Romance, royalty, music, mead, knights, fire breathers, jesters and jousting! Rosenvolk has it all

From Ferdinand News

The 2016 Rosenvolk German Medieval Festival opens Friday, October 14, beginning with School Day, opening to the public in the late afternoon and evening of October 14, then all day October 15-16 in Ferdinand’s 18th Street Park.

Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the medieval period that followed lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. Scholars prefer to call the era the “medieval period” because saying “Middle Ages incorrectly implies that the period was an insignificant blip sandwiched between two important epochs” (history.com). Within those ten centuries ranged every catastrophe from economic devastation to the Dark Ages of barbarism, the Black Death (bubonic plague) that killed 30 percent of all Europeans, to the rise of Islam, as well as the Crusades to Attila the Hun — and these are only the footnotes!

Representing life and lifestyles in the Middle Ages, the Rosenvolk German Medieval Festival will offer so many wonderfully educational events for the hundreds of school children who will arrive by the bus loads (class trips) and car loads (parents) to spend the day in an exciting atmosphere of Lords and Ladies, Kings and Queens, Knights and Dukes, learning the crafts, music, methods and more of European life in the Middle Ages.

Each day of the festival will begin with entertainment by Crossed Cannons and Celica Fae. Crossed Cannons is a musical group of pirates, singing sea shanties and other “sea” related songs.

Celica Fae is a children’s group, including Oakley the Faerie, who plays her violin and speaks with an Irish accent. She sings adorable songs like There’s a Dragon in Me Wagon. Some other group members dress as “Fae” (faerie) characters based on ancient writings. One portrays a faerie named “Faun” who is much like Puck in Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream.

Oakley will be accompanied by her parents, who also engage in Renaissance activities. Oakley’s mother, Lady Violet, dresses as a flower faerie and will present the Faerie Theatre on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. on Children’s Stage 4, and again at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Oakley’s father is Ezarauck, the Dragon Wizard. They are a fun family offering a lot of festive entertainment for children and adults. The group belongs to the Briarwood Faerie Guilde Cast at the Kentucky Renaissance Faire. They will interact with children in attendance, sing songs like, Faerie Godmother-May-I, and tell Faerie stories. They also like to blow bubbles — they call them magical orbs! and are quite whimsical.

Frostylocks and Splinter can be found throughout the village of Rosenvolk during the three day festival — catch them, if you can! Frostylocks is a wandering minstrel who writes his own music in the style of medieval times. Splinter is a sort of primitive jester. She will be playing in the lanes of Rosenvolk, engaging children with her child-like antics.

Enjoy the music of Tinker McClea, a singer you may recall from the 2015 Rosenvolk. Originally from this area, Tinker (a/k/a Brian Leo) attended Saint Meinrad Seminary for a time.

Ric Rock Zoo also returns to the 2016 Rosenvolk. The leader of the troupe Delirio Del’Arte and the Idiot Jamboree, he stilt walks, eats fire, juggles and is just very funny. The troupe will present several different shows during the three-day weekend that include fire, drumming and improvisation with Commedia dell’arte masks — a street theatre that dates to Renaissance Italy — something that was very well known to even the common man during this period. The masks used represent different archetypes in plays of the time.

Bardmageddon will also be traveling the lanes of Rosenvolk Village during the three-day festival. Back in the day, Bard’s would go from town to town, singing and regaling audiences with stories. They were the newspapers of their day and how villagers would learn about what was happening in the world around them. They would usually tell their stories in song, and to make it more amusing and interesting, they often interjected humor, especially since listeners would provide them coins for their stories based on how amusingly they were told. This was how the bard made his living (and still today, the public can get their news for a mere few coins).

Shane Adams and the Knights of Valour will provide a jousting exhibition on School Day, as well as full jousting tournaments on Saturday and Sunday. In tournaments, the jousters use very strong wooden lances with a tensile strength of 1,800 lbs. which offer very explosive hits in real combat action — just part of the reason full contact jousting is ranked the most dangerous sport in the world!

Other School Day acts include local folk musician Ray Majors, German folk singer and crafter Barb Sorenson, and Brother Donald, the teller of tales. A Punch and Judy style puppet show will be given each day, and Queen Beatrice, Arch Duke and their royal entourage will visit with their subjects as they stroll through the village all weekend.

Make it a point to visit the encampment of the Landsknechts, a colorful collection of German mercenary soldiers, who will give demonstrations.

Be sure to stop in and visit Herr Karl, a Teutonic Knight of the Order of the Brothers of the German House of St. Mary of Jerusalem, founded in 1190. As a Teutonic Knight, Herr Karl will require several squires over the three day weekend to help him prepare for battle, as he must assemble and dress in many, many layers of protective clothing. He will also require some lucky someone to carry his weaponry!

Lady Catherine said, “This is such a fun event, that participants don’t even realize they are learning history, they are having such a good time. Most of the above performers will also give shows on Saturday and Sunday, along with a few other surprises visitors.”

Tickets for The 2016 Rosenvolk German Medieval Festival are available at German American Bank locations in Dubois County, and can also be purchased online at: http://www.rosenvolk. com/. Daily and weekend passes are available for adults ($12.50 or $21), children ages 7-17 ($7.50 or $14, free for ages six and younger), and for family groups ($35 or $50).

Along with entertainment galore, there will be plenty of great food and drink to enjoy, including the much desired mead of Black Dragon Meadery (more on this in an additional article in this issue).

For more information about the Rosenvolk German Medieval Festival, visit the Facebook page, “RosevolkFestival” or website: www. rosenvolk.com/.