From the May 23 to 25, Mary Ardens Farm - once the childhoodhome of Shakespeares mother - will be transformed into an authentic hive ofTudor mayhem with over 40 Real Tudors making camp for three days offestivities and raucous entertainment. With live music, dancing, feasts, archery and a whole range of traditional cookery and crafts to enjoy and take part in, festival goers will lose themselves in a Tudor celebration like never before.
The three-day Tudor Festival promises to be a spectacular insight into Tudor Life with Mary Ardens Farm playing host to a real villageset in the year 1575 and featuring a traditional handfasting ceremony (the equivalent of a modern day engagement party). The farm will transport visitorsback in time and envelop guests in all the hustle and bustle of a busy Tudor community in the lead up to a traditional handfasting party. With all its friendships, rivalries, sounds and smells, expert period interpreters and re-enactors from around the UK will come together with the folks at Mary Ardens Farm to re-create an unmissable Tudor themed event for all the family.
As well as the formal handfasting ceremony, which can beseen across all three days of celebration, there will be an incredible displayof traditional crafts, skills and activities with authentic characters to chat to, many based on the local families from the village of Wilmcoteat the time, such as the Palmers, Woods, Lamberts and Harts.
The merrymaking and entertainment will be one of thehighlights of the festival, and some of the UKs expert musicians in the field of early and Tudor music will be delighting the crowds. There will be Tudor dancing, as well as traditional Mummers to watch whilst visitors to the festival soak up the authentic atmosphere of the occasion and enjoy the celebrations. Visitors can see demonstrations, ask questions and have a go at arange of crafts, as well as do a spot of Tudor shopping at the on-site market stalls.
The festival will feature one of the country's Tudor archery experts on site all weekend performing demonstrations and giving onlookers thechance to have a go with the longbow and shoot a traditional earth butt or hanging popinjay. Of course, food and ale would have also been at the very heart of any Tudor event, so there will be a whole range of dishes being cooked up, both in the authentic kitchen and also outdoors over an open fire. Whether it's the standard pottage, or egardouce of coney, (sweet and sour rabbit to you and me), visitors to the festival won't have to walk far to find a syllabub or foole!
The traditional activities continue around the farm throughout the festival period, showcasing many Tudor tricks and techniques for everyone to see and learn about. Warwickshire was a wealthy area for the wool trade during the Tudor period and over the weekend there will be plenty of carding and spinning, using wool from Mary Arden's very own sheep.
The resident Tudors will also be showcasing amazing plants,some of which grow on the Farm, and they will be used to make natural dyes and colour the wools. Festival-goers will be able to see and feel the wool at each stage of the fascinating process.
Continuing the theme of nature and plants, there will be a Still Room where remedies and treatments for common ailments will be made. Anyone who wants to learn how to make their own cold remedies or even spot cream will be able to drop in and see how the process works. The festival will also feature a selection of expert Tudor seamstresses. Many of the households women would have made their own clothes for the family, so they will be on site making new clothes all weekend, which is great if you fancy making your own kirtle or codpiece!
After all this hard work, cooking, sewing and spinning, unsurprisingly clothes can get pretty dirty! For three days, laundresses will be washing shifts and shirts using the traditional methods of soap and elbow grease. The bawdy washerwomen will be making soap on site, but will also have some spare so that visitors can join in, and when they invite you to pee in their pot, they might just mean it (how else do you bleach linen?)!
The Tudor Festival at Mary Arden's Farm promises to be an unmissable event this Whitsun Bank Holiday, with food, real ale, craft stallsand a huge wealth of Tudor traditions to enjoy. Tickets to the farm are valid for a full twelve months, so after the Tudor Festival memories have faded visitors can go back again and again throughout the year, for free!
Mary Ardens Farm is situated in Wilmcote, just outside the delightful town of Stratford-upon-Avon.There is free parking, a caf› and adventure playground, as well as further Tudor events and activities throughout the year, so dont miss out on Warwickshire's biggest Tudor Festival! Visit www.shakespeare.org.uk for all thedetails.
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