Castle festivals in Europe

April 2026

• Stéphane D · CC BY-SA 2.0

  Featured

  Living History & Museums Castle Events

  Guédelon Castle (living medieval construction site)

  Treigny, France

  Guédelon is a 13th-century castle being built from scratch in a Burgundy forest quarry using only the tools, materials and techniques of the 1230s, open to visitors from spring to autumn since the first stone was laid in 1997. Around forty masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, tilers, rope-makers and carters work in front of the public, and the site draws roughly 300,000 visitors a season.

  On now until 1 Nov

  Family

May 2027

• CesisCastle · CC BY-SA 4.0

  Medieval Markets & Fairs Living History & Museums +1

  Cēsis Castle Medieval Days (formerly Cēsis Medieval Festival)

  Cēsis, Latvia

  Cēsis Castle, the Livonian Order's mightiest fortress and Latvia's best-preserved castle ruin, runs a costumed 'medieval season' from May to September with craft days in the castle garden, a Hanseatic market during the July city festival and period-dressed castle folk on summer weekends. A standalone annual Cēsis Medieval Festival, the successor of the Baltic Medieval Festival first held here in 2001, could not be verified as still running in 2026, so this listing is marked unverified.

  Expected May–Sep 2027

  Family
• Medieval Markets & Fairs Castle Events +1

  MPS Rastede (Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum)

  Rastede, Germany

  The Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum's four-day stop in the Schlosspark of Rastede over the Ascension weekend is the longest on its tour: a medieval-fantasy market of around 120 stalls, more than 50 encampments, tournament arenas for mounted and foot combat, fire shows and bands, in the park of the Oldenburg grand dukes' summer palace on the site of a 1091 abbey. The market, camps and tournaments are the medieval backbone; the costumes, the theme and the name are openly fantasy.

  6–9 May 2027

  Family
• Medieval Markets & Fairs Castle Events +1

  Elfia Vorden

  Vorden, Netherlands

  Elfia is the Netherlands' largest outdoor fantasy and cosplay festival, and since 2026 its spring edition is held in the park of Kasteel Vorden in the Achterhoek after 23 years at Kasteel de Haar. The medieval side is the castle, first recorded in 1315, the craft and costume traders and the folk bands; the fantasy layer is everything else, from elves and cosplay to the costume parade and the election of a king and queen of Elfia.

  Expected May 2027

  Family

July 2027

• Jousting & Tournaments Living History & Museums +1

  Visegrád International Palace Games

  Visegrád, Hungary

  The Visegrád International Palace Games are Hungary's largest medieval festival, held on the second weekend of July around the Royal Palace and Solomon Tower on the Danube Bend. Since 1985 they have recreated the court of King Charles Robert, host of the 1335 congress of kings, with jousting, royal processions, torchlit parades, falconry and a kilometre-long medieval fair.

  9–11 Jul 2027

  Family
• Reenactment & Battles Living History & Museums +1

  Trakai Medieval Festival (Viduramžių šventė)

  Trakai, Lithuania

  The Trakai History Museum's Medieval Festival brings re-enactors, craftsmen, musicians and 14th–15th-century warfare displays into the courtyards of the red-brick Island Castle for a summer weekend. Organised since 1998, it ran on 11–12 July 2026 with a separate €10 festival ticket.

  Expected Jul 2027

  Family
• Featured

  Jousting & Tournaments Castle Events

  Tournoi de Chevalerie de Carcassonne (Knights' Tournament and Falconry Show)

  Carcassonne, France

  Every summer the lices between the double walls of the Cité de Carcassonne host a daily knights' tournament, a 45-minute show of mounted combat in armour, billed in 2026 as 'Tournois de chevalerie et spectacle de fauconnerie' after a falconry display was added. The 2026 season runs from 12 July to 27 August with three performances a day, every day except Saturday.

  Expected Jul–Aug 2027

  Family
• Wdejager · CC BY-SA 4.0

  Music, Feasts & Theatre Castle Events +1

  Fantasy Forest Festival (Sudeley Castle)

  Winchcombe, England

  Fantasy Forest is the UK's fantasy festival: three days in July in the grounds of Sudeley Castle at Winchcombe with folk, pagan and fantasy bands, a fantasy market, LARP and workshops, authors and a campsite, grown from just over 1,000 visitors in 2019 to a sold-out 21,000 in 2026. The 15th-century castle where Katherine Parr lies buried is the medieval backbone; the elves, dragons and costumes are the festival.

  16–18 Jul 2027

  Family
• Medieval Markets & Fairs Castle Events +1

  MPS Bückeburg (Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum)

  Bückeburg, Germany

  The Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum is Germany's touring medieval-fantasy market, on the road every summer since 1994, and its Bückeburg stop in the grounds of Schloss Bückeburg is its flagship: two weekends at the turn of July and August with a large market, knights' tournaments, encampments, bands and street performers. It is medieval in its market, camp and tournament and fantasy by declaration, having taken the word into its name in 2008, and it is held beside a palace whose moated predecessor is documented in 1304.

  24–25 Jul 2027

  Family

September 2027

• Medieval Markets & Fairs Castle Events +1

  Elfia Arcen

  Arcen, Netherlands

  Elfia's autumn edition fills the Kasteeltuinen Arcen, the castle gardens on the Maas in northern Limburg, with two days of costume, cosplay, market stalls, bands and shows on a September weekend. The medieval backbone is the market of craft and costume traders, the folk music and Arcen's own past as a walled Guelders lordship; the fantasy is the point of the weekend.

  Expected Sep 2027

  Family
• Featured

  Living History & Museums Music, Feasts & Theatre +1

  Karlštejnské vinobraní (Karlštejn Wine Harvest Festival with Emperor Charles IV)

  Prague, Czechia

  Karlštejn's wine-harvest festival brings Emperor Charles IV, Empress Elizabeth of Pomerania and a court of more than 150 costumed courtiers back to the castle he built 30 km south-west of Prague to guard the imperial crown jewels. Held on the last weekend of September, it combines ceremonial processions up to the castle, mounted knights' tournaments, period music, crafts and tastings of young wine and burčák; the 28th edition is confirmed for 26–27 September 2026.

  Expected Sep 2027

  Family