Medieval days in Luleå - workshops, fire perfomance and midnight sun!

Every summer the Medieval club Frostheim arranged the fantastic event of the Medieval Days at the open air museum Hägnan, close to the World Heritage of Gammelstad in Luleå. It was an amazing location with old buildings bathing all night in the midnight sun.

Together with Phire I hosted a jester and juggling workshop twice a day to let both children and adults try some equipment. I sometimes think that the parents think it is as fun as the children, but need an excuse to start picking up things and trying them. 

Cleaning after circus workshop. Photo by Robin Forsman

The poi with the colorful tails was always popular, as well as the spinning plates. Among the 9-12 year olds quite many had tried the diabolo before and was able to pick up some new understanding and skills of that. Some years ago I did not enjoy teaching as much as practising myself, but this time it was very fun to teach and spread circus to people that maybe otherwise would not ave had a try. I think it is important to let people try juggling and circus sin order to raise both the status and appreciation of circus skills.

When I was not holding workshops I was enjoying the other things the Medieval days offered. I looked at amazing handcrafts, listened to music, watched people's great costumes and clothes and talket to all the nice people. I watched heavy fighting, attended dance workshops and played nyckelharpa to another dance workshop. One night we had some spontanious acro yoga workshop!

The other nights we were having barbecue, singing songs, listening to the band, trying out medieval drinks, dancing, and talking in the big house to escape the mosquitoes.

Doing acroyoga performance with Riia. Photo by David Granberg

The last evening Phire had a fire show that was among one of the best we have done together so far. I did an acro yoga routine, a fire fan dance and a partner poi choreography and was very happy with all of that. 

I some ways I was more nervous for this fire shows since the audience had seen many other fire shows before and could actually compare more fair than the general audience. I was also worried that the fire would not give the same effect in the sun, since the sunlight never disappears, but it turned out just fine and it was nice to not freeze while performing. The fact that one of the best jesters in Sweden was in the audience would maybe have made me nervous, but since we had been hanging out during the week I was surprisingly relaxed about that. I often think that since I dont judge people that are not as silled as me, people more skilled than me probably don't judge my performances either.

Fire fan dance. Photo by Kristina Espmark

Performing together really does a lot in getting closer as a group as it both puts some pressure and stress, and require a lot of cooperation. Being a part of a group has really helped me to move forward in circus skills, expand my comfort zone and doing circus with great people!

 

Group photo with all performers from Phire! Photo by Phire