De Quaye Werelt anno 1477 edition 2023

 Finally, the medieval festival The Quaeye Werelt is back with this 2023 edition (Covid, bad weather, those sort of things made us miss out previous editions for the past years), and on a new location it was a fun day out.

Though that new location is right across the street, instead of in the shadow of Castle Sterckxshof, it is now in the Rivierenhof itself, and the more spacious arrangement actually made it a hige improvement.

 

The historical background of the event is this.  When Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, fell on an icy night on the 5th of January 1477, his 19 year old daughter, Maria, inherited the Burgundy empire.  This was the sign for various regions to start rebelling, and amongst them was Antwerp.  This resulted in a battle where a larger professional army was send to bring down the rebelious cities. 

Organised as such since 1999, De Quaeye Werelt tries to recreate the setting of this turmoilous period.  With a large medieval bivak of craftsmen and re-enactors, this all culminates in the recreation of the battle.  And from this year onwards, it has moved from the shadows of Castle Sterckshof (search this blog for an earlier edition in 2019 for example) to the park Rivierenhof across the street.  Which I must admit has been a good move, as the central fields are far more spacious then the previous location.

They also seem to be in luck with the weather every year, as it was a very sunny pre-summer saturday, going around 26 degrees during the day.

Though I can imagine in the full plate costumes, this might not be always as welcome...

This year, even our own city Major, mr Bart de Wever, participated in the event, and he was even dressed up for the occassion.

On the fields, you could find all sorts of craftsmen selling their wares, from food to re-enactment props.  And all trade stands where dressed up in the atmosphere of the event, making it look and feel like a fun medieval market place.

At 15.00 hours, the main event starts, with the recreation of the battle.  Now, I only filmed as far as the arrival of the armies on the battlefield.  The cannons where in full swing this year compared to previous editions, and the loud bangs weren't that toddler friendly.

 

 

But Thorin quickly got over that, and I think he wants to join the battle one day...

So this was a fun day out in a nice sunny weather.  Ending the event, I enjoyed the locally brewed beers from VZW Het Perkament, who brought along their Tripple, their Dark and their Honey beer.  I loved the first one especially, but I took one of each of course hehehe.

A succesfull event for sure going by the masses of people present, and next year, bar thunderstorms or pouring rains, we will be going back again for sure.  After all, this event takes place literally in front of our door...