Medieval Booker

Fantasy fairs and medieval-fantasy spectacles in Europe

12 fantasy fairs and medieval-fantasy spectacles across Europe with dates for 2026–2027, where they happen and what makes each one worth the trip.

A fantasy fair is a costume festival with a medieval backbone: a market of real craftspeople, a camp or a castle park, folk bands, and on top of it elves, cosplay and a costume parade. None of these is a medieval festival, and the good ones say so in their own names. The Dutch run the biggest, Castlefest and the two editions of Elfia; Germany’s touring MPS is the most medieval of them, a market and camp with a tournament; ConQuest of Mythodea is a game you play rather than watch; and Cidre & Dragon in Normandy is free. Each page says which half is which.

Type: Fantasy Fairs & Spectacles Remove category filter Clear filters

12 festivals, upcoming first

September 2026

  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Music, Feasts & Theatre +1

    Cidre & Dragon

    Merville-Franceville-Plage, France

    Cidre & Dragon turns the Normandy seaside village of Merville-Franceville-Plage into 'Merravilla' for one free weekend every September: a medieval market of artisans, a medieval-fantasy camp with workshops and combat, stages of folk and fantasy music, authors, games and parades of dragons and costumed visitors. The market, camp and music are the backbone of a French fête médiévale; the layer on top is Tolkien-flavoured fantasy, run since 2006 by the Association Raid Tolkien with the town hall.

    – 2026
    Family
  • 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.

    – 2026
    Family

December 2026

  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Living History & Museums +1

    Midwinter Fair Archeon

    Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands

    The Midwinter Fair fills Archeon, the open-air archaeological museum park in Alphen aan den Rijn, with a two-day winter fantasy market, folk and pagan bands and fire-lit winter rituals on a December weekend. The backbone is the park's reconstructed medieval town and Roman quarter and the craft stalls; the fantasy is in the costumes, the folklore acts and the Yule theme of celebrating the return of the light.

    – 2026
    Family

March 2027

  • Music, Feasts & Theatre Fantasy Fairs & Spectacles

    Trolls & Légendes

    Mons, Belgium

    Trolls & Légendes is Belgium's fantasy festival, held every two years over the Easter weekend at Lotto Mons Expo: three days of folk and fantasy-metal concerts, a book and comics fair with international authors, a craft market, role-playing and board games, exhibitions, films and cosplay, run by volunteers and drawing close to 25,000 visitors. It is an indoor festival in exhibition halls rather than a fair on a field; its medieval side is the craft market, the folk music and the costumes, not camps or tournaments.

    Expected 2027
    Family

May 2027

  • 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.

    – 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 2027
    Family

July 2027

  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Music, Feasts & Theatre +1

    Festa dell'Unicorno

    Vinci, Italy

    The Festa dell'Unicorno takes over the walled centre of Vinci, Leonardo's hill town, for three days each July with themed 'worlds' that range from a medieval citadel with market and knights to steampunk, cosplay, comics and horror, plus hundreds of shows and concerts and some 200 market stands. The medieval backbone is the town itself, its castle of the Conti Guidi and the knights' quarter and market; the rest is openly fantasy, and it is Italy's largest festival of the kind.

    Expected 2027
    Family
  • 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.

    – 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.

    – 2027
    Family

August 2027

  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Fantasy Fairs & Spectacles

    ConQuest of Mythodea

    Brokeloh, Germany

    ConQuest of Mythodea is the world's largest live-action role-playing game: for five days each August up to 10,000 costumed participants build camps, markets and armies on the Rittergut Brokeloh estate and fight over a fictional continent. It is a game rather than a spectator festival, with medieval-style camps, crafts and markets as its backbone and a wholly invented fantasy world on top; non-players can enter only as day visitors, 200 a day and in medieval dress.

    – 2027
  • Featured
    Medieval Markets & Fairs Music, Feasts & Theatre +1

    Castlefest

    Lisse, Netherlands

    Castlefest is a four-day fantasy festival in the park of Kasteel Keukenhof in Lisse, built on a large market of craftspeople and traders, pagan-folk and medieval-rock bands, workshops and a Saturday-night Wickerman burning. The medieval side is the crafts, the music and the camp-style catering; the fantasy layer is the costumes, the writers and the pagan ritual, and the 17th-century castle is a country house rather than a medieval fortress.

    – 2027
    Family

September 2027

  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Music, Feasts & Theatre +1

    MPS Luhmühlen (Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum)

    Luhmühlen, Germany

    The September stop of the Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum turns the event ground on the Westergellerser Heide near Luhmühlen into a three-day medieval-fantasy camp that the tour calls the 'Fette Heide': market, encampments, a knights' tournament, bands and street performers on open heathland in the Lüneburg Heath. The market, camp and tournament are medieval in form; the costumes and the theme are fantasy, and the setting is heath rather than castle.

    – 2027
    Family

Browse by month

Browse by country

See all destinations