Revelry and rivalry returns to the Kingdom of Loxwood as the Loxwood Joust returns on August 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18.
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00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers, and it's
00:06always lovely to speak to Maurice Bacon. Maurice is the man behind Lockswood Joust. Now it's
00:11August 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18 this year at Lockswood Meadow, and it's spectacular. And
00:19Maurice, the thing that you were saying that makes it so distinctive is the immersive nature
00:24of it, isn't it? That you don't just turn up and just watch from a distance, you're
00:28in it, you're part of it, aren't you? Absolutely. I mean, what we've found is that people more
00:33and more want to participate rather than just spectate. And so we have, apart from the jousting
00:40and the archery and falconry and the battles and everything, and the living history, we
00:46also now have actors who, there's a different storyline every year. And so it's a different
00:53story, basically, and it just intertwines with everything else that's going on here.
00:59That's really interesting, so that's the kind of changing nature of entertainment, that
01:03people need to be part of it, don't they? Yeah, I think people want to be, you know,
01:10we have things you can, obviously the jousting, you watch, it's quite dangerous, the reenactment,
01:15the full body contact fighting. But you know, you can do archery here, you can do chainmail
01:22making, you can do blacksmithing, you can do... And you can play an axe as well, then.
01:27We've got axe throwing this year, and we've got the crossbows, and so you can participate
01:31in all this stuff here. So you can do both. But I think the thing that's really developing and
01:39really people really like is this immersive part of it, where you're involved in it, because we
01:43have these fan groups now for the jousting teams. So, you know, and there's fan songs that you can
01:50go and learn in a part of the woodland that we have, where they're called... So we have the
01:55Loxwood Boars, or the Loxwood team, and the fan group are called the Baconites.
02:02And you can go and become a Baconite and learn the chants, but while the jousting's going on.
02:07One of the things that you were saying that makes it sound so appealing is that as you go on to the
02:11site, you won't see ice cream vans or burger vans. Because they didn't exist in the 15th century.
02:18Absolutely. You walk into our woodland, it's the entrance, you walk through the woodland,
02:22and you come to the meadows and stuff. But in that woodland, there are lots of characters,
02:26and it's all... So you park in your car, and you come into the 15th century,
02:29come through the entrance, and you are in another world. It really is, you know, people... The
02:35woodland has some weird magic in it anyway. I mean, I know, I love... I walk into the woodland,
02:40I feel uplifted. It's just something there, there's some spirit in the woodland that's fantastic.
02:45Fantastic. And I remember so well that you were so innovative and imaginative during the horrible
02:49years of the pandemic, doing all your open-air screening cinema, etc, etc. And the good thing
02:55is, you're saying that we are back to normal, aren't we, a few years on?
02:59Yeah, absolutely. I don't think anybody's really... We don't hear about it anymore. I mean,
03:05I think, yeah, I mean, people just are carrying on now. And it is around,
03:10apparently, Covid. I haven't, thankfully, had it since the pandemic. But apparently,
03:17you know, people, I think, treat it now like the sort of flu. You know, people have it,
03:20but no one's... So hopefully, the big problems with it have gone. And anyway, yeah, people have
03:31got back to normal. I'd say the only real difference I've found, and I don't know whether
03:34it's our event or whatever, but we're certainly... I know that during the pandemic, people were
03:39expected to buy advance tickets when they go somewhere. They weren't just going to rock up
03:44on a door and expect to get in. And we've noticed that we're selling out now in advance. So,
03:49you know, near the time, you know, the week leading up is, you know, there's not often many
03:54tickets left on the table. So you have to get organised if you want to get to this year's
03:58Lockswood Joust, which is, say, August 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18. Sounds spectacular,
04:07Maurice. Always lovely to speak to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Bill.