SwordFest 2025 comes early to the Relic Room, on Jan. 25
January 13, 2025Folks who are not historians tend to think of warfare in terms of things that go bang – rifles, machine guns and bombs. But for most of human history, certainly since the start of the Iron Age, combat was all about the cold, sharp, naked blade. Especially the sword.
That’s what the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum will be all about on Saturday, Jan. 25, when the Columbia Mill Building will again resound to the alarming clang of steel, as sword enthusiasts from across history celebrate SwordFest 2025.
This has been the museum’s biggest, loudest Saturday program for several years, and Curator of Education Joe Long is confident this one will be no exception.
Living history re-enactors and sword-fighters of every imaginable kind will be there – in the forms of knights in armor, soldiers from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, pirates, martial arts experts, and modern sport fencers.
Not to mention hundreds of kids of all ages, come to gawk and listen and sometimes even join in.
And it’s all free. Not only that, but admission to the museum itself – recently reopened after months of remodeling – will also be free throughout the event. And special tours will conduct visitors to learn about the many historical swords in the educational exhibits.
The technology of swords will be on live display as well. Rick Thompson, a re-creator of 18th-century blacksmithing techniques, will show how to make a Revolutionary-era sword on his glowing forge as all watch.
Here is some more of what visitors will find between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. that day:
- Iaido, the Art of Sword-Drawing. Dan Bernardo of WellWithin Martial Arts will demonstrate a traditional Japanese sword art, including a live cutting exhibition with a samurai sword.
- The Palmetto Knights Steel Combat Team, which means fully armored knights and their fighting techniques.
- The Columbia Fencers’ Club will engage in the fast-moving modern sport of fencing, as seen in Olympic competitions.
- Carolina Historical Fencing, which recreates the fighting techniques of past centuries with a variety of blades.
- A demonstration of the McAuley Broadsword training manual that came out of South Carolina in the 19th century.
- Cavalry Saber Historian Neil Rose will show how Wade Hampton’s cavalry employed the saber at Gettysburg.
- Swords of the Jedi. Plans are tentative at the moment, but the museum hopes to once again put on a display of a recreational form of swordplay inspired by the Star Wars universe. Yes, we’re talking lightsabers.
- Theatrical dueling in the classic style, by members of the Charles Towne Few – a band of showy pirates in the style of the 17th century.
And more. Much more. Come on out and have fun while learning.
About the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum
Founded in 1896, the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum is an accredited museum focusing on South Carolina’s distinguished martial tradition through the Revolutionary War, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, the War on Terror, and other American conflicts. It serves as the state’s military history museum by collecting, preserving, and exhibiting South Carolina’s military heritage from the colonial era to the present, and by providing superior educational experiences and programming. It recently opened a major new exhibit, “A War With No Front Lines: South Carolina and the Vietnam War, 1965-1973.” The museum is located at 301 Gervais St. in Columbia, sharing the Columbia Mills building with the State Museum. For more information, go to https://crr.sc.gov/.