Special Features - Robin Hood Festival in Sherwood Forest

Robin Hood Festival in Sherwood Forest
(01/08/07)

The 23rd Robin Hood Festival, featuring much medieval fun and games, including archery, jousting, falconery and story-telling, started on 30 July.

Live-action skirmishes under the Major Oak at the Robin Hood Festival. (c) Grant Pritchard/Britainonview

Over 70,000 visitors expected

Held every summer in the famous Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, the Festival attracts over 70,000 visitors. It goes on until Sunday 5 August.

Entrance is free, as are most activities, although there is a small charge for outdoor theatre performances and "have-a-go" archery competitions for children.

Many attractions

Amongst this year's Festival attractions will be demonstrations of long-bow shooting and re-creations of the daring exploits of Robin Hood and the Sheriff's men with live-action skirmishes under the mighty Major Oak - the tree inside which Robin and his men were said to have hidden from their enemies.

There will also be an alchemist, a medieval quack peddling home-made potions and lotions, a minter of period coins, minstrels, a knights hospitalier - a member of a Christian military order - back from the crusades, market stalls and demonstrations of how medieval pottery was made.

Robin Hood legend

Robin Hood is an archetypal English folk tale which may be based on a true story. In modern versions of the legend, he is the son of a well-to-do family who, dispossessed by greedy Norman overlords, is forced to live beyond the law in Sherwood, a royal hunting forest.

Visitors have a go at archery at the Robin Hood Festival. (c) Grant Pritchard/Britainonview

From his forest hide-out with a disparate band of outlaws - young men who have for one reason or another left their villages - he ambushes rich travellers, fights corrupt officials and shares the spoils with poor, oppressed peasants.

Enemy of the Sheriff

His chief adversary is the Sheriff of Nottingham, put in place by King John who has himself usurped the English throne whilst his brother Richard is away fighting the crusades. Most legends have the Sheriff and King John finally defeated by the combined forces of Robin Hood and the return of King Richard to England.

Robin has been the subject of many films, television series, books, comics and plays including a movie starring Kevin Costner as our hero and Alan Rickman as a memorably demented Sheriff of Nottingham.

Sherwood: The Living Legend

Vistors to this year's festival will also be asked to pledge their support for Sherwood: The Living Legend, a bid to win up to £50 million from the Lottery. The new plan proposes to triple the size of the current forest site and connect it to four counties with a world-class network of walking, cycling and horse-riding paths.

If you want to join the fun in Sherwood over the next few days, have a look at the Robin Hood Festival website for details.