A photo from a previous Boar’s Head Festival.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
SPRINGFIELD — From Jan. 9-11, the Boar’s Head Festival will take place at Trinity United Church in Springfield. The festival is based on a medieval festival in England celebrating the Epiphany — the birth of Christ and the arrival of the Three Wise Men.
On the latest episode of “So That Reminds Me,” host Chris Maza sat down with Boar’s Head Festival Artistic Director Steve Hays to discuss the event.
Hays said their version of the festival came into fruition in 1984 after one of the initial organizers had been to another festival and realized Trinity United Church would be the perfect place for it.
“The architecture, which is kind of medieval, renaissance in flavor, we had a big music program, and we thought it could be a viable program,” he said. “We opened in 1984 with a pretty complete visualization of what it is today. It was quite a crazy time with making hundreds of costumes, organizing the fundraising, but it has paid off.”
Hays also explained what attendees can expect from its two-part program and said that the performance is set in 1526 in England in the Cheshire area.
“The first, which we call the festival preparation, is the assemblage of a community that is going to put on the presentation. The festival preparation is about how they work together to pull this off,” he said. “Then there is the festival … and it involves a lot of wonderful music, dance, animals, we have three camels coming down the aisle for the arrival of the kings, a horse, sheep goats, chickens, geese.”
As the director, Hays discussed one of the challenges of the festival performance.
“As director, I’m trying to make it a blend of highly religious observation, but also earthiness. These are very earth-bound people, they are doing their best to make this festival work,” he said.
Hays also spoke highly of the architecture in making the festival a “special event.”
“We have wonderful stained glass and at the end of the festival when The Wise Men are there at the alter and everybody is presenting their attention to the Christ child, above the altar comes a stained-glass window of Christ and it’s lit from outside in the backyard and it’s a lovely moment,” he said. “It’s a wonderful area to present this kind of a festival.”
Each year a committee of eight to 10 people does all of the planning for the festival each year, which can include an average of 200-plus people involved in the performances each day, according to Hays.
Hays said that directing the festival is “like directing a circus.”
“So much goes on throughout the building, it’s not focused on one particular area, it might be focused on about five or six. And that’s part of the fun of this, is that people who come see something going on all around and they enjoy it,” he said.
The festival also includes a Madame Elixir with potions for attendees to “increase their life and enjoyment,” mind readers, a falconer and free cookies baked by the committee.
“We have a lot of ways to interact with the audience and make them feel that they are part of this community that has put on this festival,” he said.
Hays said one of the most important parts of the festival is the interaction between the cast and the audience.
“My job is to keep that interaction within restraints. I want it to be true to the era, to the purpose of this and remind us all that our job is to create an Epiphany celebration, and I that I think is what ultimately motivates our cast to make it a religious experience,” he said.
One thing that Hays called “sobering” is how long people have been participating in the event for the course of over four decades.
“It’s a little sobering — this is the 42nd year I’ve done this — to see people now in their 40s who weren’t born when we started this. Some of them started with children’s roles, teen roles, adult roles and now they’re moving even beyond that,” he said.
Tickets for the festival can be purchased online at eventbrite.com/e/boars-head-festival-tickets-1219649948829.
To listen to the full conversation, head to thereminder.com/our-podcast or go to your favorite podcasting platform and search “So That Reminds Me.”
