Libušín 2011

Various effects, a thousand elephants… ehm performers and much more spectators, a historical camp and an almost historical market. Battle units from different time periods attend the Battle of Libušín – this means it isn’t as much historical battle, rather than a battle of historical troops, and it’s mostly about meeting your friends who prefer to reenact a different era than you do.

Furthermore, the historical market wasn’t exactly historical, you could find present-day sodas as well as potatoes. Well the sodas’ authenticity was soon solved by the visitors who drank it all well before the end of the day. In any case, the historical market was open even after the battle had started. On the other side, the other parts of the program, like the concert of the Peregrin musical group or the arena fighting were stopped because of the battle – most of the performers had to go and wear heavy plates on the battlefield anyway.

When not in the battle, most of the swordsmen spent their time in the historical camp. The camps were divided according to the historical period which they tried to reenact, the entrance to each camp was guarded and no one was permitted to enter, unless he was in an adequate costume. However, each encampment was small enough, so that you could see almost everything from the outside.

It was mostly sunny, maybe too sunny, both for the visitors and for the swordsmen. Well, there were some costumed figures in the forest, which might have been OK with the weather, but those costumed figures have considerably damaged the atmosphere of the whole show, since many of them have had big cameras on their necks.

The battle alone began with a delay of approximately thirty minutes and this fact probable didn’t add to anyone’s mood. As if that wasn’t enough, the whole battle was full of pauses and the story was kind of tedious, although the idea was interesting. It began with a rulers’ duel followed by the first encounter of armies, then the Swiss arrived, were bought subsequently by each of the sides and destroyed at the end. Unfortunately, the story didn’t count with the real size of each of the armies, which also spoiled the experience, along with the commentaries of the narrator.

All in all, the visit to the Libušín Battle was a nicely spent day, full of meetings with old friends, and I hope that my photographs from Libušín will confirm, that it was something worth looking at.

Maybe one last note at the end: it would help if the organizers prepared more trash cans for the next year and better navigation to the place would be helpful too.