It is almost an year since covid-19 struck our world with his pandemic. Only some time in the summer have been some events held in closed rings or limited access. No international accessible events have been held after March. So we hope, when are the HEMA workshop and tournaments events coming back?
Current status of the corona virus:
Since the beginning of this year the first vaccines are being divided between countries and selected under the most important and necessary groups. With that you cannot speculate if all governments will lift the lockdown. When all the vulnerable and elderly people have been vaccinated they can do otherwise. You see countries around the world react differently to current situations of the virus still restricting freedom even after the vulnerable have been protected.
In most countries events like workshops and competitive tournaments (even small) are not an option. Even when an portion is vaccinated they are worried it is still not save enough overall. Training is very limited or not possible. Solo drills or training from home are still the preferred do’s, but people are getting tired of that and have a great desire to training with someone else again.
Possible upcoming status of the corona virus
Like all viruses and as we have seen a year ago with the first corona-wave. The virus will die out quicker than it is has been doing for the winters. If you look at the wave. (Beginning date and end date of some countries virus size). You can see it takes a few months to die out.
It is only an positive thought that this will go in the same tempo as previous spring/summer. Maybe even faster because of the knowledge and the vaccines that we have at our side. Still is that not an sure thing to be surely enough about to confirm this will happen.
Still dangerous?
It is suspected that even when the virus is dying out in most countries the virus still can be ‘a danger’ to it’s vulnerable citizens. So the government will be careful to not let in people with chance of getting or giving an different variant virus to it tourist visitors or it’s own people. That is why most countries are talking about getting a ‘corona passport’ for it it’s visitors. And more freedom for it’s own citizens that have vaccinated themselves.
This will mean that the first events and tournaments will come to the problem that they still cannot fully organize their tournament with also foreign competitors. The ‘old normal’ will take a while to get back to it seems. It still will be a hard time which you cannot fully predict, but the HEMA scene surely will be better than 2020. You can be sure of that.
What are the major HEMA tournaments doing?
In 2020 there were still events held when the virus was ongoing. Their have been notified small and large events in: China, the United states of America, Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland and The Czech Republic (data from hemaratings).
With the biggest of them the one in Slovakia “Žilinský Kumšt III” held in Žilina on the 25 of July. Which had over 60 confirmed competitors which is around 20 less than previous year. With that infromation you can see there is enough demand for events even when things seem uncertain for many people. An other reason could be that more people (that normaly would go to other events) went to this one because it is the only one available. All factors could be an interesting topic which could have played an role that there is not an underwhelming amount of fighters on those events.
If you look at the others events:
“December 5 – Pardubice Swordplay 2020” has never been held before, but previous event that also have been held in the same city have an huge amount of difference between amount of fighters. Only 18 fighters on this event which is an substantial difference between 55, 20, 80, 50, 45 or 33 fighters per event within two years before this event.
“October 3 – Swiss Bears Cup 2020” compared to “October 18 – Swiss Gathering 2019” and years before that has no difference to it’s fighters amount.
“September 4 – Tremonia Fechtschule 2020” compared to “September 20 – Tremonia Fechtschule 2019” and years before that has no big difference to it’s fighters amount
“July 11 – Cornhusker State Games 2020” compared to “July 27 – Cornhusker State Games – HEMA 2019” has an huge difference in some disciplines like the “mixed Nylon any weapon” and “mixed steel rapier and any side arm” categories and are cut in half in the amount of fighters.
“July 4 – Meyer Open 2020” has no previous held events
Overall we have to few tournaments to tell what is the few of the HEMA-community to the desire for an event when conflicted with the coronavirus
Event: Online workshops
Not only for the HEMA world has this phrase popped up. Online events have become the standard and the most save, but still enjoyable way to keep buzzy with other people and your swords.
Many well known schools and instructors like Blood and Iron (Canada) are being more frequent in posting their instruction and education video’s for learning Historical European Martial Arts.
As well as schools putting up their events as an online edition. Dreynevent held an 2 day event where they asked many instructors from different schools and learning views to help and keep the spirit going. They are still buzzy putting the video’s from the livestream event up to their YouTube channel. You can watch back some of the instructors explaining their topic.
My club in the Netherlands “De Zwaardkring” also have held an online event “Zwaardkring Winterkamp Online Edition”. They have kept the livestream online to watch back for anyone interested:
Tournaments: Delayed or cancelled completely to next year
While some tournaments still have been held, their have been no tournaments in most countries. The most famous Swordfish and Longpoint have been cancelled and pushed to next year. While others like the most known event in the Netherlands DLC (Dutch Lions Cup) have been delayed to April 2021.
We can only hope for the best. I do miss it.