Leipzig Gothic Treffen

We ended up going to the Leipzig Gothic Treffen. The city boils with people dressed up in black with tons of make up. The venues vary, but they are spread in three or four parts in the city.

Unfortunately our hotel was placed oposite to everywhere and it was a big issue if we wanted to go shopping.

Anyway, one of the big parts of the festival was just around the camping area and it was the Medieval market. There you could enjoy drinking mead, eating roast or even have a bath on a hot wooden tub. Practise archery, have a pendant hammered on an anvil in front of your very eyes... and of course, the typical re-enactment fights with swords, helmets and shields. There were few bands playing around, one of them called "Sierpe" with a dreadful female singer.

And there was a duo of bagpipers with a drummer. Really good stuff. Good melodies, quite ancient tunes.

There was also a stand where some young people were selling hand made bagpipes. Black sheepskin bag, cocuswood drones and chanter (one tenor, one bass drone). They were there basically to show people what bagpipes were about. They were only allowed to sell the pipes on the last day of the festival. Beautiful pieces of work, but I suspected that they were going to be awfully expensive, so we left.