Sunday, August 06, 2006

Fantasy Feast Fotos

Fantasy Feast, the traditional “pseudo-medieval festival” was held for the seventh time this weekend. A few dozen people put on fantastic costumes (medieval, mythological, and whatnot) and gathered in the Ahtela camp center to take a break from the mundane.

Although there seemed to be fewer people present than before (the event hadn’t been advertised very widely, which might have played a role) I felt there were enough participants so that the place felt lively and full (and enough to cover all the organizing costs too, I hope). There were a lot of new faces (to me, at least), so the feast did manage to reach a new audience after all. There were quite a few twentysomethings, and they clearly had a lot of fun: singing, dancing, participating in the program and just hanging around the site. That’s a very good sign, should anybody wish to keep organizing these feasts. This year there were also a lot of kids (second generation guests) running around with their parents.

All of the photos below are from Saturday (I was only there for the day this year). On Friday, there was already a competition for the bards, and singing and dancing around the fires. Sunday’s program was (if tradition held) pretty much breakfast and hanging around for a while until the feast ended.

(There are more photos of the feast on my Flickr set.)

Loikkivan lohikäärmeen majatalo (The Jumping Dragon Inn) was the central place where people gathered.

The Inn, people carting stuff around Lots of people sitting at tables outside the inn, eating breakfast

The weather was unbelievably gorgeous once again (if somewhat hot). The place has a beautiful beach which has traditionally been a setting for a big tournament. And so once again, people started gathering on the beach around noon, waiting for the games to begin.

A big sand beach, with a gazebo and a couple of persons standing and talking Competitors get information about the tournament

The tug of war—the classic among the tournament events.

Miska, Satu & Tommi tugging on the rope

One member of the team guided the others, who were blindfolded, in gathering tokens as quickly as possible.

People walking around blindfolded, looking for objects in the sand

The three-legged race became the four-legged race…

Teams running, three members tied together

Archery was a fine event, albeit quite tournament-jarringly slow. And beanbag throwing is always harder than it seems.

Hitting the target with the arrow Throwing beanbags at jars

The big finale was a bit of a letdown—basically just digging around in the sand until one of the finalists got lucky, found the hidden item, and won the whole tournament.

The three finalists digging in the sand with their hands The winner has found the hidden item

Competitors (team Ihku!) and audience.

Team Ihku on the beach, looking scary People gathered to see who wins

Other events for the day: face painting for the little ones, a treasure hunt (for the little ones and the bigger ones as well), a magic wand market at the inn (I don’t think anything was left after the kids went through the selection), a mighty wizard who did neat tricks, and people entertaining themselves (as well as others) by playing music and singing (and I see the little ones seemed to be everywhere).

Mari painting a butterfly on Inka’s face Mari and Simo reading the clues to the kids Iria, Aleksi, Inka and Tiina with their new wands Pyroforius and his magical board; kids assist the spell with their wands Guests sitting on a pirate ship, singing and playing a guitar

Guests (including the mighty wizard Pyroforius).

Pyroforius sitting, leaning on his staff A lot of people standing in front of the inn Guests sitting on a stone wall

The kitchen staff had prepared a huge four course dinner for the guests (including roasted whole chickens, oxtail, vegetable stew, oven baked vegetables, cheese-and-egg casserole and so on, and baked apples with vanilla sauce for dessert. I don’t think anyone could have eaten a bite more!

Head chef Elsa telling about the dinner Tomi, Leila, Maarit, Johanna and Tytti sitting at a table People sitting or lying on the ground after dinner

The official program concluded with the awards. A special citation was awarded to the Jew’s harp-and-dancing number (to the two little girls doing the dancing, to be exact). Awards were given for success in the bard competition (music number and best story), and also the tournament winner got his award (but was standing his back even more turned to me than the others so there’s no picture).

Anna dancing, Miina sitting on Sami’s shoulders The musical shaman receiving the award for her duo The jester accepting his award

There was music and dancing.

Dancing More dancing in front of the inn

The wizard was in charge of the fireplace.

Pyroforius setting up a fire The fireplace bursts in flames

At the campfire and in the inn.

Tiina, Otto, Miina, Anna, Markus, Inka, Iria and Aleksi on a bench Singing accompanied by a kantele Two persons playing a board game at the inn Janna, Johanna, Tytti & Jani behind the table at the inn

All and all it was a succesful feast. Everybody seemed to have fun—the kids most of all—there was enough prearranged program, and the food was great. A big thank you to everybody who toiled to make the weekend happen! (And Inka wants to know when the next time will be!)

The notice board at the inn

Update: Pasi has photos too. Johanna wrote a few words with a couple of pictures, plus more pictures on Flickr. Ben has words (in Swedish) and pictures.

2 comments:

Johanna said...

And the official name of the "Team Ihku" was of course Team Ihqupimpulat. :)

Anonymous said...

IHQUUU!!!

-Beran "Ihqupimpulat voittaa aina" Barbecuebarbarian-

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