And why I expect far more from
it.
Ok so there is a background to
this post. I grew up in Moseley, Birmingham – Tolkien’s Birmingham. This is the
real Middle Earth where the bog and the trees, the mill and the towers inspired
some of his world. Each year the Middle Earth Weekend takes place in the heart
of Tolkien’s Birmingham and promises a medieval delve into the costumes, crafts
and tales from the world of Lord Of the Rings. Sounds like a winner huh?
Well yes, and so it used to be.
In previous years I have attended the festival and seen craft stalls, story
re-enactments and readings, sword-fighting and demonstrations, puppetry,
gaming, costumes, archery, a train ride, walking tours, a full scale farmers
market with stalls selling local produce and organic foods, beer tents and the
list goes on. You get the picture. We are talking a weekend of entertainment
and appreciation on a spring weekend surrounded by greenery and enthusiasm.
Last year for personal reasons I
boycotted the festival. In short, a local children’s entertainment company that
ran a successful and popular stall at Middle Earth Weekend 2010 found
themselves being refused a stall by the committee for the 2011 festival. The
reason cited was lack of space. Given the size of the site and the more than
ample volume of green space that is always unused at the festival, it was clearly
a political decision and that is something I cannot get on board with. So after
a run of several years enjoying
Middle Earth Weekend, in 2011 they disappointed me.
This year I was passing right by
the site, having gone home to visit my parents, so I decided to see what was
happening. I walked around the same old craft stalls, looked at the artwork,
saw readings were taking place and found a cramped marquee with some children’s
activities taking place. The archery was still there and there were visitors
dressed up, though not as many as usual and I was disappointed not to see the
Nazguls on the move this time. The farmer’s market and beer tents were
curiously absent and the whole affair had shrunk again this year leaving even
more unused space at the Sarehole Mill site. I stopped to watch the mummers for
a while and then, disappointed at the general scale and atmosphere, I called it
a day.
Tolkien’s legacy is appreciated worldwide.
Undisputable fact. His popularity has not waned. Again fact. Yet what could be
an incredibly popular annual festival that has potential to attract visitors
from across the country and bring revenue into local businesses is, for
whatever reason the committee deems fit, suppressed into a very local, ever
decreasing in size affair. I cannot think of a single good reason why this is
not opened up to become a regular national attraction. People love Tolkien. I
love Tolkien. And yet again this year the Middle Earth Weekend felt more like a
local pagan wedding on the village green than a celebration of a huge part of
our culture.
I would dearly love to see a far
bigger, far more embracing Middle Earth Weekend in 2013 and I hope that the
organisers will realise the potential of this event and next year do something
bigger, better, and dare to invite some new exhibitors and visitors into the
mix. It’s not that often that I go on a real rant about something, but this genuinely disappoints me, because it is just a waste of
potential.
Elloise Hopkins.
You'd think, this being Hobbit year, that they'd have been onto an absolute winner this year. Full to brimming with local commerce and all sorts of entertainments. Unless of course everyone's favourite group of happy-go-lucky corporate Nazgul over at Saul Zaentz Company have turned their beady Eye on things.
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