Medieval week

Festival in Visby on Gotland  (Sweden)
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I have been going to Castlefest every year since 2008 and over time I discovered that there was a big medieval festival of eight days in the medieval town of Visby on the island of Gotland in Sweden at almost the same time.
After Castlefest 2023 I've decided not to go to Castlefest in 2024 but to the Medieval Festival in Visby! Visby is a medieval town with a city wall from the fourteenth century that is still largely intact. In the old Visby itself there are at least 200 stone buildings that date back to the Middle Ages, giving the town a unique medieval atmosphere.
 (Sources:  7 Dagar docu,  Falck page 10-11,  Jonsson page 98-99  and  Unesco.org).


South Square at the South Gate

The Medieval Week, Medeltids Veckan in Swedish, has been held here since 1984 and now attracts around 50,000 visitors! The original idea behind it was; dress yourself as people did 700 years ago and take on the role of a person from that time for a week; a kind of historical Re-enactment. The Medieval Week always falls in week 32 (in August) starting on a Sunday until the following Sunday; this year it was from 4 to 11 August 2024 and in 2025 it will be from 3 to 10 August. Hundreds of events have been organized throughout Visby; medieval music, troubadours, theater, parades, archery, workshops to make your own medieval shoes and I also saw a witchcraft workshop...
On Sunday 4 August, people had gathered at the South Square in Visby for the opening of the Medeltids Veckan (photo above). After the opening, people dressed in historical clothing paraded to the North side of the city, where the market and tournament grounds were. This parade attracted many spectators.
(Sources:  7 Dagar docu,  Jonsson page 98-99,  MedeltidsVeckan.se,  MittVisby.se,  Scan­magazine.co.uk  and YouTube:  Jan Einar Eriksson 15 min.,  Island of Gotland 3 min.)




In the park in the north-west within the city walls of Visby was the market and a food area; called the food court. The market was smaller in size than what we are used to at Castlefest today but much larger than Keltfest when it was still in Dordrecht.
There were stalls with medieval clothing, weapons, armor, drinking horns, leather bags in all sizes, wood carvings, jewelry, statues, practically everything you could also find at other festivals. I came across this YouTube video showing parts of the market and the food court.
What I missed was music, there were no CDs sold here and there was only one small stage at the food court. This was a separate part of the market; the food stalls were set up in a circle around a few covered tables and benches (see photo on the left). Here you could go for pancakes, pizzas, wedges and wraps with falafel for example. I found the choice for vegetarians sufficient but a bit meager. The falafel wrap was very tasty, but later we just as easily walked into the medieval town of Visby to eat something in a nice restaurant there and then go back to the festival. In Visby too, the festival goers are easy to recognize by their clothing. Of course you also saw enough people walking around in Visby in their everyday clothes. But Visby had the effect that the festival feeling was extended to the entire medieval town!


Festival planning and costs

As an entrance fee for the Medeltids Veckan I paid around 70 euros for eight days in 2024. But you can also buy entrance tickets for 4 days or for 1 day. What was very useful is that you could create an account on the website of the Medeltids Veckan and tick everything you wanted to do and see in the program. This will then be included in your personal program so that you don't miss anything and keep an overview of what appealed to you in the program. You could put every workshop, lecture, theater performance, storyteller, performance in your own personal overview and easily find it back. Both the things that were included in the entrance fee and the things for which you had to pay extra. You could go to an English-speaking storyteller and bands for free on small stages such as the Forum Vulgaris and Forum Kapitulum (kapitel­hus­garden.se).
You had to pay extra for, for example, a witchcraft workshop (±40 euros) and a theater performance (in Swedish) around Freya's wedding (±10 euros). I would have preferred to pay a bit more for the entire festival and be able to go everywhere without extra costs.
Some things were already fully booked on the first Sunday, such as the witchcraft workshops and the band Stormfrun (Storm Lady) that gave two performances on Friday 9 August. So you had to start looking at the program in time! The program showed at a glance whether you could visit something without extra costs or whether you had to buy an extra entrance ticket. If you wanted to see a fire show by TRiX, for example, you would easily spend 25 euros, but on Wednesday evening TRiX gave a free fire show at the city wall of Visby.
Some people thought the festival was becoming too commercial, so there was an alternative program on Skelett.nu.

