Red Cathedral

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

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

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