Viking Godmanchester, posted by Kebi

Having barely caught our breath after Wellingborough Medieval Festival , we went back in time to the Viking era. This was the first Viking festival to be held in Godmanchester at the Woodgreen Animal Shelter Showground, and there was an amazing turnout of re enactors.

I can almost hear you ask "where does Ya Raqs fit in with Vikings?" and, to be fair, we did get asked this a couple of times. Hauk, who was our excellent commentator for the weekend explained it beautifully…..

Vikings or Rus, as they were known, settled in the Byzantine Empire. They traded, settled and married into the local population. Rus is the source of the modern name of Russia. So we know that the Vikings would have known of women dancers such as Ya Raqs and would have been familiar with the Mediterranean and North African coastline.

Actually quite a few of the girls fell in love with the Rus trousers. There are 3 meters of fabric in one leg! I feel a sewing spree coming on.



Rus "trousers"

Sorry I digress.  Meroe was unable to attend, so I was left in charge, well that was the plan! We put up our tent for the first time this year. We almost lost Tameri when a gust of wind took hold of the tent, but thanks to help from David and Roland, we got her up and well pegged down - the tent that is not Tameri! That night there was the most spectacular thunderstorm but thankfully we all came through it unscathed.

Tent, awning AND dancers all survived the elements.

Saturday was sunny and very hot. We performed our first set early in the day so we were able to spend the rest of the day dancing with the children and doing henna tattoos around the tent.

We also had ringside seats for the skirmishes between the various Viking bands. There was lots of shopping to be done as well - I bought some lovely silk and bracelets and earrings. Well a girl can never have too much bling!

After lunch we had the honour of dancing with Serpentyne . I had the nerve-wracking job of dancing to The Serpents Kiss from their new album. It is a wonderful song and Meroe had done a beautiful performance the weekend before, so I hope I did her proud.

Kebi and Serpentyne.

We soon had the crowd up dancing. At the start of this event we set ourselves a challenge – could we get the Vikings to dance? Well, yes we could and they were very good at it!

Yes! Vikings can dance too.

Sunday was a lot cooler. We had time to wander around the encampment. Alma, our newest troupe member and an excellent drummer, had a drumming session with Hràfn Rikardson who played the lyre harp. It sounded amazing.

The perfect combination! Alma and Hràfn Rikardson.

It was really nice to see all the families at the event. The children looked happy running around and mums and dads had fun dressing up and jingling around with the girls. It was a lovely weekend with something for everyone. Let’s hope this is the first year of many.

Mini-me dancers – large and small!

We should pass on a special thank you to Joe Bridge for some of these wonderful photographs.  If you want to see more of Joe's pictures from the event then go to his web site (Joe Bridge).