, when priests weren’t available, an unwed couple could be formally linked by the head of the clan or a professional, such as a blacksmith. This union lasts a year and a day, after which the couple can either find a member of the clergy to seal the deal or go their separate ways. 

 

“In the Hand Fasting Ceremony the couples’ hands are ‘bound’ with rope or ribbon and that’s where we got the phrase ‘tie the knot,’” Carey explains. “It actually drew a couple from Montreal last year who specifically wanted to get hand fasted.”

 

The festival also caters to anyone with a voracious appetite as Saturday’s events begin with the King’s Breakfast at 8 a.m. at St. James Church and end with the much trumpeted King’s Feast at the Community Centre that evening. “You will be able to sup on medieval faire while entertained by musicians, belly dancers, swordfighters, jugglers and jesters,” says Carey of the Feast. 

 

But the festival comes to a halt when the Knights of Valour take to their horses during the weekend. “The Knights are the biggest hit for all ages,” gushes Carey. “They are just amazing. This is not play acting. It’s real jousting on horseback.”

 

Last year Sir Shanton unseated Sir Jason from his horse with a shocking and thunderous crash. 

 

“With armour and man together, that was about 400 pounds that was knocked to the ground,” says Carey. “The crowds gasped.  I think this was the point where people knew for sure it was real. The children were in awe. One mother told me that even weeks after the event, her four-year-old son still slept with a piece of the knight’s lance that he salvaged from the jousting site.”

 

In Medieval times Sir Jason would have lost more than just his dignity. His horse, armour title and lands would all become property of the victorious knight. “But still,” adds Carey. “What little boy hasn't dreamed of becoming a Knight? And at the festival he gets to see them, talk to them, pet their horses. The pounding hooves, the clash of metal - it takes you back to a different world, one of respect and discipline. It was a much simpler time.”

 

But naturally, no Medieval Festival is complete without a healthy dose of treachery. Amid jousting, feasting, and dancing, a dastardly plot to dethrone the royalty unfolds.

 

Last year, a King from a neighbouring Kingdom toppled King Kevin and Lady Francine with a flick of his dagger. The year before, the royalty were poisoned. Carey says mum’s the word on the fate of the Royal Curries, but adds that the prince and princess of 2010 who will succeed the king and queen in 2011 have yet to be named.

 

“We usually look for someone who has earned the kingdom's respect and admiration. These are people whom the peasants feel are deserving of royalty,” says Carey.

 

But every year, Sir John the Inept makes a sinister dash for the throne. 

“We don’t yet know who will play John, but we know he’s bad,” hints Carey.

 

Advance tickets for the King’s Feast are $35 for adults and $25 for children. Admission to the Festival is $5. To buy tickets or register for Education Day visit the website at www.osgoodemedievalfestival.com  or contact Judy Carey at 613-826-1622. Interested vendors should contact Brenda Fedun at 613-821-1846 and volunteers can call Connie Bazil at 613-826-3135. OVCA is also seeking donations in-kind, such as fencing.