Tewkesbury Medieval Festival

Cancellation contingency

Following some recent incidents with major outdoor events which have been cancelled at the last moment and chaos has ensued, Tewkesbury Medieval Festival has developed contingency arrangements, which everyone is requested to note and comply with.

1. In the week prior to the event, the status will be published on the Medieval Festival web site. If there are any potential problems, including changes to advised arrangements they will be shown. (Note that unless they are from 'Pegs', comments on the Living History Discussion Forum do not come from the Festival management.)
2. If there are any unforeseen problems with the event they will be advised to the local radio station, BBC Radio Gloucestershire (104.7FM) and BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester (104.0FM) who will be requested to broadcast the information. A telephone number will be set up with a message giving status information. The number is 07533 827892.
3. Each trader/group/entertainer has been asked to give a contact telephone number for use in an emergency, principally cancellation. Groups should ensure that they are in a position to cascade the news to their members, by having their own telephone tree. This arrangement will only be used in the 24 hours before the event.
4. For those who have difficulties in returning home, there will be limited facilities available in Tewkesbury. A help line will be set up specifically for participants, and as much as possible will be done to accommodate needs. These arrangements will be limited, and aimed at those who have travelled from overseas. The number will be provided through the message phone referred to in item 2 above.

We don't anticipate that these arrangements will ever be needed, but the precaution needs to be taken, and we appreciate your co-operation.

A big thank you!

The directors would like to say a big thank you to Tewkesbury Chamber of Commerce for their donation of £500, also The Vivid Consultancy for their donation of £100 and lots of other support. It's help like this that will secure the future of the event.

Your support is needed

Despite the huge success of the event and the thousands of people it attracts to the town every year, we have a real financial problem and with the cost of just about everything rising we expect to have a serious shortfall this year.

The festival itself receives almost no support - this year we have had just one grant of £500 from the Town Council and in the current economic climate raising the money we need to keep going from year to year is becoming increasingly difficult.

We know from a wide range of sources that the weekend of the festival is one of the busiest of the year, with all the hotels and B&Bs selling out, pubs and restaurants doing roaring trade and most other businesses benefitting from the extra visitors.

In order to ensure the future of the festival, which clearly is so good for your business, we are asking if you would consider make a donation to our funds, based on your extra profits, or perhaps donate or provide at discount some the equipment and other goods that we use - for example we feed a hard working crew of around 30 in the run up to the event, and food (vegetarian) would be very welcome.

In these cash strapped times there are other ways of helping us, without actually giving us money. Putting on an event like ours uses a great deal of equipment and stock - and any donations, or even discounts would be very gratefully recieved.

• Probably the biggest thing we are asking for is the use of a telehandler, for 11 days - before, during and after the festival. It would only be used by qualified personel, and would be taken great care of.
• We use miles of Harras fencing and hazard tape, stacks of plumbing and electrical fittings, red diesel for our generator and road diesel for our site vehicles.
• We could also use ply wood, stationery of all kinds, paint, gaffer tape, black rubish bags, working gloves and food to feed our hard working crew of about 30.
• We operate a crew cafe from the Wednesday before the event to the following Monday, and need tea, coffee and food of all kinds except meat and meat products (we only serve vegetarian food because we not have good storage for meat). Propane gas for cooking on would also be very welcome.

All donations will be acknowledged publically. For further information, or to offer items contact info@tewkesburymedievalfestival.org or ring 01684 291328.

The festival is a free entry event, organised and run entirely by volunteers. If you wish to donate cash, cheques made out to Tewkesbury Medieval Festival should be sent to The Treasurer, Tewkesbury Medieval Festival, PO Box 147, GL20 9AP.

Peggy Clatworthy, for Tewkesbury Medieval Festival.

New to the festival in 2009

The “Bright Knight” learning zone is new to the Medieval Festival for 2009. Its aim is to enable children to understand just how interesting and exciting history can be. Through-out both days of the festival, the “Bright Knight” will be welcoming a range of interesting visitors including a story-teller and fire-eater, a treasure-detecting team and a Fletcher. There will also be medieval toys, shield and wimple making, mad-medieval quizzes and newspaper challenges! Go on, it's worth a visit.