Jousting brings excitement taste of the Middle Ages to Highlands and Island Festival
We are hopping into our time machine and taking you back to the medieval period as we celebrate Scottish and Celtic culture.
History has come to live briefly here in South Mississippi, as the annual Scottish Highlands and Island Celtic Music Festival is giving visitors a glimpse of what life was like during the Middle Ages.
Athletes competed in a number of contests, testing their strength and willpower.
Artisans and craftsmen were hard at work performing demonstrations as onlookers gathered around to watch. Some even got to see what living during Italy’s medieval period.
“Alright the camp is from Southern Italy, from the years 1000 to 1250. We try and portray life as close to the original as possible. From our armor to our equipment to our boxes, even our paint is made by hand medieval style by crushing rock. Our cook pot from 1080, from the Bayou Tapestry made by one of the local blacksmiths actually.”
Guests were immersed into traditional Celtic music, featuring songs and dances from The Hub City.
Vendor booths, Irish clans and Scottish clans set up shop along the walkway, intermingling with guests as they passed by. It also was a chance for some visitors to figure out their ancestry.
“This is the first time Clan Buchanan has been at this event and its my time to be here at this event also and it’s been fantastic. I’ve met ton of people already that are Buchanan’s or part of the Buchanan clan and we’ve been able to make sure that people who are Buchanan’s or one of our related septs can find out a little bit more about their heritage, connections to other family members and their historical significance back to Scotland.
Combat re-enactments were all the rave during the festival, bringing intensity and excitement to the event.
“These skilled swordsmen are showing off their fencing skills in a demonstration, putting on an incredible show for the crowd.”
And kids got to try their hand in fencing, as well.
But the highlight of the festival was the jousting competition. We caught up with one of the knights — breaking down the style of joust displayed over the weekend.
“We love living history. Uh I like to stay on the athletic side as well when it comes to this sort of thing. We do a tournament style of joust that is somewhat sportrized, it is not the realistic that people are used to seeing where its solid lances, guys being tossed off their horses and causing intense injuries. Our style is more like how you’d see the NFL today versus how you’d see guys wearing leather 100 years ago.”
It was a fun weekend of tradition, heritage and history as thousands were out at the Scottish Highland Games and Celtic Music Festival. But for now we close our time machine until next year.
From Harrison County, I’m Spencer Pullen with WXXV, News 25.
