Festival of historical reconstruction of the early Middle Ages "Epic Coast"

Our festival is dedicated to the culture and traditions of Ancient Russia, its inhabitants and neighbors in the 9th-11th centuries - Russ, Slavs, Varangians. Festival participants recreate the traditions of everyday life and military customs during the formation of the ancient Russian state.

The festival will be held from 24 to 28 July 2019

Russia, Tver region, Kimry, the bank of the Volga River near the village of Toporok

700-1000 participants, 3500-5000 spectators. Early Middle Ages (9-11 centuries). Russia, Scandinavia and neighbors

Acceptance of applications for "Epic Coast" -2019

Indicate that you are going to the Bylinny Bereg in the admitted application for Rusborg -.

Musical groups took part in 2016:

and other groups

The festival is dedicated to the times of the formation of the ancient Russian state, the traditions of everyday life and military customs. This period in the history of our Motherland was especially bright. This is an epic time of heroes and deeds, strength and courage, love and honor. Those days are far gone and many know little about them, about how our ancestors lived, how they worked, fought, getting our, their descendants, the right to live on their land. We offer to shake off the dust from the undeservedly forgotten pages of our native history and immerse ourselves in the life of Ancient Russia thanks to our festival of historical reconstruction "Epic Coast". Squad battles, historical camp, tavern, fair and crafts.

How to arrive?

Place:

Bank of the Volga River near the village of Toporok, Fedorovskoye rural settlement, Kimrsky district, Tver region, Russia
GPS coordinates: latitude 56.812261, longitude 37.274391

1. How to get from Moscow to Kimry:
By rail. Electric trains leave from the Savelovsky station in Moscow to the Savelovo station (the city of Kimry). You can take an electric train in Moscow either at the Savelovsky railway station or on the Timiryazevskaya railway platform, located near the Timiryazevskaya metro station. Travel time 2 hours. 30 min., 2 h.20 min. The current schedule can be found here http://rasp.yandex.ru

Eh, trouble, trouble... That's why I didn't want to show it. I open the photo on the new monitor and literally immerse myself in it. And the photo can be quite bad, but thanks to the size and amount of detail, it looks almost any! And this (2560x1440) is less than half of what the camera actually sees. Sadness.
But here I offer you crops of 1100 pixels along the long horizontal side. And then LiveJournal will make them even smaller... Trouble. Therefore, I did not want to show anything at all for so long.

Well, okay, there's nothing you can do about it. Closer to the topic. For us personally, the festival began like this. We arrived on Friday, or rather, on Saturday already at night. (Here, in the photo, it is already three and a half hours in the morning.)
Fishermen of various kinds who came to the festival, lovers of picnics for the weekend, stretched out their tents and cars along the embankment and, then, went to get to know each other. From our place to the venue of the festival, judging by how I subsequently got tired of walking back and forth, it was a kilometer and a half. It might be less, it might be more.

The great Russian river with the Volga steamships and the month of the Moon looked like this:

Now I'm watching the official group of the Festival on VKontakte and it turns out that the event took place right from Wednesday, August 27, and the open part from Friday, the 29th. Apparently, in these mysterious two days, some things happened that the general mind does not need to feel.

4. Here is Kostya, thoughtful and asks us with his own eyes: "- Do you need it?" (The story of this photograph is as follows. Having opened it in ACR 9.6.1, I sat puzzled for a long time. Something is wrong. Apparently with the color. I moved the sliders back and forth ... No. The stone flower does not come out. Why is this all of a sudden? And then I realized. Well, then I screwed up my old vintage Soviet lens with a Chinese M42 adapter on EOS, just like that, all still in old foam crumbs with focus confirmation. Jupiter 37A, they say. Here is the result. And there is also a color photo. It below. Where I tried, tried, but the color still reached modern standards of perception.)

And where to go now, if you have already arrived, fit in and set up camp. Although, the question, as it turned out later, is not at all idle.

