Feast of the Hunter's Moon

Last weekend we went down to Lafayette Indiana to celebrate Valerie's birthday, camp with friends and to go to the Feast of the Hunter's Moon.

The weather was great. Friday night got a little cool; okay it was downright cold but we had a good fire and plenty of blankets; so it worked out okay. Saturday was 80 and Sunday almost as nice. We camped with three tents, but Valerie and I slept in the van. There were nine of us. Friday night we sat around the campfire and ate some great food Valerie cooked up in the dutch oven. Saturday we went to the Feast of the Hunter's Moon. This is a recreation of the last trading camp that would happen on this spot between the Native Americans and the French traders. There were plenty of people trading their goods there, and numerous oppertunities to enjoy food of the period. People who work the fair are dressed in costumes of the period and many of the visitors also dress in costume. There were fife and drum bands, dancers, dulcimer bands, story tellers, fire eaters, jugglers, cannons being fired, horse displays and so much more. This thing is really huge and a fair amount of fun (pun intended).

Here are some pictures we took.
Here are a some people in one of the fife and drum bands. Notice the one person's red face. The sun was bright and the sky was clear and most people were dressed for an October day so there were lots of red faces; overhot and sunburned.

Some of the bands were in French costume, some in Colonial, some in British, some in Scottish. They each paraded into the square and then all played together. It sounded great. There were flags and standards and marching armies as well. Quite the show, all told.

There were a number of Native American dancers and they brought their kids in traditional costume too.

These ladies were very serious about the band they had playing at the fair.

I love a cute kid picture. She and I had a lot of laughs togther.