UK's first hobbits festival promises precious time

An immersive festival allowing Tolkien true believers the chance to dress and live as a hobbit is coming to The Shire - Staffordshire, that is.

The five-day Brandywine Festival is due to take place at Weston Park in September and organiser Burgschneider expects up to 2,000 people to attend the live action role play (LARP) event that promises "feasting and fellowship".

If you thought a hobbit festival had a little ring to it, you would be right - a similar event has previously been held in the US and encouraged those attending to remain in costume throughout and take part in themed games and activities.

Weston Park is a country estate with a history of hosting big events such as V Festival.

The location was chosen, the organiser said, because of JRR Tolkien's links with the West Midlands.

The Lord of the Rings author grew up in Birmingham and is believed to have based some of the fictional locations on the landscapes of the region.

Rebecca Alexander, head of estate operations at Weston Park, said: "We're so excited to have been chosen as the home of such a unique and imaginative event as it makes its UK debut."

The first Brandywine Festival was held in Harrodsburg, Kentucky last year. It will take place there again in October.

Speaking about the new sister-event in Staffordshire, Markus Böhm, CEO of Burgschneider, said: "We are incredibly honoured to bring The Brandywine Festival back to the land where the story took flight."

He said the festival would be "stepping into a landscape that echoes the very soul of Tolkien's work".

The event promises various themed-workshops, plus music, dancing and themed meals.

A big part of it will also be the Four Farthing Games, which Burgschneider described as "a series of traditional Hobbit folk games contested across the full festival by players representing their Farthing".

Alexander said the event encouraged people to "leave behind the modern world in exchange for a simple, slow-paced hobbit-existence".

She also said she believed Weston Park's 1,000 acres of parkland provided "the perfect backdrop for bringing the author's fictional Middle Earth and his land of the small people - The Shire - to life".

Among those excited by the event is Rings superfan Kyle Pedley from Stourbridge.

He has previously travelled to New Zealand to visit film locations and won the chance to meet the director of the films Peter Jackson.

"For any Tolkien fan, this is the stuff of dreams," he said of the festival.

"The idea of spending five days fully immersed in hobbit life in a landscape that Tolkien himself is said to have drawn inspiration from is magical."

The Brandywine Festival runs from 9 to 13 September.

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