"Je suis Matilda de Breos, c'est ma chateau."

The twinning ceremony was held in the Market Square last night, and I dressed up as Matilda de Breos for the occasion. After all, as the builder of Hay Castle (in legend she carried the stones for the castle in her apron) she really should be there to see that everything was done properly. Accordingly, I wore my re-enactment bliaut (a medieval dress with 'angel' sleeves) and over dress, and the full length orange velvet cloak, with a white wimple and veil - so I looked not unlike an orange nun. Carrying a sword. Ann thought it would look cool. I don't normally wear a wimple - that's for respectable ladies like Matilda, and I'm normally a mercenary camp follower - not respectable at all. It does have the advantage of being nice and warm, and the disadvantage of restricting your field of peripheral vision - though not as much as Haydn's vision was restricted, in his full face mask. He was playing the Green Man, and carrying an enormous head made out of papier mache, on a pole.
Richard Booth decided not to attend the ceremony itself. Instead, he hosted a small reception up in the State Rooms of the Castle - with some very nice cakes made by Tracy. There was a little girl up there who was fascinated by my sword.
The delegation were taken down to the front entrance of the castle, where two vintage cars were waiting to take them round the corner to the square, where a marquee had been erected earlier in the day with a stage. I walked down, and ended up being interviewed on camera, along with Ann Brichto, explaining who I was in history and why I was there - and Ann added that the legend is that Timbuktu was founded by a woman, too, so that's one more thing we have in common. I have no idea who the lady with the camera was, but she was there in Cardiff with the coach as well. The BBC were there at the beginning, but left about half way through.
Then the vintage cars arrived, with Rob Soldat in medieval tunic and cloak in attendance, Haydn Pugh as the Green Man, and Dinah Jones in her Welsh costume.
A local choir sang a capella, and some kids from Red Kite Theatre performed one of the songs from Celt, the big show they put on a couple of years ago, with Derek Addyman improbably wearing a Tuareg head dress while waving an Iron Age Celtic sword at the back. There were speeches, with translations, and punctuated by announcements from Ken the Town Cryer. The Mayor of Timbuktu got quite animated and enthusiastic. It was a pity that it was difficult to follow what was going on from outside the tent, but there was a fair sized crowd in the square and up the bank of the castle.
After the document was signed and witnessed, children from Llanigon, Hay and Ffynon Gynedd schools sang the Welsh national anthem, and then older girls from Gwernyfed sang the Mali national anthem. Members of the choir that had sang earlier (all dressed in black with pink ties for the men and pink accessories for the ladies) also performed the Mali national anthem on brass instruments.
The fireworks, at the end, were most impressive - lots of rockets bursting over the Norman tower of the castle, with accompanying African drum music from the group that are running the drumming workshops for Hay-on-Fire.
All in all a successful and enjoyable evening, rounded off with a mini pub crawl in full costume.