Sightseeing program "Epic Coast 2016" Festival

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

From 27 to 31 July 2016 in the Kimrsky district, Tver region, on the banks of the Volga river, near the village of Toporok, a festival of historical reconstruction "Epic Coast" was held dedicated to the culture, traditions of everyday life and military customs of the Rus, Slavs, Varangians, Finno-Finns, Turks who lived in the days of Ancient Russia in the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries.

On July 30, my colleagues and I visited this festival. We looked at the performances taking place, plunged into the everyday life of the restructuring life, breathed in the aroma of the holiday.

And now you can take stock of what you have seen and heard, share your impressions and include the recordings of conversations in the transmission.

I note right away that not all participants responded to the invitation to talk with the recording equipment turned on.

Someone referred to being busy, and someone limited themselves to deferred promises, - In five minutes … I'll come right now … Wait … etc. As a result, apart from wasted time and missed other interesting interlocutors, such empty promises did not lead to anything, which somewhat upset me personally …

The first conversation took place with Alexey Pavlov, the leader of the famous folk group Skolot, near the concert venue of the Epic Coast 2016 festival

The stage and the fenced glade in front of it were both a concert platform and a battleground for a large number of reenactors representing different clubs not only in Russia, but also in neighboring countries.

It should be noted that massive battles are quite an interesting sight

Participants-reenactors lived in their camps, consisting of tents and tents, created, as it should, in the style of the Middle Ages with a simple way of life, without any amenities of modern civilization.

In one of these camps, we managed to talk with Valery Rodin from the city of Murom, Vladimir region, who represents the club of historical reconstruction "Varezh".

It was by the hands of the masters of this club that the beautiful boat "The Seagull" was made, which took part in one of the staged actions "The landing of the Vikings-Vikings on the Russian coast."

Despite the interesting colorful action and the abundance of reenactment equipment, clothes, belongings and weapons, some inappropriate and unnatural moments for this event were sometimes interwoven into the atmosphere of the holiday, which at first glance were difficult to catch.

I caught my eye and caught my ears, something that, in my opinion, was clearly not combined with medieval life.

In the urns, and sometimes next to the tents of the participants, emptied bottles of various types of strong alcoholic products such as vodka or cognac were found. Often there were people with obvious signs of alcohol intoxication.

In the hands of the vacationers, there were plastic glasses and aluminum cans with beer, energy drinks and the so-called fermented "mead".

Smoking was no exception.

Many restorers used modern mat for no reason.

These obvious contradictions did not fit into my idea. On the one hand, the whole action was aimed at immersing people in the medieval atmosphere of the existence of our ancestors, where very high requirements are imposed on every detail of a weapon, a curl on a chain mail or an element of everyday life, but at the same time, elementary understanding of the way of life is not taken into account and the image itself is not reconstructed life of warriors.

Indeed, in those distant times, words were not thrown just like that, and each sound image was in its place.

Abusive words were used for procreation, and abusive words during battle. And there was no point in pronouncing them in everyday life, especially in the modern version - for a bunch of disparate phrases and sentences.

Tobacco products appeared in Russia much later than the times to which this wonderful festival was dedicated. In my opinion, a medieval Russian warrior or a Viking with a cigarette is something incompatible.

If we talk about alcohol, then here we can also speculate about - And what was the medieval beer? What has been called kvass or vodka since ancient times? When did barmotush swill appear in Russia in general in the form of modern wine or diluted alcohol?

Again, in my opinion, the "reenactment of the Middle Ages" and modern alcoholic and tobacco products are completely incompatible things.

In addition, many children attended the festival. What idea did they have of our past, seeing swearing "medieval warriors" smoking cigarettes and sipping beer from colorful cans?

I cannot pass by the participants of the concert program. In all honesty, many of the performing groups made a good impression on me. They organically merged into the festival atmosphere and filled it with bright folk colors. But here it was not without a fly in the ointment. Among the beautiful author's and folk music, hard metal suddenly appeared in the performance of the GRAY group.

The stage filled with black-robed musicians shaking their long hair in the "best" tradition of Western metal musicians. Before the stage, their fans, dressed and painted appropriately, suddenly appeared, before they were not noticeable, twitching in the rhythm set by the musicians. Some could hardly stand on their feet, and therefore, in order to shake their hair, they had to hold on tightly to the railing or to the edge of the stage. On the second or third song, the heavens threw out a fair amount of pouring rain on the audience …

Again, I am voicing my thoughts, they may be very outdated. Maybe I don’t understand anything about medieval reconstruction, but for me it remains a mystery why this metal group was invited to this medieval festival, and what relation their manner of performance has to ancient Russia.

However, if we remove the inconsistencies I discovered, then the festival had something to see and someone to talk to.

One of such wonderful people who agreed to talk “on camera” is Voivode Velimir (in life Vitaly Kalachev), representing the historical reconstruction club “Merya” from the city of Kimry.

What can one summarize what he saw and heard at the festival "Epic Coast 2016".

Overall, the festival is very interesting and important in terms of promoting our ancient heritage. And if the organizers slightly correct some of the points outlined in my review, make minor adjustments, then this event will develop and expand, making its important contribution to the propaganda of the true history of our medieval past

We wish you all GOOD!