The Festival mediaval is a music festival that gathers all the renowned musicians of the world to Selb, Baveria, Germany. This is an extremely populous and popular music festival in which a large number of musical genres are performed. This music festival was conducted for the first time 8 years ago in 2008. Then the motto was “crossing boarders – combine opposites – accentuate”. Then it was a three day event conducted in a venue at the German-Czech boarder.

This festival derives its aims from the fact that the border between two different kinds of music is very fluid- meaning, they can be blended to form a new genre without losing the charm of the genres involved. That is what really happens in the Festival mediaval. The reputable musicians all over the world come to the festival every year with their own music items, which involve from their own experiments. Most of them come to perform their own original compositions that blend more than one kind of music, but are inspired by medieval style.

The modern versions of the medieval rock and Irish folk music are some of the examples. This music festival is conducted on three stages. It contains several bands from different countries. Besides the music performances, the whole Festival mediaval possesses a medieval touch with the popular medieval entertainments like fire shows, jugglers, street shows etc. Cabarets and medieval theatre are other attractions of this festival. The visitors are sure to have a fabulous experience with a medieval market functioning at the festival.

In 2015, the 8^th festival mediaval is going to be conducted. Each year a theme is invented for the festival. As the motto of the festival is crossing borders, usually it combines two areas in its theme. In 2014 it was based on Irish-Scottish ideas. The 2015 festival proposes to be a Celtic special with the Viking ships on exhibition in the Goldberg Bay. The 8^th festival mediaval plans to make the programs more elaborate with a number of special acoustic performances. The organizers are planning to include "pirates raft", the "Raptor camp" and the "Elfenbar” as novel items in the 2015 event. The 2015 festival mediaval is scheduled for 11^th to 13^th September.

The other entertainments that are organized in connection with this fabulous music show are various friendly matches, tournaments, archery competitions and entertainments for children. Besides a number of workshops are also led by experts in the medieval arts including fine arts, that aim at familiarizing the visitors and other enthusiasts with various aspects of the same.

by Marina Chernyak