Besides the Tolkien Day for the general public, our main event for
every year is the Great Summer Camp of about ten days, with 100-150
participants, most of them more-or-less members of our community, but of
course, there are newcomers, too.
These summer camps are not actually LARPs, but they always have a
LARPish setting and story, which is presented in scenes and is a framefork for the everyday program, and those who are interested also can
affect the story. Everybody belongs to a team which has a role in the
story as a special group of people, for example the Men of Dale or the
Elves of Lothlórien. Mostly the participants are also members of an
"order" of their chosen activity, i.e. martial arts, hiking, dance,
music. And there are other tasks and programs, guards, team plays etc.
In 2013, the summer camp took place at Városlőd. I never heard about the
place earlier, but it is surpisingly easy to get there by train (this
is fortunate and unfortunate at the same time), compared to other
totally out-of-the-civilisation campsites we normally choose. The
setting was in Beleriand, just after the end of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad,
and the groups were wandering people of Bór and Maedhros, Men of
Dor-lómin, Elves from Gondolin, Nargothrond and Mithrim. The organisers
formed another group, the Sindar of Doriath, who welcomed the others in
the valley of Nan Thurin. Although they tried to keep this secret, but
in the end it turned out that they escaped from Sauron after Lúthien
destroyed his dungeons to help Beren, and they were not totally cleared
from the evil influence, so one of the other of them sometimes became
possessed by the evil spirit of Sauron. The story contained several
details known or not known from the books, for example the wedding of
Brodda.
Unfortunately, I do not know much more either, as I haven't
been there. All my holiday time was spent in the Lithuanian Mirkwood, so
I spent less than two days in Nan Thurin. Most of this time was spent
by sitting somewhere unable to walk around, as I spained my ankle in two
hours after my arrival. So, instead of further details, I simply insert
a nice video which can tell more of this camp as I could, and if
anybody have questions about it, I am sure I know people who will have
the answers. :)
One more of my few experiences there. Just
before I left, the people of Maedhros came in to the lunch area, and
theatrically burned a few ships made of paper. I suppose they had an
argument with the other Noldor...
