Red Cathedral

Let's start with a picture: . At first I simply wanted to create a placeholder for this fantasy fair in the Mondo Verde amusement park.. but I fear I might forget some things I wanted to say if I wait till all pictures have been processed. Follow the progress on Instagram , Facebook , or directely at the source on Flickr   And for a short video it is HERE on Clapper with the other fair videos ( Elfia, Trolls-et-Légendes, MOD, cosplay shoots, parades,.. ). Maybe I should put those on Tiktok too? First of all a mental note about the location of Mondo Verde in Landgraaf ( Dutch Limburg ). You should see this place as 3 amusement parks combined into 1. * There's a waterpark filled with water rides & splash slides for the kids. Fun-fun-fun on a hot Summer day. ( and a good spot for a quick shot of the Atlantian Mera ) This was opened during the fair. So at first I thought that +50% of the visitors only came to swim. But that was our mistake because we visited this part to

You are all noticing it: the prices for everything are going through the roof. The entry fees for events are too ( even up to 35€ for a one day entry pass to a fantasy fair excluding parking, food, drinks,.. over here in the Benelux ). So what kind of face would you make when you get an invite for an event with a 2€ entree fee and free parking? Baffled? Bedazzled? Happy smile? An I should check this out-grin?   So we checked out this MOD cosplay/geek event in the hamlet of Monceau-sur-Sambre.. which quickly seemed to be part of greater Charleroi and not some medieval town forgotten by time as was envisioned by it's exotic name. Edition 8 means we have missed a few editions and I can't say if this is a new location for them or not: but we liked the location.  Big walls around the compound. Some trees & plants inside. Space for tents ( yes, they included a small medieval camp with very good hydromel in the event ), an old hangar for a small geek-market, some RPG-testing &

Returning to Elfia Haarzuilens after more than a decade of absence was literally a last minute decision based on the weather forecast ( like: deciding on Friday afternoon to go on Saturday ), but thanks to a very dear friend it was possible & we had a blast. And yes, when I last visited it was still called Elf Fantasy Fair . Eventhough new thematic areas have been added, it wasn't as gigantic & shopping-spree-inducing as during it's biggest years, but hey: at least it's back after a long pandemic and now it has the potential to grow back to it's former collossal glory. Glad to have been there when events rise back up from uncertainty ( I almost said: from the ashes ) like a legendary phoenix. Just like during Trolls et Légendes we had a wheelchair to navigate through the event. Luckily the entire parking, entry, check-in, toilet,.. parts have been optimised for people with disabilities. And there were many wheelchairbound visitors. So a big thumbs up for

" Just a quick placeholder to confirm that I'm working very hard on the pictures from Trolls et Légendes.. so have some patience ," was the original text. UPDATE: The results are on Flickr ( finally got to updating this post ) 2 Minivideos on Clapper are showing the Americans how Belgians cosplay ( Best seen on phone or tablet ) * Clapper video 1 * Clapper video 2 Meanwhile everything is live but In the future you can keep an eye out on Flickr or on Facebook to see how slow I'm processing the pictures. Update: a few images already made it to Instagram with some first thoughts. Updating this post with some sample images: . . UPDATE : all pictures are live & downloadable on Flickr . Namaste . . But what of the fair itself? Ever since the start of Trolls-et-Légendes I've always looked out towards the next one. I've seen times that were so crowded they had to close the entree doors and hope some visitors would leave. I've enjoyed free