Castlefest 2009

webalbum Castlefest 2009

Last weekend Ron and I went to Castlefest, a medieval / pagan / fantasy festival in the gardens of castle "De Keukenhof" in Lisse. Castlefest is a festival to honour the sun, which at the Celts was worshipped as the god Lugh. The old Celtic harvest feast Lughnasadh is held in honour of this god. Up to this day heathens and Celts alike celebrate this feast yearly around the first of August, which is also the time of Castlefest!
We first walked around the grounds to see all the stalls with things to buy, the stages, artists, etc. Monique was accompanying us with her little daughter Dominique. We met a lot of friends there. The weather was fine, dry and mostly sunny. Most visitors wear special clothes: pagan, medieval, fantasy, etc.
Among the bands playing on the two stages was our favourite folkband, Rapalje. Unfortunately they were stashed away on the little stage. They don't deserve that and the public disagreed completely. Still, their performance was one big party, great as always!
In the Pure Fantasy tent I bought the supernatural thrillers "Wolfmaan" (wolf moon) by Tisa Pescar and "Angstdroom" (anxiety dream, nightmare) by Mel Hartman. They signed their books for me too. At the time both are only available in Dutch. Tisa and Mel have a website together to promote their books.
Next to the big stage stood the "wickerbeast". A wickerman is an ancient Celtic ritual piece of art, made especially to fill with all sorts of gifts to the gods/goddesses and spirits of nature, after which it will be burned as a sacrifice. Everyone can put something into the wickerman to sacrifice to Lugh and the spirits of nature. In the evening, during a performance by Omnia, the wickerbeast was set on fire. Before the end of the rest of their performance Ron and I walked to our car, so we didn't end up in a traffic jam. I was exhausted, but had a wonderful day!