Due
to the success of the
2004 event, the army invited EventPlan to
increase the scale of our displays at the Colchester Military Festival
this year - which turned out to be an even bigger success with over 20,000
visitors and a huge variety of displays to enjoy. The Garrison is home to 16
Air Assault Brigade, which in 2003 saw
active service in Iraq. This year the festival's Patrons were The Honourable Sir
William McAlpine Bt and Martin Bell OBE. The venue, Abbey Fields, is an
attractive large open grass area with trees, adjacent to the garrison and within
easy walking distance of the town centre.
Visitors enjoyed a superb line up of quality re-enactment and living history groups depicting soldiers through the ages, from Classical Greeks to WWII. In addition to ongoing living history displays, there was a chronological "time line" of history through individual displays within our own separate arena depicting the uniforms, weaponry and tactics of each era, plus Redcoats through the ages show, English Civil War, Jacobite Rebellion and American Civil War skirmishes in the main arena. Our groups also took part in the Grand Finale - Salute to Colchester - a parade of all military participants, the 1812 Overture, followed by Sunset, which was even more spectacular this year with the addition of two more army bands, making four in all.
Other displays and attractions arranged by the army included a modern-day infantry assault, the Red Devils parachute display team, daredevil motorcyclists, Army bands, military vehicles old and new, army tug of war, archery & air rifles, garrison radio road show, helicopter rides and many static displays....all in all a fantastic day out.
Click for our photo gallery, or an excellent selection of photographs taken by photographer Martin Coulbert.
Don't miss this year's even bigger military festival on 15-16 July 2006!
Participating groups
2005
As usual with our events, we only invited top groups to take part, ensuring authentic yet entertaining displays;
Ancient Greek: The Hoplite Association
Romans: The Colchester Roman Society
Medieval: The Lincoln Guild
English Civil War: The Marquis of Winchester's Regiment of Foot, Fairfax Battalia and Hungerford's Horse, from the English Civil War Society
C18th: Lace Wars and New France & Old England
Napoleonic: The Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 33rd (West Riding) Regiment of Foot, 52nd (Oxfordshire) Light Infantry and 2nd Battalion 95th Rifles.
American Civil War: The Southern Skirmish Association
Victorian: Boers of the Heilbron Commando
World War One: A Lewis Gun Section from the 10th Essex Great War Living History Group plus Andy Smerdon (as Australian Light Horse) riding Mack.
World War Two: The WWII Display Team (with 25-pounder field gun), Vickers Machine Gunners Society, 21st Army Group (C.M.P.) Living History Group, "Das Heer" re-enactment & living history society, Za Oberonya, Blackout Volunteers and Croix de Guerre
Additional groups and performers who would like to take part in future events like this one are invited to contact us for more details and click the link for our Standard terms and conditions for participation.
Admission
Adult £5.00p, OAP/under 16s £3.00p, Family £15. Car parking costs £2. All profits go to charity.
A brief history of re-enactment
Interested in how and why re-enactment has become so popular in recent years? Click on the link to read a history of re-enactment.
Events 2006
Click here for details of many other historical events organised by EventPlan this summer.
Back to 2005 events Links to Events 2005 EventPlan Home Page EventPlan News
Updated 11 June 2006