Tag Archives: Renaissance Fair

Chinese Wife, Crazy Euopean People, Crazy Germans, Haruki the Shiba, Our cute daughter, Our cute son

Revisiting the Middle Ages

June 23, 2019 CrazyChineseFamily 6 Comments

Last weekend we visited a Renaissance Fair again after three years. The last time we went back in 2016 in Hamburg which is/ was the biggest one in Germany. This time we went to the town of Hohenwestedt which is nearby my hometown and is probably the best location of all middle age markets we have visited. The entire fair is set up in a large park in the middle of the town and a small sports field next to it. The feeling is just so different when visiting such event when nearly everything is located in a park surrounded by huge old trees compared to other fairs where you only walk around an open field.

We all (except MIL) went there dressed up in some costumes. Nothing historical correct or whatnot all, just what we like to and this kind of fair is just right for it as the name already says “Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum” – “Medieval Fantasy Spectaculum”. You can see all kinds of people there dressed as knights, monks, Vikings, death and even some animals. Anything goes and the atmosphere is just great with music playing from several music stages and some randomn groups playing in between. We met some friends there and of course also other people we know already from my hometown such some neighbors and even a civil official working in the registry office specialized on marriages who has a Galadriel tattoo on one of his arms.

It was a lovely day with nice weather and a lot of walking for us. Nathan and Nathalie had tons of fun in the straw bale field playing with other kids and I could enjoy a couple of “interesting drinks”. Visiting such event, especially in Hohenwestedt, feels like entering a different world disconnected from the outside. Clothing for the event was kind of odd at first as we hadn’t done so in way too many years but as soon as we left the parking lot we were surrounded by like-minded people and everything felt right. Ruowei went once again as a Chinese princess, Nathalie was a mini princess, Nathan a General and I went in some odd mix of clothing and armor similar to the Rangers of Ithilien. Nothing too fancy but it took us long time collecting everything till we were satisfied. I think it was back in 2015 when we started this all after visiting the very same Renaissance Fair for the first time as a family. Back then my wife was shocked to see so many people dressed up for such event and loved it immediately. I always wanted to dress up for something like that but I had no idea that my wife of all people would like it as well! Even after several years of marriage she still manages to surprise me from time to time.

Have you visited any events where you have dressed up in a similar way?

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Crazy Euopean People, Crazy Family, Crazy Germans, Our cute son

A Weekend In The Middle Ages

September 18, 2016 CrazyChineseFamily 30 Comments

Ever since we visited the big renaissance fair near my home town back in 2015 we wanted to get dressed up as well for these events. The very same year we got ourselves some clothes and equipment which we tested out last autumn. This year we went once again to the big medieval market near my hometown but it was such a rainy day that we did not enjoy it entirely. However we had another very very big renaissance fair in sight this year in Hamburg Öjendorf.

What is so special about this renaissance fair? Well it is just huge. Last year I wrote how big the market was we visited near my hometown but it is just dwarfed by this one in Hamburg. Huge is not even enough to explain it. The whole festival area was 30 hectares big, over 100 military camps with over 1500 people within them, over 200 market stalls, 5 music stages, a knight’s tournament arena with 10.000 seats and and and. For this event we got ourselves tickets not only for one day but for the whole weekend in orderto be able to see everything and with the hope to have at least one dry day. Yes, we bought the weekend ticket mainly because of the terrible weather this summer as the renaissance fair this May was kind of ruined by the rainstorms.

Right from the beginning we were overwhelmed by the size of the whole area. In fact you could not never see half of the area due to the layout and the amount of people there. I think I don’t need to mention anymore how differently people are dressing up for these events as you have everything there from knights over normal peasants to even unicorns…Nathan himself went once again as a monk and gained a lot of attention. The festival area had also many little stations for children with stacked straw bales fo them to go crazy. Nathan just loved it but he was still too small to climb up, yet alone to jump down from them. Surprisingly there were each time some kids helping him up and down non-stop so he was able to enjoy it nearly as much as the bigger children.

mpso6 — #Nathancuty just loved the handoperated wooden ferris wheel

I must say that even though we were two days there we did not see everything. Sure we managed to cover the whole area but there were different performances all over the area at different times so we missed rather many as it was a bit hard to go around and watch Nathan all the time. The biggest performances we missed once again this year which were the Pest Procession and the fire show during the night hours. One day we will manage to see those performances as the pictures I have seen about them are just stunning. We only need to figure out how to do it as we clearly can’t go with Nathan as it is just too late when they start. I am just glad that dear mother-in-law had just left us few days before this event. You can just imagine how crazy this weekend would have been with her there! Probably she would have been banned from the festival area in no time for trespassing the military camps or throwing her trash somewhere else than the trash bins.

