Eivissa medieval festival 2011

Decorative bunting in Dalt Vila

Between thr 6th and 8th of May, Dalt Vila in Eivissa town hosted the Ibiza Medieval festival. The festival is an annual event to commemorate and celebrate Ibiza's selection as an UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999. Highlights included acrobatic displays, children's activities, a large open air street market, free access to many of the capital's museums and art galleries, street performances, battle reenactments, music concerts, medieval workshops and falconry displays. It attracts around 100,000 visitors over the course of the three days.

The street market extended from Carrer D'Antoni Palau outside the old city walls all the way up the hill to Placa de La Catedral near the top of Dalt Vila. It included many stalls selling a variety of products such as meat, cheeses, spices, soaps, teas, handicrafts, jewellery, costumes and metal work. There were also a number of workshops for children offering activities like painting and candle making. The streets were decorated with medieval themed items such as wooden farm equipment and bales, medieval weaponry and torture equipment. many of the modern roadsigns and street markings were covered over and all of the stallholders wore medieval attire in order to create the impression of an authentic medieval event.

A woman selling local produce
at the medieval market

The Baluard de Santa Lluciahosted a wide variety of food stalls with barbeques, traditional mediterranean cuisine, seafood, oriental food and even vegetarian options.

One of the big highlights for me were the blacksmiths from from the Fragua Segovia workshop from the town of Segovia near Madrid. They had a great display of handmade metal objects and put on regular live demonstrations of metalwork.

I spoke to many of the stallholders and other participants and found that the medieval market is not unique to Ibiza and that they tour across southern Spain throughout the summer. It is however one of the biggest events on their tour. Many of the people working on the market are not actually Spanish, I spoke to several south americans and also a lot of people from Eastern European countries such as Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

I spent a couple of afternoons at the market taking photos, meeting people and enjoying good food and wines and I am looking forward to next year's event already.

The Blacksmiths from Fragua Segovia doing a live metalwork demonstration.