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WORLD JOUSTING CHAMPIONSHIP IN WARRAGUL 2019
filming and editing: Blair Harris
special thanks: Marchev Misha, Sam and Murray Howard Brooks
review: Misha Marchev and Natasha Marchev
...We were lucky enough to cover the World Jousting Championship 2019 in Warragul on 2 June, following personal invite by Phillip Leitch. ​What a gorgeous and well organised international scale event.
We arrived early before the gates were opened and our media crew was warmly welcomed at the gates. We were privilege to see the medieval village before the hussle and bustle of the crowd trampled the medieval walkways. This is what we saw:
~ Medieval musicians playing ancient musical instruments. The musicians were all dressed as animals and had intricately designed masks on their faces
~ The whole village had inhabitants that were only allowed to use the materials that were accessible back 500 years ago. Every item was authentic and functional. What an incredible replica in todays world.
~ Fascinated by the Birds Of Prey presented by the Full Flight Birds of Prey Centre with their amazing wedge tailed eagle, falcon, hawks and many other feathery creatures (Mícheál P O'Dhonnabháin and his team)
​~ The small imitation of the house with the painter who skillfully decorated the clay crockery with paints made out of egg yolk, and assorted color earth, sand and roots of various colours. She used the brush she made herself from her own pony's hair. It was a phenomenal show of enamel art.
~ There were knights of all kinds, shapes and sizes wearing incredible and intricately designed, full metal outfits, created with authentic techniques available only at those times. Quite often the clothes were personally made.
~ The talented girls made the woolen threads out of sheep fur
~ Two donkeys walking down the street of Lardern Park accompanied by their two owners dressed in theater-would-be-envy gowns
~ We also witnessed the tailor's presentation. She had very rare needles made out of bones and wood. Her skills were spectacular
~ Lots of decorations made out of natural leather, fur, linen, cotton and wood - something we all would love to have in our houses because they smell and feel so natural and so in place. The attention to detail in decoration was astounding. All genuine items were bought from festivals all over the world including Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland to name a few.
~ The battles were everywhere in every corner of the event ground: the battlers and competitors had bows, arrows, axes, swords, shield, lances, daggers, scimitars and all kinds of armor to surprise the amused observers.
~ The gates to the village was opened at 1000am and the event started with the grand parade (presented by Lord Herald Sir Blair Martin who was guiding and explaining us the events that took place on arena) that commenced at 1000am where the groups followed each other marching through the field while being watched by the crowd of grateful spectators. The village displays gave us a vivid picture of the day to day life of the common people and their trades and every day tasks of survival. One splendid demonstration followed the other with the crowds of happy kids with their parents surrounding them and getting entertained and watching every small activity. There were lots of merchandise for sale and some too valuable to sell that were only there on exhibited.
~ The parade followed by the Birds of Prey presentation in the centre of the oval. The Birds of Prey was followed by the 15th century battle of two groups of people: bring down the knight. The "royal party on the hunt" explained to us what birds to use for which animal as well as how to train and to feed the bird, how to make the bird fly for hunt and come back (which ironically did not happen during the presentation) and who could own what bird. We learnt that the life at that dark times was not that safe and was very challenging to survive. Such a pleasant thing to know that we did survive after all.
~ The kids activities were full on: any kid would get lost in such a paradise of joy and entertainment and we did of course! Big children indeed also got lost
~ The long list of groups and traders any shopping mall would be happy to get (as if!!!)
~ We also experienced the watermelon vs Yeoman competition which was as fabulous as watching the live blockbuster movie. The crowd watched in awe as the catapult launched watermelons into the sky (keep off the grass for your safety, villagers).
~ The Vikings Fight was the centre of attention for the media and the crowd inside the main stadium doubled if not tripled.
​~ While the weather was getting a bit worse than we planned it to be, some competitions were moved to earlier times. The talk followed at he village about sex and cooking leading the listeners on a culinary journey of the medieval times.
~ Jousting followed by Knightly Combat commenced. The proficient warriors fought with the wooden lances which is a very rare thing to witness anywhere in the world, let alone in Victoria.
~ The jousting winner and the grand battle revealed the winner of the championship which we would never doubt to be: glorious PHILLIP LEITCH who mount the most beautiful horse in the world: black Valiant. Phillip age 42 with experience of 9 years in jousting and his moto: "Noa pavita" or "Don't panic" accompanied by his beautiful daughter Mieka Jade who helped him with the saddle and the armor was dressed in red, black and gold the colors as well as his skills bringing him the victory. The jousting was marshalled and judged strongly but fairly by the highly experienced and finest team of the world: head Luke Binks, Callum Forbes and Stacy Van-Dolah-Evans.
~ We all enjoyed watching the best knights from all over the world: Michael Sadde (France), Pr Estein Prois-Rohjell (Norway), Mrc Hamel (Canada), Andrei Kamin (Russia), our Phillip Leitch (Australia, Kryal Castle owner), Wouter Nicolai (Netherlands) and Cliff Marisma (Australia) This superb and such a large scale event was only possible with the support of Visit Baw Baw, Victorian Government and Latrobe Valley Authority.
The whole event was spectacular and made us join the world of western medieval Europe of a time half of 1000 years ago with its rules and its making of curious activities. We were transported in a time travelling machine to the ages of the "world-like-breathless-movies" we were all part of. Everything made us so interested and curious: the symphony for the hearts and souls, eyes and ears, the smoke from the open fireplaces made our clothes smell of that our dreams made of: freedom of nature and people living in harmony in it and with it.
​There were times of kings, folks and brave knights. There was so much to see and to do that we got exhausted after 4 hours in the fresh and revitalising air... till next one soon - good bye! :)
photography: MURRAY HOWARD-BROOKS
BTS photos:
Bohemian Rhapsody Weekly Magazine expresses its special thank to the event organisers and managers and personally to Phillip Leitch and Kaitlyn Carmichael for the invite and opportunity to cover the event as well as to Blair, Murray, Misha and Sam for their amazing art works
exclusively for Bohemian Rhapsody Club and Magazine ​