Castlefest

[ginnyvos]

Random Note: Alright, I really, really, really need a dance icon. I do. Remind me to go hunt down a picture... Once I've caught up with the 200 entrees on my friendlist and 6 years worth of pictures in my photo album.

So I'm kind of done waiting for the last pictures from Castlefest and am going to spam you with the pictures I already have. A bit of a disclaimer; non of these are made by me, but they are all either of me or posted on public websites anyway so I figure I can put them in my blog.

So yes. Castlefest... After hours and hours and some more hours of sewing, I finally got to wear my costume. I'm absolutely in love with my skirt, which is wonderful when dancing because it's 360 degrees round... In other words, whenever I get twirled, it lays flat around my waist. I am SO glad I planned an underskirt with my costume ~_^

The costume was great. It was all I'd designed it to be and in my oppinion? The work payed off. I was actually called a sunbeam by a complete and utter stranger one very dreary morning ^^; Seeing as I was supposed to be the personification of spring, I'd say 'mission accomplished!' ^___^ I's just a shame that due to some drama autumn and winter hardly ever made any appearences. I've actually only seen them in costumes once, for all of a few seconds... Even though I've made a good part of autumn's costume. Oh well, my ego is saved by the fact that, where I have been photographed a bunch of times during the festival, they haven't been photographed at all.



Me and my friend Lisa, enjoying the music and the festival and just plain enjoying ourselves. Taken on Friday by Arne, another friend of mine and a great photographer.

So let me rewind a little and explain about Castlefest, for those that didn't follow my weblog last year or that just plain don't remember.

Castlefest, to me, is the best festival of the year. I love it for the admosphere, the dancing, the people, the idea, the fun, the costumes and... Well, the whole package really. It's a historic and fantasy festival and you could equate it to the American ren-faire, only then it covers all time periods people wish to intertroduce and any fantasy setting. Everything works, really.

There's a lot of sides to it, from a huge book-market to a market for gothic, fantasy and new-age stuff and a lot of historically based and traditionally made stuff, from clothing to candy to... Well, whatever they come up with. There's re-enactment of the lifestyle of different cultures and timeperiods (Celts, Scots, middle-age Dutch stuff, some other things I can't remember...), there's all kinds of performences from fantasy related artists and there's music. A LOT of music... Most of it dancable. As a matter of fact, this is where I met the people who dragged me to my first balfolk last year and from the first time I went to the festival four years ago, I've spend most of the festval dancing.

A possibly odd but very good indicator of the kind of mood the organisators have in mind for this festval; you don't get your food and drinks in paper or plastic plates or cubs. Instead, you pay four euro's up front for a stone and traditonally made cup or plate, which you get back once you hand it back in. Much more awesome and much more environmentally friendly!

And than there's just the admosphere. It's perfectly normal to just sit in the grass for a while and relax. Enjoy the music, the premise (lots of green and a castle) and the people walking around, or to take out your own instrument or poi and start performing. Loads of people wear costumes and especially when you wear a costume yourself, it's a matter of looking and being looked at. Some of the costumes are absolutely gorgeous, and when I say gorgeous I mean <i>gorgeous</i>. Just look at this woman...



Just... Wow. Picture made by a guy names JP, from www.snap-shot.nl

This year I helped out at a stand. It was right by the gothic area, which made it all the more fun; After all, the stand was all purple, pink, frilly and above all; CUTE. Fits me, doesn't it? It has been my favorite stand on all of Castlefest ever since I firt saw it. A friend of mine took a picture of me in the stand, but she hasn't uploaded anything yet, so I might add that later. Either way, I had a lot of fun doing it and after three years of positively drooling over the things, I finally baught my biggest and only thing for this Castlefest (miracle of miracles): A bunny! Her name is Melisse, partially because of the flowers on my dress (I wanted her to have a flower-name), partially because the place were Castlefest is held each year is called Lisse and partially because... Well, it's cute ^__^

This is my new stuffed animal/backpack/thing to cuddle whenever!



