Celebrating 500 years of Swedish independence

 For the last 2  years I have been in involved in recreating the victory parade of Gustav Vasa in 1523. Originally it was held on Midsummers Day, and a group of volunteers set off to make huge spectacular event of it. A lot of us were disappointed in the lack of official celebrations, so the project's leader and heart simply decided that he would fix it himself. It is always possible to discuss the history and how much of a milestone it really was, but since that day Sweden and Stockholm have never been occupied by a foreign force.

Said and done yesterday 300 people in early 16th century clothes marched into the Old Town of Stockholm, up to the castle where we got to march up to the king and queen, followed by a march to the main square where me and my husbanded presided of 4 hours of lectures, music and dance to celebrate the event. It all ended with a glorious feast in the medieval restaurant "Sjätte Tunnan", that even spilled out onto the street outside to the amusement of us and the tourists that passed by.

Dancing in the street 1523-style

I wore my 1520's court gown, that I had to enlarge to fit but I still had scraps of the original fabric that I could use. It is now deeply brown black at the hem, but it was worth it.

The only photos I've seen so far of me on stage as MC

I had been more busy fixing clothes to my husband and our friend Björn. My husband wore his repaired pair of joined hose with vest (that is going to be a doublet some time when I make the sleeves) and his older 16th century gown. Our friend had the farmers' trousers a shirt and coif that I had made, and then I had borrowed the blue jacket and a helmet for him. He was very proud that he got to be the flag bearer for the farmer soldiers, he had made the flag himself.

Gathering before the parade

First group of the parade

The second group of soldiers walking into the inner court yard (that is usually restricted and private)

Me and the group I was walking with

Ann-Sofie and Monica are ready for the finishing parade

And here is a video of the first and main parade 

And this is the finishing parade, which was smaller because there were no horses and they walked through the streets of Old Town. I wasn't in the finishing parade since I had been standing on stage for four hours and simply wouldn't have been able to walk any more.