The Midwinter Bear Feast

Many thanks to all those who made Bear Feast 2008 and 2009 such successes! In 2008 we made a slight profit on ticket sales (£62) and the raffle (£128) which has been shared between the Cranborne Ancient Technology Centre's Viking Longhouse fund and Survival International. In 2009 we broke even on ticket sales but the raffle raised £180, which was split between Survival and the ATC.

Here are some photos of 2009's event. If you miss the ATC then its possible to volunteer there, just see their website for details. At the foot of the page are pictures of the 2008 Bear Feast.

2009

The site was as beautiful as ever in the wintery sunshine:

The LongHouse:

The RoundHouse:

Inside the EarthHouse:

Cliff Eastabrook was our entertainer on the Friday; he is such a good storyteller. I never realised that ancient Sumerian deities had mobile phones! We also had some really good jam sessions between his stories, it was nice that there were so many good musicians there, I really enjoyed drumming with Kieron and Bick.Everyone had a peaceful night in the longhouse and Roundhouse, disturbed only by Mark's, um, gentle snoring... :-)

The next morning Graham Harvey gave an interesting talk about Animism and how religion can help us make amends for the necessary violence of living and eating.

This was followed by lunch of fine soup cooked by Patrick and more stories from Cliff.

Then after lunch we began the Bear Feast Games!

We had the usual spear-throwing:

wife carrying:

axe throwing:

and this year added brussel sprout slingshot:

Tug of Rope (more peaceful than tug of war...):

and Archery:

The Fox team won the games and thus gained the honour of hunting the bear, plus avoiding washing up for the rest of the weekend!

After the games was the Bear Hunt Ritual itself and sending the Bear's soul back to theSky Father, followed by wonderful music from Michael Ormiston and Candida:

and more fun around the fire:

Sunday morning concluded with an exchange of gifts, after the Yule Goat had been chased off!

We really enjoyed the event, and it was great that everyone had a good time despite the freezing weather and the LonhHouse being partially unfinished (doors would have been nice...)! We're looking forward to Bear Feast 2010!

Big thanks to Bick of The Art House in Southampton, Fred and Bruce for these pictures.
You can see the rest of Bick's pics here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/73507631@N00/sets/72157622928782803/
plus Bruce's pictures here:http://photo.denney.me.uk/main.php?g2_itemId=18936
and Fred-in-the-Green's here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/86776618@N00/4203115492

2008

Thanks to Jennifer, Fred-in-the-Green and Barbara (Sound Advice) for the 2008 photos. If you have any other pictures you'd like to share email them to us and we'll add them in.