The Blacktown Medieval Fayre is an annual event held at the Nurragingy Reserve in the Sydney suburb of Blacktown. The reserve only had limited parking, so we chose to travel by train. At the train station there was a free shuttle bus running to the event. These ran every half hour. We were on one of the early ones and it was only half full.
Entry
The queue of cars to enter the car park was huge, so we were glad we chose to take public transport. A great bonus for the Blacktown Medieval Fayre is there is no entry fee. The council wants to attract people to the area and attend the event and this is a great way to do it.
Similarly themed re-enactment groups are gathered together around the reserve. These varied from medieval knights, archery, swordplay and cosplay so it was easy to find an area you were interested in.
Activities
There are several small arenas set up so there is always something happening, from men at arms demonstrating sword fighting, falconer showing birds of prey and armored knights jousting. The program was full for the whole day so it was difficult to get bored as something interesting was on somewhere. We started by sitting on the hill overlooking the main arena and watched the jousting. Watching armored knights charging at each other with lances was great fun.
After the jousting competition finished, we walked around and watched the swordsmen fighting. This was very interesting because they used many different weapons, from swords, staves to pole arms.
Taking the re-enactment of the day seriously, the medieval warrior, sat down to an authentic medieval lunch.
There was also a huge variety of stalls selling everything from food to replica weapons and armor and crafts and everything in between. A great day out and lots of fun.