vampyresheep

Friday, the first day of Castlefest and the reason for our trip!

By now I started to worry that the damage was worse than presumed, fearing that I may have broken a toe (didn't notice the pain before due to distraction of shin injury but now it was becoming all too familiar), but didn't want to ruin everyone's day so (after googling for a advice), taped it up to the next tour for support, figuring there would be a first aid tent on site if it did get worse. Then got all tarted up for the day, compromising by switching to my more comfy outfit intended for Sunday.

Confusing all the local residents of our holiday park!

The venue had changed their layout a bit, resulting in a long painful walk on a rubbly path to the entrance but after finding someone in charge for advice, I got given a note which gave me access to the ambulant shuttle bus for future.

More posing for photos ....

The day was taken at a laid back pace, which thankfully Castlefest is ideally set up for.

Icelandic band Ardistir on the main Forest Stage. A tad too chilled for my interest

great to see all the peeps we've met through events such as Gala Nocturna, such as Tessa (La Dutchessa)

a friendly steampunk couple who took an interest in Rob's wings

Wandered around the market area catching all the wonderful sights

the obligatory Rob finds bagel pic!

owls!

Went for a coffee break at the entrance and spotted Wendy, Gerrit and kids arriving. Wendy looking spectacular (and brightly coloured!) as ever.

wings!

love watching all the reenactors spar in front of the castle

I don't think this guy moved far all weekend!

Our main priority was to catch Theodor Bastard, who were just wonderful to watch in the tranquil and chilled out Folk Stage arena.

customised trolleys to carry out stuff around all weekend

a handy reminder of the bands playing this weekend

After that I hobbled over the hill to see Emian, an Italian pagan band, on the village stage. They were rather lovely too!

I do love the Village area, it seems to retain the pagan essence of Castlefest

Shuffled my way through the wondrous and vast market, then on to the area around the camping stage, managing to once again spend a fair bit on jewelry findings and skulls. :-)

even the litter collectors are in character!

The main band on the Friday was Berlinski Beat, which none of us wanted to see! (The otherwise amazing Corvus Corax masquerading as some mariachi wedding band!) They seemed to go down a storm with the crowd though.

Instead we went back to the Folk Stage to see Cuelebre.

finally found a place to rest my feet, being unable to get down onto the floor to sit (or more like, the risk of being unable to get back up again!)

There was an hour to wait for the last band, which wasn't a must-see, so we decided to finish early, knowing Saturday would be a long day. The minibus was conveniently waiting at the entrance gate, so I waved my note of permission to the driver and after a bit of language related confusion, was allowed to board, meeting back with the others at the car park.