Her dress matches mine! :D I made it myself and she looked really cute in it. Also? This is on stage while the band Valravn was playing. While any other bag would have been taken off the stage, the artists just laughed and smiled at me when I put her on the stage, so she was on-stage during three performences! This bunny obviously likes fame, don't you think? (picture taken by Arne)



And this is her in her rain-coat. With this on, all my stuff stays dry. It even looks cute, don't you think? I don't quite remember who has taken the picture, but I do remember they asked specifically if they could take a picture of her!
I didn't plan to buy anything else but the rain-coat for her, but when hanging up the bunny-clothes in the stand, I couldn't help but buy her a beautiful kimono from real Japanese fabric and what Deiredeire (who runs the stand) kept calling a 'prairy-dress'. I'll spam you with pictures some day! The bunny and all the clothes she wears are hand-made btw. If you're interested in it, you can look on http://www.mystictimes.nl/ . Even though the website is in Dutch, you should be able to get a fair idea.

Alright, here's a video of someone who's also decidedly not me, and I don't even know him or her, but it gives a bit of an impression of Castlefest (though I don't think the music fist) and more importantly: if you go to 0:50, you can see a short clip of magicalmongoose and me dancing! (just watch for the bright blue dress, it stands out... ~_^)

Alright, from here on, I'm just going to spam you with random pictures and comment on them as I see fit because making a coherrent review of my days on Castlefest is a lost cause anyway ^_^;;



As you might've guessed I did a lot of dancing. As a matter of fact, most of what I did this year was helping at the stand and dancing... This was taken by Arne again, during a wonderful hanterdro by Laboncha.

Taken by Arne



Wen and Emilie, the dance instructions, instruct a huge group of people on how to do the Tarantella. It was great having this dance explained to me for a change, because I keep confusing the order of the different routines when I try. Now I know... Kinda.

I don't know who took this.



It's complicated, you know? (my dance partner obviously thought so as well. I'm glad I wasn't alone ~_^)

Picture taken by Arne



My friend ulvarmarson, who came all the way to the Netherlands especially to take part in Castlefest. This is hardly the most elegant picture of her out there, but it just feels so... Right to me. She looks all happy and relax and like she's been out all day, majorly enjoying herself and now she's sitting in the sun and relaxing for a bit. (picture taken by JP)



Just look at her, in all her glory! Isn't she imposing? And yes. There was a lot of boobie. Since she's pretty tall, it was right on face level for me. Just imagine hugging her. (Know those cartoons? Yes those. It was just like that. *suffocates and dies happily*)

The picture was made by Lillian, my other Norwegian friend who was here for the festival. She made a very cute grumpy Lolita!



And there she is! Shot taken by ulvarmarson.



Aaaaaaaand this would be my old lab-assistent in highschool (although he used to have long hair XD). He once came to school in a kilt just to make a statement and now he was one of the people in the Scottisch re-enactment camp... Constantly at war with the Celts next door!

Picture once again taken by Arne



The burning of the wicker-beast (picture taken by Arne).

Alright, this picture needs a bit of an explanation; Castlefest is always held around the same weekend; the very first weekend of august. This is because the original idea was to make the festival more or less in honor of the pagan holiday Lughnasad. It's a holiday that honours the sun and the starting of the harvest. For three years now, there has been a ritual burning of a big straw/wood figure in which everyone who might want to, is asked to leave some sort of offering. The first time it was a wickerman, the year after a wicker woman, and apparently this year it was a wicker-beast.
I gave an apple this year, but people threw everything from food to poetry and drawings in there. Than, on saturday night, the whole thing is burned while a fire-show is put up around it. It's a huge spectacle and I managed to get a spot right by the fence this year. It was awesome!


Than, there's two pictures from the Wednesday before Castlefest, when I took Lillian and ulvarmarson  to see Amersfoort. My friend Nikita, who's met ulvarmarson  when she came to visit me in Norway, joined us too, and I wanted to share some pictures of that, too.




I just kinda like this pic. It was taken by ulvarmarson  in the boat.




Marianne and Lillian right by the 'Kromme straat', taken by either Nikita or Me with ulvarmarson's camera.



Nikita and me, taken by ulvarmarson 


And that was the last picture for now. Since Lillian hasn't offered up her pictures yet, I might add some more, but we'll see!

Comments

[dreya-uberwald.livejournal.com]

You really made a splendid job of it. Like you say, it's also the kind of thing you can wear for just going out in. I only wish that my needlework skills were as good as yours (I can just about manage to replace buttons - the rest I have to get my mum to do).

