Christoph Busche
Anyone who has ever met Christoph will know instantly why we had to have him at MesserFest.
This dude is legendary for his contagious enthusiasm for all things Messer, so it’s no wonder he was overwhelmingly voted the most enjoyable person to cross blades with in our Fechtschule last year.
We can’t wait to see what delights he has in store for you all this year, but given that he has a hessian sack with him at all times (yes, he is that extreme) you can expect to have a smile as big as his the entire time.
Diana Matthess
The first time we saw Diana teaching at an event we were blown away by her ethos and approach. Controlled, beautiful fencing, with trust and respect between training partners and a zeal for looking at the source material. It is everything we aim to embody with MesserFest, so when she agreed to come all the way over from Germany to teach for us this year we were absolutely thrilled.
Diana is one of the coolest people we know, she travels the world teaching HEMA, restoring musical instruments and making magic wands out of the ones she can’t. She’s a perfect example of life goals and we’ll be so spoiled by her because she’ll be teaching not once, but twice for us. One of which will be something special for you all in Geek Corner, so make sure your brains are switched to on mode that day.
James Elmslie
MesserFest wouldn’t be complete without our resident expert on all things Messer, so of course we’re dragging him back again this year.
Not only is he the man who created the Elmslie typology, but his blade smithing skills for recreating historical Messers, (and everything else that arguably are and aren’t Messers) are epic and we’re lucky enough that he’s going to be bringing some down for you to handle. We do request that you try not to drool on them though.
James will be residing in Geek Corner all weekend and will happily do Show & Tells and share all of his vast knowledge with anyone who approaches, we may even be able to tame him enough to get a formal PowerPoint lecture, but we’re making no promises. James’s mind is definitely his own and we’re not worthy of trying to restrain it, so, even if we can’t say exactly what you’ll get from him, it’ll be totally worth the ride!
