First Impressions from 2017’s velo-crazed middle-ages tournament
Berlin Pedäl Bättle is one of those curious events that I’d like to think can only come up – and establish themselves – in a city like Berlin, where the most important social rule seems to be “don’t judge me, so I won’t judge you”.
Essentially it is a medieval cosplay fest with jousting, shield walls, personal feuds between the great houses of the realm. People dress up, with elaborate makeup and lovingly crafted costumes and weapons. There’s food and beer and more tattoos than I could count in a day, there’s merchandise and a place where the kids can try themselves at archery. So overall, just like any other fantasy themed middle-ages thing, right? Not quite, first of all, noone here takes the whole thing too seriously, secondly these knights in shining armour don’t ride horses, they ride bikes. That might be just a nod to modernity and the impracticalities that would arise if you tried a tournament with real horses, but it’s not. One of seeds of this ‘movement’ or scene or whatever you want to call it, is a bike shop in Prenzlauer Berg, that had the idea to build a pedal-powered chariot. The bike part of the thing is absolutely essential and for a lot of the participants this event is their only point of contact to the LARPers.
Photo Gallery Berlin Pedal Battle 2017
In 2017 Berlin Pedal Battle (correct Berlin Pedäl Bättle) was held at the old Rummelsburg power station for the second time. About a 30 minute bike ride from the city center, is a huge open area betwenn the river Spree and the old machinery hall. Due to a negative weather forecast for Sunday we decided to go on the first day, even though we didn’t get to see the finals. And it payed off, Saturday was one of those days in early fall where, for just a moment you could think, that summer is back. In the later afternoon it was well-attended, the vibe was incredibly relaxed with dozens of kids running around like in their own backyard. It’s funny in way to see all these martial projecting darkness and danger with their outfits and then every one is just smiling and happy, every other one has a kid underfoot or even enlisted them as squire. Interestingly enough no house/crew had more kids – or better costumes – than Koks & Nutten (blow & hookers).
If you want to reread what we thought about the experience three years back look here. And of course there is a Berlin Pedal Battle homepage and Facebook account.
While you do that, we will start editing our video, we have such nice footage, so make sure to stay tuned to not miss it.