3). When will your event be?

3.1 Planning

Of course you need a good “lead time” to plan and organise an event. Planning should start quite early as you will wish to secure the best venue(s) and your choice of performers. Some venues can be booked up years in advance and performers often find their diaries filling more than 12 months in advance, particularly when they have taken repeat bookings from regular clients. Advance publicity can ensure that satisfied visitors from last year will return again to the repeat event.

3.2 Dates

When would be a good time for my event?

Most events take place at weekends except maybe for the schools holidays . Your choice may be limited by the type of performers you wish to hire. Re-enactment groups, if you need large numbers of costumed performers, are not full time and their members are only available at weekends. They cannot guarantee a full turnout of their members and you should consider having a contract clause to include payment by proportion of those turning up. Full time professional Living Historians (singly or in small groups) may be available mid-week.

However there are exceptions, take Kentwell Hall , for example, they run an event for visiting schools through three weeks just before the start of the school summer holidays using volunteer Living Historians who take holidays from their normal employment to attend. This is very exceptional and is unlikely to work for you on this scale but museums and heritage sites might be able to train “friends” groups to play some simple “acting” role in living history presentations.

However, Living History professionals are experts on their subjects and can talk at every level rather than just taking on a simple role. There are some professional acting companies who can provide “characters” with some historical background research but they do not have the same depth of knowledge of the Living History specialist. Bank holidays can be very popular for all sorts of non-historical events which might compete with yours.

3.3 Weather

In 2007 the two Joust weekends and the Battle of Bosworth were cancelled due to flooding. Is the event outdoors? Bad weather is the biggest uncontrollable reason for failure of an event. You will need to choose a time when the weather is likely to be good? Rainfall in the UK is higher in the West and North than the East and South. However, those who live in rainy areas might be hardier than those who don't –“If we waited for fine weather we'd be hermits”, is a quote from one Lanark ( Scotland ) resident. If it too hot, visitors are likely to go to the seaside or the swimming pool. If they do arrive at your event the only traders who will do well are the beer tent and the ice cream van!!

The start of the outdoor season tends to be at Easter and finish by the school autumn half term holidays (see School term dates ). Of course the summer holiday weeks are the most popular, as parents get increasingly desperate to entertain their children.

To mitigate the risk of cancellation due to weather you can get bad weather insurance for a complete wash out. Of course there will be all sorts of caveats and it is expensive. Alternatively you can spread the risk by charging exhibitors, traders and caterers for pitches. A canny organiser will have covered most of the basic running costs with pitch fees. Outdoor pitch fees for caterers start at around £1000 for 5000 attendees (including staff and re-enactors). Pitch fees for traders with their own “authentic” tentage are often about £50 for similar numbers rising to £150 for large events. Of course the traders might wish to have a refund, this will depend on your contract with them.

3.4 Who am I clashing with?

Unless yours is a particularly unique event you are not likely to get many visitors travelling more than a 1.5 hours journey time, i.e. within a region of the UK . You might like to check about other Historic Events. There are several resources that keep calendars of re-enactment events:

By and large there are not enough Living History Events to consider them to be direct major competition. As long as you stay out of the same region as an existing Living History event and do not wish to have the same performers at your event you should have no clash at all. There could have an event each weekend in the nine UK regions and still not be competing. The closest we get to this is at the August Bank Holiday.

The real competition is from other family activities: shopping, a barbeque, the seaside, sports events, theme parks, car boot sales, county shows, town/church fetes/galas, air shows/other transport rallies. Check with the local tourist office about competing events that weekend.