Upon facing Margaret Corbin Circle on an ordinary day in early autumn, you have a few choices.
You could, (A), walk in the opposite direction and avoid the possibility of being trampled by thousands of costumed New Yorkers or, (B), indulge in the intrigue of the Fort Tryon Park Medieval Festival.
Choose the latter and take in the overwhelming smell of fried dough, the screams of a jousting audience, the beauty of dozens of hanging lanterns, and the towering presence of the Cloisters building.
It is safe to say that the Fort Tryon Medieval Festival has become an especially extravagant introduction to the autumn season. The festival launched in 1983 as a result of the Washington Height and Inwood Corporation’s attempt to attract more people to the neighborhood. The one-day festival is held towards the end of September each year. During the day, medieval life lasts from 11:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For the greater part of the past forty years, it has proved to successfully lure in thousands of visitors from across and beyond New York City.
The Appeal
The festival entrance has been passed. You continue wandering along the path, observing a handful of shops as they sell leather armor pieces and other niche trinkets, until finally reaching the first open field of the day. At the field, you watch as children run around with wooden swords in hand, jewelry on their necks, and dozens of people adorned in costume. By this point, you have probably seen at least five other visitors in colored cloaks, a few with elven ears. Perhaps some Disney princesses and a Darth Vader are sprinkled somewhere in there as well.
The medieval festival serves as an outlet for those who enjoy dressing up and being surrounded by festivities and entertainment. This includes the festival’s vendors, many of whom remain in character for the entirety of the festival.
For many vendors, the festival is another chance to embrace their passion for the Medieval era or the fantastical culture of medieval festivals. A lasting presence at the Fort Tryon Medieval Festival is Traders of Tamerlane, a small business that has run independently for the past fifteen years under its founder, Gabriel De La Vega. Traders of Tamerlane has showcased their crafts at the festival since 2014 under yurts, or large tents, and they are known fortheir decorative lanterns.
“I have always been interested in the logistics of how people lived 300, 400, 500, and 600 years ago. What was technology like in the medieval era? How did they eat? How did they sleep? How did they live?” De La Vega said in an interview that I conducted with him.
De La Vega’s journey with the Medieval era began when he joined a Medieval Reenactment club in college, where he was introduced to the European medieval period. This interest grew to include Central and East Asia and inspired him to create his own yurts. Upon hanging a lantern in the yurt, De La Vega felt it created ‘a magical moment’ and decided to include it as a staple within his business.
Most visitors are also drawn to this enchanting, fantasy-like element of the festival that roots itself not only in the shops, but in the entertainment.
“I remember being young and crowding around a fence with my friend trying to get a peek at the jousting tournament happening in the stadium set up for the park in the festival every year. As somebody who grew up hearing stories about knights and grand fantasy adventures, the medieval festival was pure fuel for my young imagination. It’s definitely that way for a lot of kids too, and I think it’s an awesome experience to have had as a child,” said Lucy Spooner ’25.
Dozens of people try to jump and shove their way to the fence or the bleachers if they are feeling ambitious. Hooves hit the ground along the rhythm of shouts and cheers as four armor-clad men enter the arena. Children sit atop their parents’ shoulders, and any strollers they might have had before have been abandoned behind the bleachers.
Right now, watching the show is the priority.
The knights ride along the green field, attempting to get the favor of the audience as they are introduced. The visitors then pick their sides based on their stadium section: will it be Sir Angus in gold and black this year? Sir Robert in the blue? In either case, the stadium rises and becomes an amalgamation of cheers and ‘boos’ as the knights go head to head. The pairs are determined and the competitors battle it out until one of the knights is knocked off their horse, lands their best hit, or breaks their lance. These matches continue for hours until a champion is crowned.
The Fort Tryon festival also educates the public about medieval material culture through its shops and direct displays. Near the food stalls, there is a stall from a dentist office with an informational presentation on medieval hygiene and the tools people used to tend to their teeth during the Middle Ages.
On the other side of a tree, by the jousting arena, is another stall. A costumed man holds out his gloved arm to provide a surface for his bird to stand on. A fount of knowledge regarding medieval falconry, the man answers questions regarding the details of the practice, including information about the blinders that the bird wears, along with safety precautions.
The Cloisters
At this point, maybe you have decided to flee from either congested crowds of people or overwhelming ‘hoorays’ of the mini-arena. For now, you follow a small stone-paved road and make your way inside a large structure: The Cloisters. Your eyes take a second to adjust to the dark but eventually you make your way up a few stairs and reach the beginning of the Cloisters.