5. Here is the shore. Bylinny. With swallows.

"The festival of living history" Epic Coast "is dedicated to the culture and traditions of Ancient Russia, its inhabitants and neighbors in the 9-11 centuries - the Rus, Slavs, Varangians. Our festival pays tribute to the times of the formation of the ancient Russian state, the traditions of everyday life and military customs of the past. This period history of our Motherland was especially bright.It was an epic time of heroes and deeds, strength and courage, love and honor.

Those days are far gone and many know little about them, about how our ancestors lived, how they worked, fought, getting our, their descendants, the right to live on their land.

We offer to shake off the dust from the undeservedly forgotten pages of our native history and immerse ourselves in the life of Ancient Russia thanks to the festival of historical reconstruction "Epic Coast" and the efforts of reenactors from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and other countries.

Squad battles, boats, a historical camp, a tavern, a large fair and crafts.

6.

In fact, we saw Dmitry Borisovich Mikhailov with mead on his right hand and on his left. The right hand is light, the left, as usual, is dark. However, I personally don't see much of a difference. But in taste there were definitely differences and there were, in the language of the Epic Coast - significant! And all this stuff was poured by these good fellows, shamelessly smiling at the camera:

The property of the drink is such that, despite a certain alcoholic strength, it does not intoxicate. But completely deprives the will. Will and motivation, as they once again said of old.
Moreover, the motivation disappeared completely, but not completely, and the will, in turn, completely, but not completely. And everyone noticed it. Precisely because there were no other ancient Russian drinks at the festival. Except for the banal kvass for 100 rudders per sakan.
But let's look at the festival more broadly. Eyes wide open...

The festival, it seemed to me, had such an emphatically pagan character. Christianity then (and before them) has not yet reached, but it is somewhere on the way. It is anticipated and feared at the same time.

11. Hey, dogs, who offended her? Will you deal with me! So tells us the Russian-Slavic translator of speech from this young warrior ...

12. I don't want to fall into common clichés, but... the girls are walking around... And to me... And my will and motivation are still paralyzed. Although I hold the camera in my hands confidently.

13. If it didn't really exist — it would be worth inventing. A friend of one not very satisfied client of this colorful couple, moving a little further away, said: "- Asel! (he said exactly that - Asel!) You just dumped some runes on the table and interpreted their meaning. It has nothing to do with you. You paid money for nothing! Money... Fortune telling... Yes...
I don't want to offend the reenactor character too much, but I can't help but feel similar to, say, a hag in, say, Skyrim. Moreover, the functions are apparently similar.

14. And here is a 146% positive frame and a cool product, moreover. We bought ourselves the same red clay teapot. And when we finally repair the kitchen, we will brew our first victorious tea there.

15. Relationships

16. Merchant. Obviously not one of ours ....

17. But like this one, there are also failures in the festival life.

18. Swing...

19. Where did the will and motivation go!?

21. Kostya

22. Our man is a scientist! Cyril the Methodist! Cross-belt-purse.

23. Summer adult herbs

24. Family

26. On stilts, of course, it is much more convenient

27. Sergey

28. Beautiful noble lady. I judge not only by bleached clothes ...

29. Cutting and sewing

30. Swallow Coast

31. A young warrior seems to have won back

32. Deer! Yo, deer. The real ones are northern!

33. Something is planned!?

34. Exactly! Something will...

35. Will - one hundred percent

36. WRONG

37. Waiting For The Miracle (c)

And here is the same photo that was discussed in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bphoto No. 4.

38. Constantine. Lens Jupiter 37A

So it goes. There will be a second part.

In the height of summer, just a two and a half hour drive from Moscow, on the banks of the Volga, a camp of Vikings and Slavs unfolds on the ancient trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks."

The festival of living history "Bylinny Bereg" has been held in the Tver region since 2011. Its participants come from all over Russia and from neighboring countries to live the life our ancestors lived and show the pages of this life to fellow citizens and guests of our country who are interested in history.

