Red Cathedral

Elfia 2023 : rain. Fotofair 2023 : heatwave. El Mundo Fantasia 2023 : heatwave. Castlefest 2023 : rain. Seeing a pattern? In recent visits to the Netherlands the weather has been rather unwelcoming.. Luckily the volunteers, the visitors, the creatures & the inhabitants of Castlefest are a véry welcoming crowd of wandering ( may I say: festive ) souls. There needs to be some balance, right? . Admittedly, on Sunday there was less rain, less super-hard rainshowers and less stormwind than previously announced and as in other parts of this region of Europe ( as I noticed when retuning to Belgium ). And a few times the sun even peeked out of the clouds for a moment. Still; it had been raining for weeks without end so there was only so much much the organisation could do in lands which are 5m below the sea surface.  . It was wet: RUBBERBOOTS!   There was rain: PONCHOS! The crew I strolled around with were suffering excruciating pain: PLENTY OF PITSTOPS! The mead was selling out q

After a few cancelled editions the most festivalish of the Dutch fantasy fairs has finally returned and it was huge, super-dusty and big fun. . Before sharing my afterthoughts a few links: The 100 pictures that won't fit on this sample-page or on the Facebook page are on my Flickr ( for free ), On Clapper and Instagram will shortly follow a few short videos ( on Clapper you can also find the videos from previous events, but it's best accessed via the free app ) * Clapper mini-video 01 - A call to arms * Clapper mini-video 02 - Bring out the dead * Clapper mini-video 03 - Release the T-Rex * Clapper mini-video 04 - Where your fantasy becomes reality Afterthoughts : Sunday was a good day to visit. Probably the best day. The end . . Details? Everyone should fill in the positive & negative points of an event for themselves and not force their view upon others. Views & opinions are very personal things. De gustibus non est disputandum , the Romans would say.  S