Medieval Booker

About Medieval Booker

An independent guide to medieval festivals across Europe, made by a very small team that checks every date against the organiser before it goes on the page.

Who we are

Medieval Booker is an independent guide to medieval festivals across Europe: the markets, jousts, battle reenactments, Viking weeks and Christmas markets, and the towns with the walls still standing. It is made by a very small team and run by its founder, Nemanja, who started it after one drive too many to a festival that turned out to have stopped in 2019.

Why we built this

Festival listings online are mostly rumour. Tourism boards publish last year's dates, aggregators copy each other, and the official site is in a language you don't read and was last updated by a volunteer in March. We wanted one place that answers the only questions that matter: when is it, where is it, is it still happening, and is it worth the trip. Then we wanted to write about the places properly, because a town with a 13th-century wall deserves better than "steeped in history".

How we keep the dates honest

Listings are free
Nobody can pay to be listed, ranked or recommended. No paid placement, ever.
Checked by a human
Every festival is checked against the organiser's own site before it is listed, and each page shows when we last checked. We re-check twice a year, and whenever an organiser writes to us.
"Expected" means expected
If the organiser hasn't announced next year, we say "expected" and give the usual window instead of guessing confidently.
Corrections
Spot an error? Email us. We fix it, usually the same day, and thank you in the newsletter.

45 festivals · 45 cities · 20 articles, as of today.

Who writes this

Articles carry the bylines below. They are house pen names for the editorial team, each with a beat so you know what kind of piece you're reading. No invented credentials: every fact in every article comes from the same checked data as the festival pages.

TS

Tom Saxby

Fields and kit · house pen name

Tom has fought in more battle reenactments than he can count and lost most of them, which he says is accurate to the period. He knows which festivals have decent camping, which beer tents run dry by four, and exactly how long a wet gambeson takes to dry. He writes the festival deep-dives, the what-to-wear and what-to-bring pieces, and anything involving a field.

EB

Elke Brandt

History and lore · house pen name

Elke reads Latin for pleasure, which is the kind of thing that gets you left alone at parties. She writes the history and the lore: who actually built the wall, why a town re-stages a wedding, what the plague did to the price of beer. She has a weakness for ossuaries and market charters and no patience at all for the phrase "Dark Ages".

WA

Wren Ashdown

Families and logistics · house pen name

Wren has taken two children to twenty-five medieval festivals and would like it known that the children asked to go to at least half of them. She writes the family guides and the practical pieces: where the toilets are, which events have shade, and how to leave with everyone still speaking. She rates a festival on the food, the loos, and whether anyone cried before lunch.

How this is paid for

Two ways, both visible. Display ads, which pay for the servers, and a Buy Me a Coffee button, which pays for the hours spent emailing organisers. Listings are free for festivals and always will be: nobody can pay to be listed, ranked or recommended, and there are no affiliate links in any festival's facts. If that ever changes (a labelled "where to stay" box, say), it will say so on the page.

People who bought a coffee

First name and town, if they wanted it known. Updated monthly.

No coffees yet. The chronicler waits patiently.

Suggest a festival, or fix a date

Know a festival we're missing, or a date we've got wrong? Email hello@medievalbooker.com with the name, the city and the official website, and we'll check it against the organiser before it goes live. Running a festival? There is a page for you at For organisers, with a badge and the fastest way to send us your dates.