IronFest 2011

Well, Uni is all but over for the semester, so it is time to rise up from the books and return to real life. I began the transition by attending IronFest at Lithgow with friends on Sunday.

What is IronFest? Their website describes it best: "it is a cool arts Festival with a Metal Edge, featuring art exhibitions, stalls, live music, street performance, historical re-enactments, (including St George’s Day Jousting and a Napoleonic battle re-enactment entitled ‘The Battle of Lithgow’ featuring infantry, cannons and cavalry!), blacksmithing demonstrations, workshops, busking competitions, automotive displays, educational, historical and technological displays and lots more..."

The weather was amazing; I managed to leave my overcoat, gloves, hat and scarf in the car - only needed four layers of clothing instead of the five I was expecting. Sunday had an apparent temperature of around 8^C, whereas Saturday's temperatures had ranged between -1 to 0.4^C!

There was a lot of real chainmaille, used for the re-enactments, as well as two stores selling chainmaille jewellery, both using anodised aluminium in lots of pretty colours. I must confess that I was taking note of how they displayed their jewellery, so I could get ideas of how to display mine when I share a table at the end of the month at the Great Train Weekend (more on that in another post!)

Lithgow Highland Pipe Band