As I have mention before we got ourselves the weekend ticket due to the unpredictable weather and it was a good decision as the first day we had sunshine and barely any wind with a following terrible rainstorm day. Even though the weather was so bad on the second day we still stayed for more than five hours there before starting our journey back home. Though it was a great experience I doubt we will go for another weekend like this again. It is just too exhausting in the end and my wife is not fond of doing her hairs and make-up on two days! I think it was a great end for us this season with the renaissance fairs. Next year we won’t be able to go to any but more about that at some later point this year.

Some little music performance with dancing

The festival is located in a park with a lake

Have you been “too long” at some event before?

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Chinese Wife, Crazy Euopean People, Crazy Germans, Me, Our cute son

Another Day at a Renaissance Fair

June 19, 2016 CrazyChineseFamily 34 Comments

Last year I wrote about the little medieval market we visited during the 888 years celebrations of my hometown. Shortly afterwards I gave you some impressions from a much bigger renaissance fair near our place. Back then I was thinking how great it would be to dress up as well like so many other people were doing it at the big medieval market. Lets just say my wife and I were gathering some stuff since last year and put it into use last month.

mpsh12 — People are slowly arriving at the festival

Back in May just a week after we arrived from China it was time again for the renaissance fair near my hometown. The whole event was going on for three days but we chose to go only on one day (the middle day) as it is pretty tough going around with a little kid such as Nathan in addition to be rather pricey when thinking about the tickets and food there. We immediately regretted that we didn’t go during the first day because the weather changed for the worse. We had all the time sunshine till the day we wanted to go to the fair. The day started without any sunshine, instead it was all grey in grey but on the bright side it was dry. Guess I was too happy too early about having no rain as the first downpour out of many started right after we arrived at the fair.

mpsh11 — Some creatures getting shelter from the first downpour

Even though the weather wasn’t the best the festival area quickly filled up. All over the place they had tents to give shelter from the rain and huge bonfires to get some warmth in case the Met wasn’t enough. Due to the bad weather Nathan was forced to wear a jacket and thus couldn’t present his Chinese Emperor costume to the world. My wife was wearing a Chinese dress she bought in China plus all the accessories and I had created my own personalized clothing since last year. Okay I didn’t made anything myself as I bought most things and my mother actually tailored me few parts as well. I fashioned my costume, as a Lord of the Rings nerd, after the Rangers of Ithilien. Sure it is not authentic but it looks alright in my opinion. As this renaissance fair’s motto is also “Not Authentic but Phantastic” it fits just well. You could see people with real clothes from back in the day but also many Elves, Orcs, Trolls, Pirates and last but not least also a guy wearing a Unicorn dress…

mpsh7 — A little parade around the festival area

I wanted to take so many pictures there this year again of the whole area plus of ourselves but the weather wasn’t on our side. I didn’t want to damage my cameras in the rain thus I ended up with just too few pictures which I took in the rare rainless minutes. Due to the bad weather we also stayed only for a few hours. Right when we wanted to watch the Bruchenball tournament (some kind of rugby game with a 30kg heavy ball…check out this link for some pictures) I spotted huge dark clouds approaching and we hurried back to the car. Just when we arrived some real big storm started to bring hell on earth as huge hailstones threaten to destroy my car. Anyways we arrived safely back home and were happy that I spotted those clouds as it would have been no fun to be in the renaissance fair with that storm.

mpsh1 — Beginning of the Bruchenball Tournament with the last bit of sunshine for that day

For this year we have planned to go to another renaissance fair in September managed by the same organizer. That time it will be in Hamburg and we hope to go there for two days and stay overnight at my cousin’s house who lives just 5 min away by car. The organizer is doing nearly every weekend such festival in different cities all over Germany but we think that going to two of them is more than enough due to our limited free time and of course due to the high costs involved.