Over the Labour Day weekend, Blades of Glory held its 8th Annual Medieval Festival.
It was a 3-day affair highlighting the sword fighter and many styles were represented and showcased in the main list area. A cool bonus was being able to talk to your favourites at their booths.
We caught up with founder Harry Heydon and his wife Montserrat (MON-SIR-AT) Alvarado on Saturday morning and asked how they got started.
Monsay told us they started using the current location on Dunlay Road just outside of Hastings during COVID.
There were also vendors, musicians and falconers that performed throughout the weekend. For the adventurous, there was the chance to try your hand at Axe Throwing, Spear Throwing and Archery.
Boys and girls under 10 were invited to do battle with a period knight and somehow the young challengers all seemed to have Merlin in their corner, emerging victorious every time.
Blades of Glory founder Harry Heydon’s fascination with the Medieval period started with a trip to the Royal Ontario Museum when he was a young boy. Today, you’ll find him passing on that passion to school groups, performing in medieval shows and teaching classes of students about an age of glory and honour as well as battle and conquest.
Harry said that his group embraces many different styles.
Heydon runs weekly groups that provide sword lessons in Port Hope, Oshawa, Peterborough, and Hastings. They teach three distinct disciplines; HEMA or Historical European Martial Arts, International Medieval Combat Federation or IMCF and MACE which is Medieval Armoured Combat Entertainment.
At the Festival, groups from across the region and Montreal provided swordsmanship demonstrations and exhibitions including The Canton of Petra Thule Linnagond, Peterborough Amtgard, SHARP, Wakinyan Quebec, Blades of Glory and Ironwood Sword School.
Ironwood’s Robert MacLeod told us about his Historical European Martial Arts or “HEMA” group.
MacLeod told us that his school is actually an unarmoured school using longswords, a rondel (a dagger of up to 18 inches) and combat wrestling similar to jiujitsu to overcome your opponent.
A Haunted History Fright-Fest, which has been over a decade in the making, will open this year with scenes of medieval mayhem that will be sure to get your Halloween started in a ghoulish way.
For more information about school groups, sword lessons or performances as well as details on the Fright-Fest, check out the website at https://bladesofglory.ca
Written by Joseph Goden