Fire show and tournament

The fire show on Wednesday evening was a popular and grand (free) event in the park outside the city wall of Visby. People gathered on the field at the fire show during the afternoon and by 20:00 it was already quite full, it is estimated that between 5000 and 7000 people came to the fire show (see photo on the left); the fire show started at 22:00. It was impressive how the previously completely dark mass of people lit up when everyone turned on the flashlight on their mobile phone (photo on the leftside).
During the fire show people juggled with various torches, fireballs and jumped rope with burning ropes. People even set each other on fire!



The medieval tournament was also popular and continued after the Medeltids Veckan, for which you paid between 308 and 427 SEK; between 25 and 36 euros!
Here they recreate medieval tournaments that had to train knights for possible battles. They have made serious work of this and these tournaments attracted a lot of audience. However, we were not that interested in this, I'm not that into tournaments myself and a large part of the show is in Swedish so you also miss a few things.

Forum Vulgaris  &  Forum Kapitulum

If you prepared well, you could see a lot of things for which you would have to pay extra in one case for free at another time! That's how I discovered that Canardus Horribilis and TRiX were also free to see at the Forum Vulgaris at the foodcourt and Canardus Horribilis also at the Forum Kapitulum. The program of the Forum Kapitulum was nowhere to be found and the program of the Forum Vulgaris was difficult to find on the website of MedeltidsVeckan.se.
You could find most bands by filtering on concerts, the bands that performed at the Forum Vulgaris only became visible when you clicked on more info at the item Forum Vulgaris in the program. The performances at the Forum Vulgaris were somewhat shorter (maximum one hour) and because the stages were a bit smaller, the bands were less able to perform to their full potential. Furthermore, it was an obstacle that the Medeltids Veckan program on the website was only in Swedish and the translation programs had some difficulty with this.

The concerts

During this festival there were also bands performing, partly included in the entrance fee, partly to be paid extra.
For example, if you want to attend concerts (bands, choirs) such as Canardus Horribilis,  Daj Ognia,  Koenix,  Poeta Magica  and  Volund,  then you paid between 10 and 17 euros per band per person extra.
The paid performances took place in the various ruined churches that Visby has. After the reformation, several churches were no longer used and fell into disrepair. During the Medeltids Veckan they served as a stage for various, sometimes pagan bands. The dilapidated state, the lack of windows, an open roof and the acoustics gave a great atmosphere! This was definitely worth paying extra for!

Volund

I went to a performance of Volund in the St. Nicolai church ruins on Monday 5th August. It is a musical drama about the black­smith Volund, based on a picture stone from the year 750 found on Gotland. Eva Sjöstrand wrote the lyrics based on this picture stone to the music of Jan Ekedahl and later published the story based on this picture stone together with stories based on other picture stones found on Gotland in the booklet A Gotlandic Edda  (See  Sjöstrand P.30-39 & 118).
The booklet was for sale in St.Nicolai after the performance for 200 SEK, unfortunately I only had 160 SEK cash with me, but I still got the booklet for that amount! Great!

Canardus Horribilis

Tuesday August 6th we went to a concert of Canardus Horribilis together with Starur (149 SEK / 13 Euro) and later Canardus Horribilis could be heard again with a free entrance performance at the Forum Kapitulum (kapitel­hus­garden.se) and we found out that Canardus Horribilis could also be seen for free at the Forum Vulgaris at the Food court.
However, these free performances were on a small stage which limited some shows somewhat. The paid performances in a church ruin had a lot of added value so I can highly recommend listening to the bands in a church ruin; the bands perform to their full potential much more there! One song started as a nod to a song by Abba and in another song I thought I recognized The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe! Unfortunately they didn't have any CDs with them, so I immediately ordered them via their website. You can also find Canardus Horribilis on: YouTube.

Poeta Magica

Wednesday August 7th we visited a concert of Poeta Magica who just like the previous band also performed in the St.Lars church ruin. The band brings Nordic Pagan Folk and sang in Swedish as well as some songs in English. They sounded great so I immediately bought some CDs of them. These CDs can be listened to in their entirety on their website.
At home I ordered some more of their CD's at Discogs.com!