The program of the festival includes a large combat program of fighting squads in the field, performances by horsemen, a demonstration of rook craft and a combat landing from a boat, tournaments and military competitions. Of course, a fair is held at the festival, where you can buy anything from antiques - from a copy of bronze jewelry to chain mail and a sword. Masters not only trade, but also demonstrate crafts - you can try your hand at blacksmithing, weaving chain mail, weaving, dyeing fabrics, and pottery.

An interesting feature of the "Epic Coast", which distinguishes it from many other historical festivals in Russia, is a powerful musical program. All three days of the festival, a concert of the best folk groups of the national scene takes place. In 2019, these are: Mill, Troll oppresses spruce, Skolot, Alkonost, Grai, Svarga, Drygva, Holda and others.

Guests of the festival can stay in a tourist camp, where you can set up your own tent and make a fire. There are no restrictions on bringing food and drinks. What adds to the festival the spirit of freedom and turns it into a place for a great summer holiday.

In 2019, the Bylinny Bereg will be held in the vicinity of the village of Toporok in the Tver region. Details on how to get to the venue on your own can be found in official group Vkontakte events.

We all grew up on Russian folk tales. These are legends about mighty heroes, brave warriors, beautiful girls and mystical creatures. Russian culture is unique and original. You can find out not only in the museum. Not for the first time, the festival of historical reconstruction "Epic Coast" invites everyone to visit the Russian village of the 9th-11th centuries.

General information about the festival

Many modern people have a vague idea of ​​the life of their own ancestors. IX-XI centuries - this is the time of the formation of the Russian state. In that era, everyone knew what courage, devotion, honor are. The Bylinny Bereg Festival dates back to 2011. Its main goal is the highest quality and detailed reconstruction of battles, life and traditions of the selected time period. Thanks to the efforts of the organizers, the festival has already become one of the largest and most interesting in Russia. In terms of its scale and quality, it is comparable to such events as Kulikovo Field or Borodino Day. In 2016, "Bylinny Bereg" was visited by more than 5,000 guests.

Everything here is real!

Many viewers consider historical festivals to be something like traveling performances. If we talk about events of this magnitude - this is a big delusion. The organizers are doing everything to ensure that the festival "Epic Coast" was held as authentically as possible. Many participants throughout the year prepare their costumes, equipment and stock up on household utensils. Each item and detail of the outfit is recreated according to old descriptions, in compliance with the technologies of its period. Spectators can not even doubt that the participant's costume is hand-sewn with special, ancient seams. "Epic Coast" is an event that is carried out by enthusiastic people who are seriously versed in the culture and customs of our ancestors. For observers, the festival takes place over two days at the weekend. While the participants live on the site for about a week.

Festival program

What awaits the audience? The festival is held in a picturesque place on the banks of the Volga River. The main part of the event is historical battles, these are pair fights of brave warriors, as well as mass battles. Do you want to feel like a real friend? Go to the Russian shooting gallery, where you can try throwing a spear or archery. Each guest of the festival can visit the participants. Here you can not only study the life of our ancestors, but also try dishes prepared according to recipes of the 10th century, or take part in master classes in ancient crafts. Throughout the festival there is a fair where a variety of handicrafts are sold. These are pottery, items of traditional costumes, combs, purses, amulets, children's toys, jewelry and much more. The event is not without reason held near the river. A real boat transports guests from one coast to another, water transport participates in some battles. If you want to have a drink or a snack, you can visit a real tavern. After the end of the main fights, participants and guests are invited to the music scene. Folk bands perform here. The regular participants of the festival are such famous and popular groups in our country as Skolot, Kalevala and Svarga. The concert ends with a grand fire show.

How to get involved?

