The first in person Days of Yore festival since 2019 was held on July 30 and 31 2022.
The event took place at its traditional location in Rosebud Park, Didsbury Alberta and was attended by almost 2000 people across the two days. There were eight reenactor groups from Alberta covering over a 1000 years of history from Viking times to WWII.
Our encampment was the second largest this year, the largest camp being that of the Sons of Fenrir, a Viking reenactor group.
We arrived on site on a very hot Friday afternoon, and began setting up watching a threatening sky building in the West.. Typical thunderstorm conditions for Summers in Alberta. The storm turned out to be part of a major storm system that brought heavy rain and large hail to many areas around us, luckily all we got was some nasty wind gusts and rain. Our camp was mostly setup and squared away before the storm broke so we just waited it out under a couple of large sunshades.
Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, with a sky that promised lots of sunshine and heat for the day.
Events kicked off around 10:00 am when the gates opened for a flood of people coming to view battle displays, Civil War cannon fire, fur traders, Viking displays, WWI and WWII camps, WWII Military vehicles, and us!
Our displays included your editor's "Victorian Internet" a working telegraph office, a display tent with information on the First Nations Treaties, games, some period books and our lovely Ladies working on hand crafts, a hard working young man doing laundry, a WWI Nurse and her camp and a small display of Boer War items. A continuous croquet game was running as well.
The sunshade over the telegraph office was a popular place to escape the sun.
Our camp was a place of calm and industry amongst the clash of swords and axes on shields, cannon blasts, muskets and machine gun fire.
A brief thunderstorm arrived during dinner Saturday night which cooled things off nicely.
Sunday was another bright, sunny, and very hot day.
The Vikings decided to liven things up in the afternoon by kidnapping our croquet master and his mallets. This necessitated some tricky negotiations by our president but the croquet mallets, and him, were returned with only minor casualties on both sides.
A fun event indeed.
Thanks to the Mountain View Arts Society of Didsbury for a great Days of Yore!
Looking forward to next year!
Thanks for reading.
The Victorian Society of Alberta.
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