Posts tonen met het label keltfest. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label keltfest. Alle posts tonen

vrijdag 25 mei 2012

Keltfest 2012

How fast time goes. I had no idea it had already been fourteen days since my last post. My apologies. In my defense I've been quite busy :) But only with fun and good things :)
Music Village by Fantasymedia

Last sunday me and my Greenwood mates went to Keltfest, an annual Celtic festival here in the Netherlands. Like every year it was laid back, relaxed and joyfully pagan. :) I love Keltfest, walking around on that festival is like walking around in a community of like-minded people. Everybody is happy and relaxed and friendly!

We were very lucky in terms of the weather. They had predicted rain and rain and more rain. Which there was, just not on Keltfest. While other parts of our small country were battling the water, we had sunshine and heat. Go Keltfest! I had rained the day before though, so the terrain was one giant mudpool. Which they turned to their advantage by roping off a small portion and calling it a 'Swinepool' anyone who wanted could jump in and wrestle of just roll around XD
The Greenman by Brigid Ashwood

The plan was to perhaps follow some lectures in the big tent. They were doing a 'Greenman experience' where you would meet the Greenman in meditation. After of course some much needed information about this elusive mythological figure. Unfortunately the experience wasn't for free and since the money fairy has yet to show her face, we didn't attend. I hope to get the uportunity another day, perhaps at Castlefest...

The best part of the day was the closing concert. A band we'd never heard of; Celtica, pipes rock! And oh my, how they rocked indeed. A very pleasant surprise that had us dancing in the mud and singing along loudly. They had us laughing by their rendition of famous heavy metal songs on bagpipes. One of the women was fire poi-ing on stage and the bassist suprised everyone when his basguitar turned into a flamethrower.... which the poi woman then used to light her poi... It was awesome! We bought one cd of the two they had and it has already been played more times than I can count. We hope to see them again soon! Here, have some smoke on the water and Scotland the Brave! :D



I did buy something... I've been playing with the idea to make an ancestral shrine in our home. Not that we have room for it, but it's been in my head for a while now. So when I found this beautiful ornate Celtic skull, made from resin, I couldn't resist. Luckily it wasn't that expensive, so I had to have it! It's quite small, but very beautiful and will make an amazing center piece for the altar. I already have some ideas for the rest of the layout but we simply don't have space. So it'll have to wait until we move into a bigger house. I can't wait, I think it will be beautiful.

The piece I did here on the blog about Nehalennia and the idea of the ancestral shrine inspired me to dig deeper into my own (spiritual) ancestry. I've been searching, digging and writing about the Gods and Goddesses that we used to worship here in the Netherlands. I never knew we had this many local Gods and Goddesses. Not much is known about them, but so far I've managed to put some very interesting info together. It is in Dutch, but I'm hoping to translate it once it's done and then of course share it with you all!

Love and Leaves,
Marjolijn Ashara

zondag 5 juni 2011

Keltfest 2011


Yesterday the day had finally arrived, time for Keltfest! It was our first Keltfest and we had a blast! The atmosphere was joyous and pagan and hippie. The weather was so good we actually had to buy less warm clothing. (I got a pretty blue tiered skirt with flowers on it) It really is a miniature Castlefest. We will most definately go again next year!

Lots and lots of fun stands with Celtic, Scottish, Medieval and Pagan wares. My friend Aswulf got a spindle and some wool so she can spin her own yarn, something she has wanted to do for a long time now. We saw a lot of beautiful jewellery, yummy foods, gorgeous figurines and mean looking swords and knives. I fell in love with the wood carvings of Drachenheim, especially this beautiful walking cane. I didn't buy it, but maybe... just maybe at Castlefest.... I will...

Furthermore there was a labyrinth laid out in chalk. You could walk the labyrinth and take a 'wishing shell' with you. I had wanted to walk a labyrinth for a long time now, so that was definately something that was on my 'to do list'. It was a real strange sensation. When I walked towards the centre of the labyrinth I was really focused on the path that I was walking. The only thing I could really concentrate on was putting one foot in front of the other. Then, on the way out again, it was like it was easier. More careless and free. Aswulf had the same experience. The downside was that all the noises from the festival and the people were really distracting. But we have dicided to make our own labyrinth soon so that we can do it again, but then without the distractions :).

Then of course came the moment we'd all been waiting for; the concert of our favourite band Scrum. For those of you who don't know Scrum, they are a local (Dutch) powerfolk band with amazing, happy songs, lots of humour and are just all-round good fun!  Here is their first music video from their new album Killing Time. The song; Killing time!


So all in all we had an amazing day and it was the perfect start of the Festival season. Next up; Midzomer (Midsummer) fair at Archeon in Alphen a/d Rijn!










Ps: new signature! I like this one a lot more, how 'bout you?

Pps: I got thé best compliment from someone at work this week. She said that the way I always do my makeup, she always thought I looked like a faerie! Seriously, how could a compliment be any better? :D