Licensed to Thrill in Medieval Wellingborough, posted by Meroe

The last weekend in July took Ya Raqs to sunny Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. The weather forecast for the weekend had been dire, and we debated for some time over whether or not dancers in Medieval England would have worn wellies! Deciding probably not we headed south with everything crossed, praying we’d have at least some dry, sunny spells during the weekend.

The trip down was great and the prospect of probably missing out on our now traditional ice cream meant that Meroe, Phoenece and Tameri felt justified in sharing an enormous Eton Mess while the sun was actually shining.

Meroe and Tameri, with yet more ice cream

In Wellingborough our accommodation for the weekend was the Hind Hotel – thought to have been the stopping off point for Cromwell before the battle of Naseby – and complete with ghosts of those who overheard Cromwell’s plan and who were either murdered, or killed themselves as a result! Having had a very nice meal in the Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon, in Sheep Street, we went back to the Tithe Barn to sample some mead to get us in a Medieval mood!

We woke on the first day to glorious sunshine – hot sunshine at that – and set up our home-from-home in front of the 15th century Tithe Barn.

In front of the Tithe Barn

What a busy day; I don’t think we sat down for longer than five minutes. First set in front of the Tithe Barn, then one up in town centre; a third near the Bewitched Café and then two more back at the Tithe Barn. All this in between mini-me dress up, workshops and lots, and lots, and lots of henna! Thanks to the incredibly tasty quiches and homemade cakes from the local scouts we kept going (but we did have to eat lots of homemade cake!).

Lots of visitors to our tent during the day including the court jester Devilstick Peat who joined us for a well earned rest at the end of the day and helped us polish off the last of the mead!

With Devilstick Peat

Exhausted, but in a good way, after day one, we treated ourselves to a very nice meal at La Rocca.

Given what a super, sunny day Saturday had been we were a little apprehensive about Sunday, but we woke to clear blue skies. A slightly easier day on Sunday; only four dance sets rather than five! Still lots of mini-me and lots more henna, all interrupted only briefly by a heavy shower that lasted no more than about two minutes. At least today we had been presented with our licence to dance by order of the Kings Justiciar.

The licence, with the (not very) small print

The trouble is we hadn’t read the small print where it clearly says that we were only allowed to dance from Monday to Saturday, so we were on pushing our luck dancing on the Sabbath! Not only that, but on this particular day the court had set itself up right in front of our tent, so we couldn’t even sneak a dance or two in without them seeing us! Thankfully the Sheriff was suitably entertained, so turned a blind eye!

The highlight of Sunday has to have been dancing with the fabulous Serpentyne – a medieval Folk Rock group. They had invited some of the Ya Raqs girls to dance to two of their songs. This was going to be interesting since neither group had worked together before, nor had any of the Ya Raqs girls heard the songs before – but it worked really well. So thank you to Serpentyne for asking us to dance for them.

Dancing with Serpentyne

All too soon the weekend came to an end and we had to pack up our little home-from-home and head back. We had a great time. Our thanks to the organisers of the Wellingborough Medieval Festival for asking us to be part of such a brilliant event; and most of all to the people of Wellingborough for making us so welcome. Hope we get a chance to see you all again next year.