Sword fighting and jousting skills have been displayed during the two-day Tasmania Medieval Festival in Sheffield, in the state’s north.

Events including cannon firing, archery and “knights on horseback jousting at full speed” were featured during the two-day gathering, which drew thousands of people across the weekend.

Danny Wilton took up sword fighting about 18 months ago and said it had become “a very big addiction”.

“I love it,” he said.

“Wearing the armour itself is very hard on the body … stamina wise, it is really hard.”

Justin Holland was among those who took part in a jousting battle, in which two armoured combatants ride horses towards each other and try to knock their opponent off their mount.

“Horse riding is dangerous enough as it is,” he said.

“Then we just decided to just up the ante and put 30 kilos of armour on, gallop at each other with a 12-foot pole and see who can stay on the longest.”

Mr Holland said while he didn’t think jousting was a deadly sport “it certainly has the element of danger about it”.

Justin Holland says jousting combines his passion for horses and history. Photo: ABC

“Falling off the back of a horse with 30 kilograms of armour on is not probably something you should do regularly.”

He said the event was a great way to combine his “passion for horses and also for history”.

The annual festival was moved to a much bigger site for this year’s event.

Organiser Lord Ned said they needed more space as the event’s popularity grew.

“This is the sixth year we’ve done this in a row and it’s just getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” he said.

It attracted entrants from around Tasmania and interstate.

Organisers hope it becomes one of the major medieval festivals in Australia.

“We’d like to make it one of the biggest … Tasmania is only small but we fight outside of our weight class,” Lord Ned said.

The event is run by the Sovereign Military Order of the Knights Templar Tasmania, which describes itself as a “benevolent religious order helping disenfranchised and under-privileged youths and street kids within our local communities”.

-ABC