Billed as a Crusader Troupe, we joined the medieval knights and Viking hordes for Warrington’s Medieval and Viking Market. It was a fantastic day.
After a quite early start we made our way to our site for the day. This was an exciting moment for Ya Raqs because Meroe had spent the previous week beavering away with needle and thread and what felt like several hundred yards of chiffon, to turn a rather plain gazebo into a splendid new home for us.
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| Our new "home from home" |
All this because we were suddenly aware that our other tents – which require to use of guy-ropes and tent pegs - simply weren’t going to work on the paving slabs of Warrington town centre. It all seemed to work really well – at least Naima and Phoenece certainly made themselves at home and settled right in to some drumming!
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| Naima and Phoenece settling in nicely! |
Our brief for the day was busk, busk, busk. So with our magic music box strapped on to a trolley we worked our way round market stalls of the town, weaving our way between mysterious knights in armour, the odd medieval nun (odd meaning on her own, not “odd” odd!) and Vikings who had somehow managed to park a mini-long ship right in the middle of the town centre!
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| Vikings arriving in style |
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| Viking traders hard at work - this was the backdrop to one of our sets |
Being a market there were of course shopping opportunities – I think the total haul for the day was a couple of necklaces, a ring, a bracelet, a bee shaped charm, several slices of delicious home-made cake and a fairy! We certainly cannot be accused of failing to do our bit to keep the Medieval and Viking traders gainfully employed!
Our day ended with an opportunity to dance with the wonderful band Serpentyne. This is starting to become a very happy regular event. As any dancer will know, begin able to dance to live music is always very special and over recent years we have built up a very special relationship with the very talented members of Serpentyne. The Ya Raqs ladies were certainly excited by the prospect.
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| Naima, Phoenice and the thumbs-up from Kebi |
So we settled down to watch and listen to the show and were very pleased to dance to some of the pieces and to get members of the audience up and dancing too. Some were more enthusiastic than others. Naima managed to pull a gentleman out of the audience who could do the most amazing back bends and certainly had all the right moves!
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| Naima with our fantastic mystery dancer - don't know who he was but he was great! |
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| Meroe and Kebi enjoying the show |
Meroe was feeling particularly pleased, because she had the opportunity of dancing to one of Serpentyne's latest pieces, called Game of Thrones.
All too soon the day came to an end and we had the challenge of packing away our new little home-from-home. There was a certain amount of debate about which bit went in which bag in order to ensure that the next time we have to set up home it all goes smoothly! Still not convinced we got it right. We'll find out at our next event when we have to put the tent up again!
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| Aisha, Tameri, Kebi and Meroe - now which bit went where? |
We should say a big 'Thank you' to Mark Olly for inviting us to join this event, which is now in its fifth year – it was a super event. We had a great time and very much enjoyed meeting some great Medieval and Viking folk, not to mention the good folk of Warrington – we managed to henna and/or dance with quite a number of them! We hope to see you all again very soon.
And finally, a special thank you to the Mysticknight for allowing us to use some of his fabulous photographs of the event in this post.
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