The Osgoode Medieval Festival takes place this weekend.
The festival features music, dance, costumes… and combat from the middle ages.
Some of it is so realistic, it hurts! One of the main attractions is the Knights of Valour full-contact jousting show. It involves fully-armoured knights on horseback rumble toward each other brandishing lances, each hoping to hit and possibly unhorse the other. It’s not choreographed, and it’s definitely not for the faint-of-heart.
“We do have issues with dislocated shoulders,” says Tim Tobey of the Knights of Valour. “Good bruisings, sore back, sore head…”
Jaclyn Ziemniak is one of the riders. She describes how it feels to be hit by a wooden lance atop a thundering horse. “Like a baseball bat to the chest followed by a hundred and something pounds of armour hitting you,” she explains.
The Osgoode Medieval Festival runs Saturday and Sunday on Main Street in Osgoode.