You can become a participant of the festival by pre-registration. Please read all rules and requirements carefully before applying. Historical clubs and independent reenactors are allowed to participate in the festival. The main theme of the event is Russia of the 9th-11th centuries. The battles involved: Rus, Slavs and Varangians. You can also become a peaceful resident of the historical camp. When deciding whether to allow an individual or a club to participate, the organizers evaluate the plausibility of the costume and personal equipment. If you want to participate in the festival "Epic Coast", the photo for the application should be made in high quality and detailed. Everyone can attend the event as guests. Entrance is paid, if you wish, you can spend two days at the festival, pitching your tent in the camp.

Prices for guests

The main events of the festival take place on the main day - Saturday. Tickets are sold at the box office at the entrance to the venue. An adult costs 700 rubles, a child - 250 rubles. Toddlers under the age of 7 years old are admitted to the event free of charge, accompanied by their parents. If you want to stay in a campground with your own tent, you will have to pay 400 rubles for a place. The second day of the festival is Sunday. Ticket price for adults is 400 rubles, for children 250 rubles, children under 7 years old are free. "Epic Coast" can be safely called a family event. For young and very young guests, some interesting events and original Russian fun are always organized here. The organizers offer to visit the festival without buying tickets for disabled people of any group, veterans and combatants, as well as all local residents registered in the Fedorovsky rural settlement. Relevant documents must be presented to receive benefits.

Festival "Epic Coast": how to get to the venue?

The event is held in the Tver region near the city of Kimry. It takes less than 2 hours to get to the festival site from Moscow by private car. If desired, you can get there by public transport. Electric trains run from the capital. If your goal is the festival "Epic Coast" (Kimry), you need to get to the station "Savelovo". It is easy to get from Tver to Kimry by suburban bus, fixed-route taxi or train. On the days of the event, free buses run from the center of Kimry for guests of the Bylinny Bereg. If you are going on a trip in your own car, you need to get to Tver. Next, you need to go to the city of Kimry, leave it in the direction of Kolkunovo.

My husband and I, accustomed to festivals like the Invasion, have always treated the Epic Coast (hereinafter - BB) arrogantly. Well, what can be interesting among reenactors when there are already 4 bands a day on the music scene? Kindergarten, and more! But, since the small one needed to be tested for tent life, we decided to go to the BB, until the last considering it a passing festival before the Invasion. But... I've never been so wrong!

What is it all about? Reenactment festival in Russia and its closest neighbors (Vikings are especially popular) of the 9th-11th centuries. All week long, the recons live near Dubna in a medieval life, in authentic tents, wearing clothes sewn by their own hands and without the use of modern materials, and even using historic household items (no grills with flashlights for you!). And on the last weekend of such happiness, they open a tourist camp for onlookers. In general, a tourist can live there from Thursday evening to Monday morning, but, unfortunately, we stayed there only from Friday night to mid-Sunday. And... For the first time, I left the festival so spiritualized and happy from the atmosphere that reigned there, but at the same time, almost in tears, because these unfortunate two days simply were not enough for me!

In general, a spoiler: if anyone has the opportunity to go there next year, but you have been lazy for a long time / not sure / did not know about the fest - drop your doubts! Next summer, take all the children in an armful and forward, to meet the best weekend of your life =)

First, I would like to tell in general about the life and organization of the festival, and then, in a separate post, about how Daria Stepanovna survived her first tent fest.

There are no requirements for historicity for tourists, even if you fly by starship. The tent city is separated from the reconstruction one, parking is separate. Everything is allowed to be brought in (there is simply no inspection), from knives to ... Yes, what imagination is enough for. Barbecues and fireplaces are welcome, it will be easier to cook everything on a fire than to eat in a tavern (more on that below). Firewood and industrial water are issued unlimited. Dubna is about 30 minutes by car, you can safely leave the festival grounds and come back - no one cares about that.

