Festival of the Damned, planned for August 23, will be a medieval combat event where people from across the country come brandishing traditional weapons in an attempt to recreate great famous battles of the past.

The sport is gathering momentum around the world and there are essentially three main disciplines in Australia.

There is Metal Edged Re-enactment, Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA) and the close to full contact Australian Medieval Combat (AMC). The latter travel the world fighting other nations and Australia placed 16th out of 42 countries in the renowned Battle of the Nations tournament recently. In a huge coup for the event, that Australian team will be attending Festival of the Damned.

Burrinjuck State Waters Park staff member Ted Wells is heavily into the sport and, along with his wife Lisa, is the brains behind the operation.

He said the sport offers something others simply don’t.

“You don’t often see knights in armour belting each other in a park,” he said.

“I think because it’s so different people go ‘wow that’s cool let’s do that’.”

He said the popularity could also be attributed to pop culture and the success of the television program Game of Thrones and movie trilogy Lord of the Rings.

“Because it’s all based on fact, most people that are into this are huge history buffs as well,” he added.

The festival will accommodate all three disciplines and because you can only fight against others in your discipline there will be multiple fights going on simultaneously.

Park manager Dean Brind said he’s known about the sport for a while, having worked with Ted and Lisa, and thought it would be a great initiative. He approached the couple with the proposition some months ago and they jumped on board.

“The main reason we wanted to do this was because it is a winter time event,” he told the Tribune.

“At this time of the year we’re always looking at different income sources and this was a weekend where we had nothing on.

“It’s just something great to do before the fishing gets going again and it’s obviously good in regards to tourism for the Valley.”

Mr Wells said the park would be an ideal backdrop for the event.

“It’s not only the backdrop of the water but there’s also the animals here and the fact that the park is so green at the moment.

”With the sealed roads and the amenities and everything, it’s well set up for it.”

The Saturday event kicks off at 10am, there will be three rings constructed and a number of market stalls will be set up. Organisers estimate about 30-50 competitors will take to the field of battle.

For more information on the event call Burrinjuck Waters State Park on 6227 8114.