The Cloisters is arguably the greatest attraction at the festival. It is an extension of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and was designed after European monasteries and cloisters of the Middle Ages, which served as tranquil spaces for people to recharge.
From the outside, it is a fortress of stone. It is surrounded by trees along winding roads and, more obviously up close, subtly overtaken by lush vines and shrubbery. It borrows from Romanesque architecture through its towers, small windows, and thick walls.
Inside the museum is one of the richest collections of medieval art in the world consisting of tapestries, sculptures, paintings, manuscripts, ivory pieces, and metalwork. Among the most famous pieces are “The Unicorn Tapestries.” This piece is a collection of seven tapestries that each depict a different moment in a hunt for the magical unicorn, a symbol of purity and power.
As you continue to navigate through the narrow stairs and open areas, you find yourself in front of a garden with a few signs by your feet: ‘Plants used in Medieval Housekeeping’ and ‘Myrtle-leaved Sour Orange.’ Different beds of plants are labeled with their contents; ‘poison plants,’ ‘Magic,’ ‘Arts & Crafts,’ and ‘Love and Fertility’ are among the collection.
Similar labels are sure to be seen around the Cloisters as well. Vendors and entertainers continue to spread along the outside pathway of the museum. Visitors can circumambulate the Cloisters to indulge in jewelry designed after insects, to take in an annual theatrical performance, and to engage in harp playing, as the castle-like structure looms over them.
The New York Times writer Tim Page observed the difference between the Cloisters’ usual nature and its atmosphere on the day of the festival. Previously “one of Manhattan’s quietest enclaves,” the Cloisters quickly became “alive with the sound of flutes, trumpets and drums.” This continues to ring true in recent years just as it had in 1985, the third year of the festival and the year of Page’s visit.
Proximity to the Middle Ages
How authentic is authentic?
If we consider ‘authentic’ to be completely true to the Middle Ages, then there would be many components of the festival that would have to be revised.
Some of the most important ‘medieval’ food stands at the Fort Tryon festival are the fried dough and turkey leg stands. Although sugar existed in the Middle Ages, it was rare and expensive in Europe until the early 1500s during the Atlantic Slave Trade, where traders used enslaved people in the “New World” in order to increase profit with resources like sugar.
The same argument could be made about turkey legs. Since turkeys are native to the Americas, they were not introduced to Europe until the Atlantic Slave Trade. However, the upper class did eat a lot of meat and poultry when available and allowed, which is ‘close enough,’ considering that for medieval festivals, authenticity is not the main goal.
University of Michigan Medieval History Professor Katherine French said, “If it were going to be truly as authentic as we could make it about the Middle Ages, I am going to guess that most of us would not find it entertaining. I think it would be more shocking; we’d find it smelly, we’d find it difficult. It wouldn’t be the afternoon out that you would want to do with your friends or your family.”
The intention of medieval festivals is not so much to replicate the Middle Ages (500-1500 C.E.) but rather to twist it so it can be perceived as entertainment. This way, it can also lean into the magical elements of the Middle Ages and pick out specific aspects of the Medieval period that are more entertaining, accessible, and ultimately profitable.
Jousting, falconry, music, and theater are more appealing to people in comparison with other activities in the medieval period like agriculture. These activities were also exclusively popular with the nobility, who only made up about 5% of the population. Peasants entertained themselves with other activities like archery, which is also found in the festival in some shops.
Details like the materials of clothing (“Were they made out of silk?”) and weapons (“Are they plastic?”) that are sold and used in the festivals are minor and do not greatly affect the general closeness to medieval life that the Fort Tryon medieval festival brings.
Taking into consideration the intentions of the festival, the Fort Tryon medieval festival balances out its priorities between the wants of a consumer and the trueness to the Middle Ages.
After a long day, I suggest that you retire to the park’s benches and engage in the enchanting view of the Hudson River during golden hour.
The Fort Tryon Medieval festival is overall an engaging activity to include in your fall calendar and sure to entertain with its historically-inspired activities and shops. Although it is considered an annual occurrence, the festival was on hiatus for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been canceled again in the fall of 2023 for financial reasons. Nevertheless, it stays close to the hearts of many and personally, sheltered in the crevices of my mind, until the autumn season is up and running again.
“I remember being young and crowding around a fence with my friend trying to get a peek at the jousting tournament happening in the stadium set up for the park in the festival every year. As somebody who grew up hearing stories about knights and grand fantasy adventures, the medieval festival was pure fuel for my young imagination. It’s definitely that way for a lot of kids too, and I think it’s an awesome experience to have had as a child,” said Lucy Spooner ’25.