Toilets ... The only thing that does not cause me delight. They are authentic. Very authentic. They are just a row of booths with holes in the ground. It’s probably not so difficult for men, but for women ... I tried not to drink at all, just not to visit this wonderful place) Although, when compared with plastic booths on the Invasion, at least it’s clean on the BB in these pits (if you like, you don’t want to fall where you need xD), but barefoot, of course, you can’t go in. I more or less got the hang of holding a child there, but it was dumb. So they saved themselves with a pot, and once shamefully went into the bushes by the river (the festival is not fenced, so walk in almost wild nature wherever you want).

Food - in the tavern (above in the photo). It is located with the letter P, on the sides there are tables with benches, in the middle - a “bar counter”.

Russian rubles need to be exchanged for local tokens, RB. 50 rubles - 1 RB.

This is how 200 rubles look like in BB format. RB is accepted only in the tavern. Even at points with mead / cider / kvass from the same (single) company as in the tavern, with the same assortment, RB is not considered. If you want to spend tokens - if you please, stomp into the tavern) However, the entire field can be passed in 5 minutes, so this is not a problem.

The menu is poor. By and large, these are just steak burgers, just steaks and a couple of other items. There are scrambled eggs in the morning (until 11 am), and I have heard legends about pancakes. But we didn’t find either one) The queues in the morning are terrible, communication among the tavern workers is simply absent - we waited 40 minutes for an order, and no one understood what to bring to us. One waitress said that only stew was available, and another 10 minutes later, passing by, dropped that the scrambled eggs were already being heated for us. As a result, the third one came and brought pilaf in general =)

By and large, if you eat in a tavern, then only burgers. They cost, in normal money, 250 rubles. Chicken fillet/pork neck, sauce of your choice, tomatoes, lettuce… Pretty good actually. Even my little one ate chicken with pleasure. But to eat only them ... Even I, an ardent lover of fast food, only had enough for one a day. The rest of the meals had to be replaced with food brought/cooked on a fire. And with this there was only one problem: the lack of a refrigerator. So, after a trip to the city, the meat lived / fried during the day, and in the morning back to the tavern or sit and cook cookies.

For children (and not only) they sell cockerels on a stick, 50r / piece. I'm afraid to count how many Daria Stepanovna ate)

By the way, about the drinks... It's just divine cider! Sweet, light, mmm! It is the best for evening gatherings around the fire. They say that somewhere it is also sold in pretentious shops like LavkaLavka, so if you suddenly see cider from Mjolnir on the counter - try =)

Upon entering the festival area, you will immediately find yourself on the shopping street. They mostly sold women's jewelry (I bought myself a bunch of earrings, of course =)), but you could buy children's swords and shields (generally a hit!), Slavic "board" games, amulets, runes, lutes with pipes and even a real bear skin or deer =)

For prices ... Who is what much. I saw both silver earrings for 6.5k (completely mediocre for my taste) and nice little 100 ruble earrings from who knows what. Children's swords of exactly the same quality were sold for 200 rubles and for 1.5k. In general, if you set a goal, you can find something interesting that you can afford.

In general, strict historical requirements are imposed on merchants on the territory of the fest, but ... To be honest, I strongly doubt that the Slavs had at least something remotely similar to this entire assortment) But everything looks very interesting, so I'm not eager to dig into historicity. Outside the territory of the fest (in fact - 10 meters from the entrance) there are tents with "non-historical" goods, where they sold, for example, honey, Slavic shirts, children's toys (from wooden constructors to SkazokDreeva), dream catchers ...

The territory of the festival is surrounded by the tributaries of the Volga (if it's not called that - don't kick too hard), everyone bathes. The water was ice cold, but who's stopping that? The shore at the entrance to the camp is very gentle, you can walk and walk and don't even get your knees wet. A bunch of kids running around on the sand and building castles, splashing water. Idyll! Boats, barges often sail along the river ... It looks beautiful, and the children, again, are delighted.

Lots of fun organized for kids and adults. For example, in the photo above - a harsh old Russian bench press, yes, yes. There were even bench press competitions) There was also a competition for a male beard and a female braid, not only the recons, but also the guests of the festival participated.

