Revelry and rivalry as the Loxwood Joust returns

SussexWorld

Revelry and rivalry returns to the Kingdom of Loxwood as the Loxwood Joust returns on August 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers, and it's

00:06always lovely to speak to Maurice Bacon. Maurice is the man behind Lockswood Joust. Now it's

00:11August 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18 this year at Lockswood Meadow, and it's spectacular. And

00:19Maurice, the thing that you were saying that makes it so distinctive is the immersive nature

00:24of it, isn't it? That you don't just turn up and just watch from a distance, you're

00:28in it, you're part of it, aren't you? Absolutely. I mean, what we've found is that people more

00:33and more want to participate rather than just spectate. And so we have, apart from the jousting

00:40and the archery and falconry and the battles and everything, and the living history, we

00:46also now have actors who, there's a different storyline every year. And so it's a different

00:53story, basically, and it just intertwines with everything else that's going on here.

00:59That's really interesting, so that's the kind of changing nature of entertainment, that

01:03people need to be part of it, don't they? Yeah, I think people want to be, you know,

01:10we have things you can, obviously the jousting, you watch, it's quite dangerous, the reenactment,

01:15the full body contact fighting. But you know, you can do archery here, you can do chainmail

01:22making, you can do blacksmithing, you can do... And you can play an axe as well, then.

01:27We've got axe throwing this year, and we've got the crossbows, and so you can participate

01:31in all this stuff here. So you can do both. But I think the thing that's really developing and

01:39really people really like is this immersive part of it, where you're involved in it, because we

01:43have these fan groups now for the jousting teams. So, you know, and there's fan songs that you can

01:50go and learn in a part of the woodland that we have, where they're called... So we have the

01:55Loxwood Boars, or the Loxwood team, and the fan group are called the Baconites.

02:02And you can go and become a Baconite and learn the chants, but while the jousting's going on.

02:07One of the things that you were saying that makes it sound so appealing is that as you go on to the

02:11site, you won't see ice cream vans or burger vans. Because they didn't exist in the 15th century.

02:18Absolutely. You walk into our woodland, it's the entrance, you walk through the woodland,

02:22and you come to the meadows and stuff. But in that woodland, there are lots of characters,

02:26and it's all... So you park in your car, and you come into the 15th century,

02:29come through the entrance, and you are in another world. It really is, you know, people... The

02:35woodland has some weird magic in it anyway. I mean, I know, I love... I walk into the woodland,

02:40I feel uplifted. It's just something there, there's some spirit in the woodland that's fantastic.

02:45Fantastic. And I remember so well that you were so innovative and imaginative during the horrible

02:49years of the pandemic, doing all your open-air screening cinema, etc, etc. And the good thing

02:55is, you're saying that we are back to normal, aren't we, a few years on?

02:59Yeah, absolutely. I don't think anybody's really... We don't hear about it anymore. I mean,

03:05I think, yeah, I mean, people just are carrying on now. And it is around,

03:10apparently, Covid. I haven't, thankfully, had it since the pandemic. But apparently,

03:17you know, people, I think, treat it now like the sort of flu. You know, people have it,

03:20but no one's... So hopefully, the big problems with it have gone. And anyway, yeah, people have

03:31got back to normal. I'd say the only real difference I've found, and I don't know whether

03:34it's our event or whatever, but we're certainly... I know that during the pandemic, people were

03:39expected to buy advance tickets when they go somewhere. They weren't just going to rock up

03:44on a door and expect to get in. And we've noticed that we're selling out now in advance. So,

03:49you know, near the time, you know, the week leading up is, you know, there's not often many

03:54tickets left on the table. So you have to get organised if you want to get to this year's

03:58Lockswood Joust, which is, say, August 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18. Sounds spectacular,

04:07Maurice. Always lovely to speak to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Bill.

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