Koenix

On Thursday August 8th we attended a concert by Koenix in the tournament arena. Apparently a large audience was expected, but the arena was only half full; still a fairly large and very enthusiastic audience! For this band we also had to pay an additional 199 SEK  (±€17,35)  per person, which is with a discount because we had an entrance ticket for the festival. The performance started off great with four band members who entered the stage in animal like costumes with light-up eyes. Later dancing elves also appeared on stage. After a few songs the (warm) costumes came off, in the intros to the energetic songs they spoke of fantasy and magic, which we do not find on TV or online, but do find at festivals like this, where like-minded people meet. Of course I bought a few of their CDs after their concert.

Daj Ognia

On Friday 9th of August we went to a concert by Daj Ognia (Polish, means "give fire"). We had already seen them perform somewhere in the wild on the festival market and on the Forum Vulgaris, where they sounded great! We were curious to see how this band would sound in a ruined church, and were willing to pay the extra entrance fee of 199 SEK  (±€17,35)  for that. Daj Ognia turned out to be absolutely fantastic and really reached their potential in the St.Nicolai ruin church! They played a wide variety of instruments, including a Viking helmet, which gave the different songs their own atmosphere. At one point they even got most of the people out of their seats to dance in the church with their enthusiasm and captivating music! During the last song, lead singer Anna Sitko came off the stage and led the audience in a polonaise through the church!
For us, Daj Ognia was the highlight of the bands we saw at Medeltids Veckan!!!
Daj Ognia started in 2018 and has released two albums, the first in 2020 and the second in 2023, which I of course bought both from the band! Their first CD; Wykrot, has been in my CD player for days now!
(About Daj Ognia: Celtcast.com,  EtnoKrakow.pl,  Polskieradio.pl)


Daj Ognia on YouTube

Castlefest or Medieval Week?

Actually, you can't compare these festivals, but since they take place almost simultaneously, you will have to make a choice between either Castlefest in Lisse or the Medeltids Veckan in Visby.
Lisse and Keukenhof Castle pale in comparison to the medieval atmosphere of the town of Visby with its beautiful city wall and medieval buildings. During the Medeltids Veckan, you will encounter festival-goers everywhere in the town, which turns the entire town into a festival area. Because many concerts and shows take place in the church ruins in the northern part of the town, the town becomes even more involved in the festival. The Medeltids Veckan in Visby was called the largest medieval festival in Scandinavia. The atmosphere of the festival is comparable to Castlefest, but Castlefest seems bigger.
Although Medeltids Veckan attracts between 50,000 and 100,000 visitors, it is quieter, more relaxed, more like the old Keltfest in Dordrecht. In that respect, I would choose to go to Visby instead of the overcrowded Castlefest in Lisse. Castlefest has more to offer in terms of the number of market and food stalls and the variety of what is offered there.
During Castlefest you can easily get to know many different bands and something like the Wicker burning during Castlefest you will not find during the Medeltids Veckan. What attracted a similar amount of audience as the Wicker burning during Castlefest was the fire show on Wednesday evening.
Besides a workshop on witchcraft, a play about Freya and a Pagan band I did not come across much spiritual offering during the Medeltids Veckan in Visby, as if people were not spiritual in the Middle Ages. Also in terms of spirituality and the old religion Castlefest has more to offer with the pagan gang, where you can get to know different pagan / heathen groups.
I missed a 'spiritual court' at the Medeltids Veckan. Disadvantages for me were that you had to pay extra for many bands, which makes you less inclined to get to know new bands by seeing if you like them. Fortunately I only paid once for a band that I did not like. However, the ambiance of the performances in ruined churches was great! You should definitely experience the Medeltids Veckan in Visby at least once and who knows, you might keep coming back to Visby!
(YouTube videos about the Medieval Week of 2024:   Lisa Raspopa 22 min.,  Nils Lemonnier 2 min.,  Rebecca Bylander 8 min.,  Three Star Vagabond 13 min. )

Martin Roek      



In the middle/right the St.Nicolai church ruins