Paris HEMA Open returns in 2026 with revamped format
After eight years away, Paris HEMA Open returned with 72 fighters, REACH judging and a rebuilt production stack meant to make it more than a nostalgia run.
The Paris HEMA Open returned to the European calendar after an eight-year absence, and the comeback was framed as a reset for one of France’s biggest Historical European Martial Arts tournaments. Founded in 2015 and last staged in 2018, the event came back with expanded resources, a bigger competitive footprint and the same claim that had helped give it weight before the hiatus: it is the largest HEMA tournament in France.
The rebuild was most visible in the rules and the field. Paris used the official REACH system from the French Federation of Modern Pentathlon, where only clean hits score, double hits do not count and afterblows are not allowed. That structure pushed the event toward precision rather than trading, and the bracket list showed the scale of the revival: 50 fighters in mixed and men’s steel longsword, 40 in mixed and men’s steel sabre, 10 in women’s steel longsword and 8 in women’s steel sabre. HEMA Ratings listed 72 fighters overall and 366 fights across the 2026 divisions.
The contrast with the pre-hiatus edition was stark. HEMA Ratings listed the 2018 Paris HEMA Open on June 23, 2018, in Paris with 27 fighters in a single mixed steel longsword division and 147 fights. That event was heavily documented at Gymnase Auriol, where a YouTube playlist captured the full competition in 154 videos, and SLG Prod said the entire video set from the tournament totaled 154 clips. A 2018 registration post also had the weekend split across Saturday and Sunday, with an Open competition of 36 fencers on June 23 and women’s and team competitions the next day.
The 2026 return built on a newer Paris-area base. The official site said the tournament drew on the experience of La Voûte de Fer, a national event held every year since 2019, and it pitched enhanced streaming, trained referees and committed partners as part of the relaunch. HEMA Ratings listed the 2026 tournament for April 21 in Bourg-la-Reine, while a separate calendar placed it on June 25-26 in central Paris, underscoring how the revived event had already become large enough to generate multiple listings across the circuit.
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