The links above lead to the pages with the pictures on them. There are rather a lot of them, so in order to make browsing a little easier, I have spread them over several pages. Thank you to Lord Karel of the Three Isles, Mistress Nicolette Dufay and Aelesia de Trachdene who are responsible for some of the images shown on these pages.
What is the Rowany Festival?
The Rowany Festival is the largest SCA event in the Kingdom of Lochac (Australia) each year at Easter. This year (2003CE) I have been told over 750 people attended the Festival at the Crossroads site, NSW (just out of Yass). This is the event that attracts SCAers from all over Australia. This year we also had visitors from several other SCA Kingdoms, notably the Central West, Caid, Atlantia and Drachenwald (to my knowledge, there may have been others).
What happens at Festival?
Every facet of the SCA can be seen at Festival. This year up to 4 streams of Collegia ran from 8-30am until 4pm for 4 days. The Fighter Auction Tourney had about 100+ heavy fighters take to the List field. Wars were held on two days, and pick up fights occured daily on the List field. The Art of Defence held the Annual Baroness' Tourney, and guild members played their prizes. There was an huge market held on Easter Saturday. Archery of all sorts took place, along with meetings of the peerages, OziBoD, officers, committees and special interest groups such as Guilds. Many Courts were held for Kingdom and Baronial business to be conducted. There were elevations to two peerages (Chivalry and Laurels). A patisserie, a tavern, a wine bar and a fine eatery operated every day of the Festival, and merchants peddled their wares beside the village brown. There really is no excuse to be bored!
The New Site
The new site (the fourth site the Festival has been held at in it's 21 years, if you count the pre-Festival not held over Easter in the "car-park")is the property of Crossroads, a medieval/permaculture collective near Yass, NSW. It is more central for most people than the old sites were, and has the advantage of allowing us to develop permanent infrastructure and improvements. Many were the dire warnings we heard about the site, and these may have served to keep some people away, but those who ventured to the site found those warnings to be unwarranted. Yes, the site was dusty, but the worst drought in 100 years will do that to a piece of land. However, the Festival staff, and the Crossroads members are to be heartily commended on the work they did to create roads, bridges, camp sites, water supplies and hot showers. The site itself is delightfully undulating, with hidden nooks for those who like to camp far from the madding crowd and centres of action such as the List field and the Village Brown (with the partially completed Guild Hall prominent) quite easily reached. As the years go by, and more improvements are built I am sure that the site will be the envy of SCAers the world over, and a marvellous attraction for visitors from far away lands.