Even for adults, a paid shooting range was organized (archery) and it was possible for 200 rubles to fight with an instructor with swords.

For children - expanse. Swings (besides the usual ones, which are visible in the photo above, there were also cool ones in the form of a long board on which it was necessary to swing together ... True, they were constantly occupied by adults), a sandbox (just a pen with sand, in which weeds were also found - authentic) , a training fight with swords (against a teenager from the recons), group fights for children were also arranged.

There were also animals. Horseback riding cost 200r for a child and 300r for an adult. Moreover, they rode for a long time, much longer than usual in Moscow parks, at least) Horses could be fed with carrots for 50 rubles. Moreover, at first I was indignant when they gave me a couple of circles for this money, but it turned out that by paying, you get a whole bag of carrots at your disposal and you can feed until you or the horse get tired =)

There were also deer. You could buy a bucket of moss (in the photo above it stands on the ground, white) for 100 rubles. Feeding him is unrealistic, there is a lot of moss (or deer eat very slowly). But in general, it is not necessary to buy, since a bunch of moss scatters throughout the territory and it was possible to pick up a couple of pieces from the ground and feed them for free. The only thing that, who bought moss, sometimes (at the discretion of the caretaker) could be launched into the aviary. The deer were quite friendly, they almost climbed to hug.

There were also two huskies in the mall. You can’t touch or feed, but it’s quite possible to entertain a child with a five-minute admiration.

A quest was organized for the children - they had to find the ABC, stolen by Koshchei. The quest lasted a little over an hour, taking place every two hours.

First, the children had to read the note in transliteration (surprisingly, even adults reading children could not cope with this), walk along the rope to the stone (which “you will go to the left ...”), find Gorynych next to it (pictured above) and go through three tests with him: walk along a log with a saucer on his head (or without, for kids), jump over the rope together and jump to the feathers hung on a pole.

Then the children went to the musician in order to “charge up with a good mood before the battle with Koshchei” - he played the lute, pipes (two at once!), Spoons, talked about the harp, gave the children musical instruments to try. And then - to Vasilisa, behind the amulet. Amulets (beads) were buried in the sandbox, it was necessary to find them. Vasilisa hung the dug up bead on a string and returned it to the children.

The children had to go through a labyrinth of ropes, with bells hanging on them, so as not to wake Koshchei.

Well, there Gorynych was waiting for them, and together with the ABC they flew back to Cyril and Methodius.

“Remembering” the letters, everyone wrote their name on the “parchment” with pen and ink, and in exchange they received a personal letter of thanks for completing the quest.

Pretty creative, in my opinion) It was a bit boring for older children, but the kindergartners were very imbued with adventure.

In addition, wall-to-wall recon battles, 5v5, single tournaments, the assault on the platform and all sorts of military perversions like the circle of Loki or Odin were organized. As for me, the most interesting thing is the tournaments.

In the wall, the majority is not particularly interested in the battle, while the governor admonishes them - they sit talking about mothers-in-law, salaries, or even lie around and rest. It's very funny to see the stern ancient Russian heroes (and they look exactly like that, the level of costume reconstruction for the majority is amazingly high!) in such a role. Although, probably, it was so - a simple peasant is closer to his own hut than the political games of the princes.

In addition, on the last day, a "landing from the boat" was organized. I won’t say what it looked like, because we missed it. But the reviews about this are enthusiastic - they say it was atmospheric.

I also heard an announcement that for some remuneration it was possible to buy a boat tour along the Volga for 1.5 hours.

In general, it's great there. There is something to do with children (there was a feeling that there were more children than adults) and what to do on your own. The historical camp is amazingly atmospheric, and in principle it is interesting to visit among high-level reenactors. On the music scene, it was both ruby ​​(Troll oppresses the spruce ... oh, I didn’t think that you could slam under him! or Neuromonakh Feofan), and melodic music with a claim to historicity. Well, at the end of the day, the campground with a fire is very conducive to sincerity)