Super Sunday Part 1: Medieval Festival

Oh yes, I did!

What I'm calling Super Sunday started off at the Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park, part of the Cloisters in Manhattan. The free event was more than I could have imagined. Although I didn't get to see the rumored unicorn, there was plenty to observe.

The performers were a delight. Magicians, musicians, sword fights, a joust, and, are you ready for this? Quidditch matches. 

Yeah, you heard me, the fictional sport from Harry Potter, quidditch.

Yes, grown men and women play quidditch. They even have a world cup. I couldn't stop laughing at how silly they looked, running up and down the field with broomsticks wedged between their legs. Bottom left, you can see the Golden Snitch who runs onto the field randomly during the match. The seekers have to grab the ball attached to the Snitch's pants. I'm not kidding.

And everyone is into this sport, let me tell you. Teams huddle before the game just like in any other sporting event. Players celebrate scoring the winning shot. The crowd was rallied into the wave. 

Side note, as silly as this whole thing was, the New York Badassilicks is a pretty awesome team name.

As you can see, Grace was amazed at the ridiculousness of it all.

The birds were out on display before their Falconing performance. The owl was particularly striking. These two seemed unphased by all the activity, but the third bird was not so fortunate...

I have a natural talent of capturing stink eyes, and this is not limited to family members. Yes, I managed to capture barn owl stink eye! You can see what he's reacting to: the saddest boy with a noise maker in all of history. 

Various sword fights.

 Another shot of Grace enjoying herself.

The juxtaposition of this shot cracked me up. If you're going to walk around in full chain mail, you really should stay in character. I also love how the majority of people in this shot are all dressed up, and most of them are just attending.

I had to get a shot of my brother in his vintage Devon Knights  t-shirt in front of a knight.

A quiet moment of flute and lute in a secluded nook.

I love unfortunate signs. Poor Doug...

We returned to the Bronx and Grace had her first apple ever. Good to see her putting those chompers to work!

Stay tuned for part two of this post: Jon Brion's concert. I've been sidelined by a nasty cold and am desperately trying to catch up on posting. I'm working feverishly, pun intended!, on my concert review and hope to have that up soon.