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.
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.
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".
70 festivals · 67 cities · 29 articles, as of today.
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.
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.
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".
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.
Medieval Booker is free to use: every festival page, country and month listing, and article on medievalbooker.com is open to everyone, with no account and no paywall.
Medieval Booker Knight is an optional paid membership that costs $4.99 per month, or $49 per year (US dollars, tax included), billed through Polar, and you can cancel at any time. The first month is free. Knight is a paid membership, not a paywall: members follow the festivals they care about and see every change to their dates on their account, and receive one letter a week with a piece of medieval history, a festival guide and places to visit in Europe's old towns, all kept in a library on their account.
That membership is how the hours spent emailing organisers get paid for. Display ads may one day pay for the servers; if they arrive, they will be labelled. Listings are free for festivals and always will be: nobody can pay to be listed, ranked or recommended, in the site or in the letter, 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.
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.
Before you go
Never miss a medieval festival.
Follow the festivals you care about and see every date change, and get one letter a week: medieval history, a festival guide and places you must visit.
First month free, then
$4.99 per monthAbout the price of one coffee a month.
Start my free monthCancel any time. Everything on the site stays free.