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© 2021 Festival Art and Books. All rights reserved. Festival in the Shire There and back again… Three Elven Ladies on tour ... Festival in the Shire. 13 – 15.8.2010: Pontrhydfendigaid, Wales, UK. Driving through that gorgeous Welsh countryside already "beamed" us right into MIDDLE-EARTH! We passed the Shire as well as the rough Weathertop (in mist and rain), Rohan , Fornost and the grey waters at the Grey Havens (Aberysthwyth at sunset after we had finally found our destination)… and we found the footpath into Moria. The next day we enjoyed a Hobbit worthy breakfast at our “ Prancing Pony ” (BLACK LION HOTEL Pontrhydfendigaid) and dressed up Elven style to join the crowd. There were quite a lot of international visitors, like ourselves showing up. Nevertheless – each single part of the overall-program (we fortunately had access to everything) was enjoyable and turned out to be presented with a great deal of enthusiasm, fun and admiration for the source we all refer to – Tolkien`s work. We enjoyed high class literature talks at the conference. How thrilling to listen to all those great “names” who write literature about Tolkien! A special THANK YOU to Tom Shippey, Verlyn Flieger, Corey Olsen, Alex Lewis & Colin Duriez for enlightening us (beside all the others who kindly shared their knowledge) and becoming the treasure of our "Tyrolian Tolkien Smial - Chronicles" There were quite inspiring and entertaining Expo talks as well. We found the great fan fiction discussion with Sara Brown excellent. Thank you Rene van Rosenberg and Peter for sharing your passions for collecting. We joined the discussions, the Quiz (we nearly won), the singing & dancing and enjoyed ourselves all the time! Music (song, harp, piano… celtic, metal, jazz – variety is everything! Storytelling, LARP, costumes, artwork (Expo), merchandise and more… We met so many wonderful people! THANK YOU – Lucy (for your kind welcome), Sara (what an impressive talk about alchemy in LotR), Sarah & Aeron from Manchester, thanks for rescuing us foot-lame Elves at the Strata Florida Abbey. We saw, among other things, Mr. Proudfoot, Peter Kenny, who was an extra surprise. He travelled all the way from Australia, and meeting him was a lot of fun. Peter is a self-made entertainer and owner of a huge collection of Tolkien. We enjoyed his fun entertainment and songs, inspiring Hobbit insights, the wonderful collection slides and NZ Movie locations. Special memories of that day are still with us. "The Story of Beren and Luthien" by Robin LaTrobe and the harp sounds of Harriet Earis were done with such enthusiasm that they could even have swept the most tired Hobbit off to Middle-earth. Dimitra (who made us famous "" ), Stephen Walsh (for a most kind private presentation of his artwork) and Rodney Matthew’s wonderful artwork. In the evening we listened to the beautiful sounds of Brocc, who conjured unique melodies with a myriad of musical instruments, including bagpipes, flute, harp, mandolin, guitar, various drums and a Drehleiher. Thank you for the Music and the Dancing!, The “party of five” at the Black Lion (for joining the drinks and the fun), ??? “Mr. Butterbur "= Dominic (for being such a good host and serving food for hungry Hobbits masked as Elves) and many, many more ... Finally, on Sunday, the last day, we dived into the magical green of Rivendell and Lothlorien at DEVIL'S BRIDGE before we had to leave way too early at noon. We passed “ Treebeard ” on our way to the airport and were hunted by Arwen (Liv Tyler on the cover of a magazine) above the clouds… For such a hidden location and after all the "first go" – Mark and all those ambitious people who were involved in whatever way with this project – YOU DID A GREAT JOB!!! – A GREAT JOB! It was FUN, FUN, FUN! Please keep your enthusiasm and DO IT AGAIN! Carmen, Eva-Maria and Astrid...Tolkien Smial Tyrol... www.tolkien-tirol.com
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