Who doesn’t love a themed birthday party celebration?!
Jetstar just turned 21 and I was lucky enough to nab an invite (my first ever invitation from an airline – what an honour).
The party of epic proportions was in Melbourne and as a Sydney-sider the airline kindly flew me the 800+ kms to Victoria so I wouldn’t miss out.
Now – this party was unlike any other 21st I’ve been to (and that’s not because it’s nearly been a decade since I’ve been to one) – it was almost as though I’d been taken back in time by several centuries.
Jetstar teamed up with Swordcraft to celebrate their birthday in a traditional way – via medieval battle – and in doing so gave eight lucky people the chance to win their share of $50,000 in Jetstar credit.
Swordcraft is Australia’s largest medieval battle game and live-action role-playing game, according to their website.
Prior to the event, Aussies were given the opportunity to enter the competition for their chance to take part in the ‘Knights of the Skies’ tournament.
They had to create their own LARPing costume at home (DIY style) to be into win the chance to battle it out.
For those who may be a bit lost – LARP stands for ‘Live Action Role Play’ – and is an immersive form of role-playing where participants with medieval costumes and props physically act out characters and battles.
It’s super popular and a growing activity all across the country.
In the early hours of Sunday morning on the 25th of May, 80 people gathered ready for an epic medieval LARP quest, with elaborate battles and epic side quests, at Melbourne’s Edinburgh Gardens.
Radio announcer and comedian Liam Stapleton, dressed from top to bottom as a Wizard, was the host of the day.
“I’m a fire mage wizard, sort of casting spells and whatnot, drinking potions, and hopefully I can cast a few spells to win me my fair share in $50,000 worth of flights, because I want to go to Bali and escape the winter,” he tells me.
This campaign was Liam’s first time partaking in LARPing, and he says he’s not too far off from joining the community.
“Maybe I am a bit of a LARPer in my own house. I dress up a lot and do a lot of videos and that sort of stuff on the socials,” he says, adding, “Last weekend I dressed up like an ogre and chased my wife around the house for TikTok.”
He says LARPing is a lot more physical than he originally thought.
“It’s actually kind of brutal. Like people smash each other with sticks and stuff. They get into it. I think it’s all safe – you know the arrows have got squishy bits on the end of them. And the swords are all like plastic, but they give them a crack. You’ll see people are getting pretty sweaty out there smashing into each other!” he says.
The Ben, Liam, and Belle presenter told me he was in awe of all the effort put into their costumes, saying, “there’s some of the best dressed out here. This one lady, she’s come as a bit of a Khaleesi ‘Mother of Dragons’ type setup, and she’s got a fake arm stitched on, and then her other arm is the dragon mouth. People really commit to the bit!”
As for his own Wizard costume, he dubs it a “rent-a-costume”.
“I’ve got to say it’s very comfy because when we did the launch piece for Jetstar Knights in the Skies, I was wearing the chain mail armour… and it was traditional, it looked the part, but it was a bit of a nightmare!” he tells me with a laugh, adding “Being a Wizard is way comfier, it’s basically like wearing a dressing gown, you get to wear a cool hat and staffs are lighter than swords!”
And costumes really are such a big part of this community – with some spending tens and thousands of dollars to look their best.
I spoke with Lou Harwood, the advertising manager for Swordcraft, who warns us not to get too intimidated by the costumes if you’re just getting started.
She says she started playing when she was 16, and was working with birthday money and thrifting her outfits.
“You don’t just get chucked into it and don’t feel intimidated by the costumes, ’cause we all started somewhere,” she says.
The Melbourne local shared with me a bit more with me about why she loves it.
“ The community is amazing and I’ve really found my family amongst the people that I play with, but also just the storytelling and the role-playing aspect, it’s very cathartic,” she tells me.
She adds that the community gets people from all walks of life.
“ There are so many avenues for anyone to get involved. Some people like to come along and see it as a cricket club of sorts; they just come for their weekly biff with their mates, and then they go home. Other people are more interested in the in-depth storyline. And even if you’re a little bit introverted, most of us start out that way. You get a lot of confidence and you learn a lot of abilities to talk to people and be a bit more outgoing through the process of learning to role-play,” she tells me.
After a morning of battle, four lucky winners from Team “Jet” took home their share of $50,000 in Jetstar flights.
Congratulations to Nicole Brownlie, Cameron Riches, Genevieve Maisey, and Julian Dods!
Thinking of joining a LARP group?
Lou says that everyone who does LARP is so excited for more people to come along to learn.
“Find your local group. Swordcraft Melbourne, we go every Friday in Parkville. But we have chapters all over the place, and there are other LARPs around Australia as well. And just don’t try not to be nervous! Just take that leap and jump into it. Most people’s first games, it’s a training games. They’ll teach you how to play,” she says.
“I encourage everyone to give it a go once, it is genuinely so much fun. Check out your local LARPs online. We are just so excited that Jetstar could put on this event with us, and we get to show people how awesome the LARP world is,” she says.
Why not give it a go?