Than I need a white under skirt (because, well, the thing with a 360 degree skirt is that it goes WIDE when you twirl.

Heh, kind of reminds me of a dress I bought last year. It was great until a slight breeze picked up then the silk just started to fly. Needless to say I was very glad of my underslip that day :)

Oooh I love the sound of a bunny steampunk outfit. Will you be dressing up for that event too?

Oooh awesome! I'm curious to see that!

I'll post pics once I manage to acquire a working camera.

[ginnyvos.livejournal.com]

To be honest I'm pretty proud of it. It's the first dress I did ALL on my own. I plan on wearing it mainly for dancing, actually. And when you wear a skirt that twirls around nicely, you get twirled a LOT. People seem to like it (me included... I danced wearing pants a few days ago and I really really missed wearing a skirt. It was odd not to have anything twirling around whenever I turned). But yeah, underskirt is definitely needed.

Ah... Yes I will. As a matter of fact, I was kept up till 4:30 in the morning two nights ago because the ideas would. Not. Stop. COMING. I wanted something of a combi between steam and cyber punk, because steampunk is too much black and brown for my tastes.

[dreya-uberwald.livejournal.com]

I wanted something of a combi between steam and cyber punk, because steampunk is too much black and brown for my tastes.

I really like the brown and copper hues myself, but can see how it might get a tad repetitive. Do you know what kind of colour scheme do you want to go for yet?

[ginnyvos.livejournal.com]

Heh it's actually going to be a sort of rag-tag mix of things I already own. It's the accessories that I'll need to either make or find in the huge number of antique thingymewhat'sit-stores in Utrecht (where I study). It'll be ok I think.

I have these all star-like shoes which go up to mid calf. They're wine red and have a plaid pattern. I've always been looking at them and thinking 'these would look awesome if you stick in the pants... Never put that to practice because it's a little too odd even for my tastes, but it's perfect here. Than I have a plaited blue blause that is in the last few pictures above. Over it will come my pin-stripe corset to make it all awesommy. Under all this I will probably wear a normal pair of faded blue jeans. I might go for a pirates head or tie a piece of fabric around my hair but I actually like it loose.

The look is loosely based on the look I once designed for one of the protagonists in my own steampunk(ish) story. (which, by the way, I made up way before steam punk became all the rage at the fantasy scene or I'd actually ever heard of the term)

I like them too, just... Not for me? I'm very much a colour-lover and besides, I like to stand out from crowds at least a little...?

[dreya-uberwald.livejournal.com]

Definitely sounds like a really fun sort of outfit :D Hope you manage to get some photographs. Are the shoes the lace up kind with the canvas leg (I'm trying to picture them in my head, but am not sure if I'm getting it quite right). Will you be trying to get a pocket watch as one of the accessories? I tried to find one on ebay for a friend once, but couldn't spot one at a reasonable price (mind you I was trying to find a working one rather than just the case so expect they would be less pricey if you wanted one as part of a costume).

[ginnyvos.livejournal.com]

I already have one of those. Fake, mind you, but pretty nontheless. But if I find a real one for a normal price in one of the shops I'll definitely buy. I'm looking for stuff like old compasses, pressure meters, temprature meters, that kind of odd stuff. Also decided that my 'weapons' are going to be darts and I'm going to use PVC (those plastic tubes) for making an arrow shooter (the kind that you use paper 'arrows' for and you blow at. Beyond that there's of course the goggles (a steam OR cyber punk outfit just can't exist without goggles) and whatever other cool stuff I manage to find.

The shoes are canvas with wool on the inside.

Alright so I figure that since I need to show it to a friend to ask her opinion, I might as well take pics. Here we go:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v626/Ginnyvosje/11-8-09060.jpg

There, what do you think? (and yes, I'm aware I could've smiled more :P)

[dreya-uberwald.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I liked the corset, you could definitly create a pirate-ish look - if that's what you end up deciding to go for - once you've all of the accessories attached. I know you said you'd prefer to keep your hair loose, but I bet it would look really good with some kind of headware.

[ginnyvos.livejournal.com]

My look is kind of pirate inspired I guess, but also steampunk and a lot of cyberpunk thrown in. All in all it's just fantasy and something I've wanted to do for a good while.

Glad you like it!