Scenes from The Great Trebulation, Brooklyn’s best and only catapult competition

By Scott Lynch

More than a hundred people gathered on a scrubby field in Bushwick’s Green Central Knoll on Sunday for the third annual Great Trebulation, a catapult competition in which a record 19 teams hauled their homebuilt siege engines into the park to fling unwrapped Lindt chocolate truffles as far as they could. And, equally important, to see which team looked the best (or most ridiculous) while doing so.

The event was organized once again by Bushwick resident Reed Worrell, a professor of  forensic anthropology by day, a part-time bartender by night, and a full-time trebuchet admirer in his heart. “The Great Trebulation is a celebration of ancient engineering,” he told Brooklyn Magazine. “Which I gather a lot of people are identifying these days based on the big turnout this year. Plus you get to dress up in costume. And it’s just fun to throw things really far.”

Or not really far at all! All of the hand-built trebuchets here were cool and beautiful in a labor-of-love sort of way, but only about half of them managed to hurl the official projectile further than a few feet. In fact several trebuchets sent their missiles flying backward, which wouldn’t be great if you were involved in an actual medieval siege, but was greeted with support and applause here on Sunday in Brooklyn.

Ridgewood resident Eulie Scheel of team TrebuchACAB was competing in their first Great Trebulation, and their team’s heavily graffitied catapult was an early crowd favorite. “We organically sourced a police barricade from the streets of Bushwick,” they said. “So we’re repurposing a barrier into something that actually breaks down barriers.”

Team TrebuchACAB (Photo by Scott Lynch)

There were three trophies up for grabs on Sunday. The Historical Accuracy award, given to the team that “takes the greatest effort to simulate period specific aesthetics and methods of construction with their trebuchet,” went to the lengthily named Tossers of Onderbadonkadonk crew.

The Tossers of Onderbedonkedonk, winner of the Most Historically Accurate award (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Had there been an award for the least historically accurate siege engine, team Trebabies likely would have won for their trebuchet that looked like a big butt.

Team Trebabies (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Team Trouble with Tribbelation took home the Best Aesthetics trophy for their elaborate recreation  of the famous Star Trek episode, complete with dozens of furry, squeaky “tribbles.” And their trebuchet was serious business too: like last year, when they also won Best Aesthetics for their Midas Plague Guilds get-ups, the team launched the second-longest hurl of the day.

Team Trouble with Tribbelation, winner of Best Aesthetic trophy (Photo by Scott Lynch)

The grand prize winner, for the Greatest Distance Thrown, went to the To Be Cringe Is To Be Free team for their launch of 179 feet.

The farthest throw on the day, 179 feet, belonged to the To Be Cringe Is To Be Free team (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Other teams of note included the Oppenhurlers, who concluded each toss with a loud group lament of “what have we done?!?”

Team Oppenhurler (Photo by Scott Lynch)

The Twash Wabbits used found wood from outside a restaurant in Red Hook for their trebuchet, and covered it in random imagery like Cher and Jesus and lottery scratchers and skulls.

Team Twash Wabbits (Photo by Scott Lynch)

And the bright purple Trebu-Slay catapult had its own cheer squad, complete with signs.

Team Trebu-Slay (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Mostly though, the Great Trebulation was just a good excuse to do something creative with your friends and then hang out all day (this year’s afterparty was at 101 Wilson Bar). As Bushwick resident Lauren Moranor of team Trebuschemi said, “we kind of stumbled upon this last year and watched the event and thought ‘hey this looks a really unique, community-type thing to do,’ so here we are. It’s a good time, a fun thing for the neighborhood.”