1. Deadlines, forms and quotas
Registration starts on January 1st of every year of the festival and finishes on April 30th of the same year. The deadline of applying to the festival is a week before the end of registration, as a rule April 23rd.
For the Organizing Committee not to be overburdened with work, there are monthly quotas for applying. The quotas are established and regulated by the Committee which information is reported then in the official communities of the Rusborg and on the website of the Yuzhnaya Rus.
You can apply for the festival via the application form on the website of the Yuzhnaya Rus. To do that you have to log in. As the registration period starts, the form becomes available to fill in.
2. The Registering Committee
Registration to the festival is done by the Registering Committee considering application forms filled in.
From year 2017 the working principles of the Committee have been changed, and nowadays the following are up-to-date:
- The Committee is under the Organizing Committee and acts according to the rules of the festival published and corresponding authorities.
- The Organizing Committee has the right of inviting and dismissing the members of the Committee if necessary.
- The work done by the Registering Committee is anonymous and confidential in order to exclude any possibility of pressure.
3. Registration
Registration is done using photos.
Either the head of the club or a member of the festival fills in the application form on the website where they write their real name in order to identify a person on the spot.
You have to attach photos of your costume and – for men only – your armoury to the application form.
How shall I take the photos?
In the photo, you have to wear your costume. It’s important to remember. So, there are 4 basic photos needed:
1. Everyday costume – without any warm clothes
2. Warm clothes – coats, fur coats and cloaks
3. For men – the full armoury and weapons
4. Shoes
Take your photos standing full length, men with their feet shoulder width apart, women at will, the hands down. The head straight, look in front of you. Don’t take any passionate positions.
Hold your close-quarter weapon in your right hand in the position in which its construction can be examined easily. Let your shield be in your left hand, half-face.
Also, you will need the following photos:
-details of the trimmings if there are any (ribbons, embroidery);
-costume details: belts, knives, bags, beads, bracelets, rings, brooches etc.;
-weapon details with a ruler: the pommel and crossguard of the sword with a part of the blade seen (in this case put the ruler across the blade under the crossguard), the axe, spear, scramasax, sabre;
Tradesmen have to attach a link or photos of the goods to sell.
You can hide comments on your application form by ticking the corresponding option while filling in the form. In this case all the comments and questions of the member of the Registering Committee will be seen by them and you only.
Detailed rules of applying HERE
4. Participation permit
While examining your application form, the member of the Registering Committee can ask you for some extra photos of the costume or the armoury, as well as the sources used. Demads of the Registering Committee members are obligatory to follow.
Every male participant must have at least one piece of attack armament of the mentioned period (IX-XI centuries AD);
Every participant willing to take part in buhurts and fortress assault must also have minimum of protection armament: a helmet and a shield (a helmet for spearmen and broadaxers);
All armoury must answer the historical period of the festival (IX-XI centuries AD, in some cases helmets of the Vendel period can be permitted to use), demands of the Organizing Committee and be also permitted to use by the Registering Committee;
Any armoury and weapons not corresponding with the period are prohibited;
The weapons without having been permitted is to store in the Organizing Committee till the end of the festival.
Any hidden corpus protection in prohibited (car, motorcycle protection etc.) The one caught using those will be disqualified from buhurts and get banned for two years.
Hidden protection of the groin, elbows, knees is allowed unless it can be seen.
Unless you have a thing needed in the region you re-enact you can borrow it from a neighbouring region. You can only borrow things from a neighbouring region, not further. For example, we have the following regions: Europe, Scandinavia, Rus, the Steppe, the East. If you re-enact a Scandinavian, you can borrow things from Europe and Rus, not from the Steppe. If your region is Rus, your neighbouring regions are the Steppe and Scandinavia. If the Steppe, then the East and Rus. Of course, the classification is rather relative, so borrowings that break this simple model are to be justified with the sources.
In the case when there isn’t any obvious source of interpreting of a detail of the costume, the Registering Committee can decide themselves whether it answers the rules of the festival.
While the application form is being examined the participant can see its status on the website and also get notifications about any changings.
Only those participants whose application forms get the status “Registration passed” can take part in the Rusborg. You cannot take part in the festival without having applied for it or if your form doesn’t get the necessary status.
You also cannot register at the spot, so a candidate coming to the festival without having applied on the website in advance will not participate in the festival.
The application given is to be considered within maximum 1.5 months, but not longer that the end of the common application period. Passing the registration successfully automatically means that the participant accepts all the rules of the festival which they approve by ticking the corresponding spot while filling in the application form.
In case the participant passed the registration couldn’t come to the festival the club can take another person instead of the applying one only if they wear the same clothes and use the same equipment having been registered. Still the Organizing Committee has the right not to allow this participant to attend the festival unless the club has reported of such a change (sms, email, call etc.) or the costume and/or the equipment has been registered. Any people who want to live on the territory of the festival must pass the registration whatever role they are going to perform (either a driver, a guest of yours, etc.)
Food, drinks and cooking
- participants are responsible for their food and cooking themselves, the Organizing Committee provides water and firewood;
- plates and cups are to be made of historic materials only (wood, clay, glass or bone);
- cooking must be done using historic pots, cauldrons or pans. Plastic packages must be hidden from sight (in a tent, for example).
- cooking must be done at organized fire pits.
Transport
Participants’ cars are to be parked at the organized guarded parking place in 500 metres from the camp.
Ecological rules
- rubbish is to be thrown away in the particular places only;
- use only toilets provided;
- making fires must be approved by the Organizing Committee;
- at the end of the festival the place you’ve lived must be cleaned up;
- breaking any ecological rules may lead into banning from the festival.
Common rules
- music that doesn’t correspond with the theme of the festival and modern musical instruments are prohibited;
- smoking is allowed in the organized places only;
- hookahs are prohibited;
- swearing a lot is prohibited;
- any aggressive actions towards other participants and spectators are prohibited;
- On ‘The tourist day’ during the buhurts alcohol is completely prohibited. Breaking any rules may lead into banning from the festival.