Historical events to suit your needs

For a quick overview of our services, please read this page, event planning and management and other client information.

As a visitor attraction, a colourful historical event is hard to beat for excitement and entertainment value. But successful events don't just happen, they have to be planned. And with a wide variety of historical eras and hundreds of groups available, the latter all with differing displays, skills, standards, requirements and costs, it helps enormously to call upon the experts to help choose and co-ordinate appropriate performers. EventPlan can source and advise on the best groups to meet clients’ specific needs, as well as organise and manage the event(s) if so wished.

Which type(s) of event would be most suitable for you?

Whether a visitor attraction or seeking something exciting as part of corporate hospitality, we can offer many different types of event depending on your requirements, circumstances and budget. At the risk of borrowing an all too heavily used phrase, we really can pretty much offer "something for everyone". We have been involved in a variety of projects and our events can portray most eras from prehistory to the space race (more details on our event planning and management page, link above). For our forthcoming projects, please click the link to discover our 2010 events programme. Or for a flavour of the kind of shows that we can stage, please check out our previous events or our photo galleries of past shows.

We can either work to your brief, or if you aren't sure what to stage, we can advise you. EventPlan Managing Director Howard Giles has commissioned and staged over 5,000 successful historical events during his career so has the experience to recommend  what might work best - and what probably wouldn't - based on the individual circumstances of your property, if you would like him to. It  may be that one theme or historical era particularly suits your venue, or perhaps a combination if you wish to plan a programme of several events.  Over the years, historical re-enactment has evolved into several different types of display, the six main categories being (in no particular order);

Multi-period events including large "Spectaculars"

Battles and sieges

Military and combat displays

Living history and site interpretation

Historical entertainments "and have a go"

Maritime and/or air displays

 

Multi-period events: For a truly spectacular event, consider a multi-period show! Indeed, When Events Director for English, Howard Giles (now Managing Director of EventPlan)  created and then directed the largest multi-period shows in the world from 1996 to 2000 - the famous History in Action series at Kirby Hall. The Millenium show featured around 4,000 performers and 37,000 visitors. Since then Howard has regularly created other huge multi-period shows, some with truly massive audiences.   Offering a huge choice of displays and activities covering the history of the world from the Stone Age to Space Race, you can't beat a well planned multi-period for audience enjoyment, which is probably why we are asked to stage so many of them! A mixture of arena displays, living history and other activities creates a "time line" for visitors to explore, putting historical dates in context and making sense of how things changed from era to era. Children are particularly captivated, although these events are hugely enjoyed by all the family as - at the risk of using a cliche - there really is something for everyone!   Multi-periods feature a mixture of all the different types of display described on this page, and can even include tanks, aircraft, boats and much more....yet they need not cost as much as you might think. Click the link above to find out more.

Battle Re-enactments: Perhaps the best known form of re-enactment and one of the most spectacular, with simulated combat often featuring hundreds of participants. Battles require quite a lot of space but offer colourful mass action. To best entertain an audience, battles need to be carefully sited, planned, scripted and directed, a service EventPlan specialises in providing. Multi-period events (above) often include “battles through the ages”, very popular with audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Battles of most eras are regularly refought, from the Dark Ages right up to World War Two, each offering a different type of battle from hand-to hand fighting, through massed musketeers and pikemen to armoured vehicles and even air power. Sieges (for example, our hugely successful Against all odds - the final siege of Newark 1646) represent another exciting form of battle re-enactment. Temporary fortifications for gun batteries and besieging troops (dug or free-standing) create an extremely unusual and visual battlefield, especially when recreating an actual siege that happened on a particular site. Re-enactments of sieges are quite rare and if well organised will attract and appeal to large audiences. Both battles and sieges can be accompanied by military displays and living history for added visitor enjoyment, and at little additional cost.

Military and combat Displays: Generally smaller scale than battles, but often incorporating a small-scale skirmish, these displays (which can offer groups representing virtually any era from Classical Greeks to the present day) offer colour and excitement but with smaller numbers. Suited to venues of most sizes, these displays usually demonstrate period drill and battle tactics in detail, with an audience closer to the action than possible with a big battle.

Our military & combat displays can also encompass themes such as archery, equestrian skills-at-arms, etc and can sometimes include safe "have a go" activities for visitors. Indeed, there's enormous variety on offer.

Living History and site interpretation: Although battle re-enactment and military displays are very popular, living history can depict a much wider range of subjects, from everyday domestic life such as a C17th gardener and his world,  to early music, or from cooking on an inglenook fireplace to life in a civil war soldiers’ garrison or encampment. Just about every era, from the Stone Age to C20th life, can be depicted. Living history offers an intimate, fascinating, face-to-face visitor experience where numbers of performers are not as important as content, knowledge and the approachability. Children in particular learn so much, yet find the displays hugely enjoyable.

Non-military living history is increasingly gaining in popularity, being especially suitable for roofed historic houses or castles where period activities can be authentically recreated within appropriate room settings, or on religious sites. However, non-military living history isn’t so convincing in an open field, where larger (especially military or equestrian) displays are usually more appropriate.

These displays are particularly effective within a building if the performers have access to or can bring in furniture or period household items. A working historical kitchen, for example, can prove absolutely fascinating for visitors. The scope and variety of living history displays continue to grow every year. EventPlan can arrange all kinds of living history events to entertain and educate visitors of all ages and backgrounds.

Historical Entertainments and "have a go": Whereas living history needs to be as authentic as possible to be truly convincing, historical entertainment is ideal where the emphasis is more on family fun. Standards of authenticity are not so important (although the chances are that as its one of our events, they will be very high anyway). The precise cut of clothing or whether it is hand-stitched or not (if appropriate) doesn’t really matter, because these displays - for example, a medieval tournament, historical comedy or 1940s music and song - all primarily aim to entertain. Such displays are equally successful on a stand-alone basis or part of a larger multi-themed event. They often consist of a set performance around a "stage" area, although an actual stage is rarely required, thus keeping things simple for venues.

Historical entertainment usually allows a greater degree of audience participation, for example, with music and dance, archery or Civil War soldiers’ drill. Children's entertainments can include dressing up in costume for children, puppet shows and even safe  "battles" against Viking warriors etc. Ideal for festivals and family days out.  

Maritime and/or air displays: Our events don't have to be ground based, we arrange exciting shows featuring ships, boats, pirates and/or aircraft too! From tall ships to small boats, WWI "string bags" to high performance fighters and bombers, its all well within our field of experience. Let us know what you are interested in and we can offer options. 

We can also combine these elements with the above displays - for instance, WWII aircraft straffing ground troops engaged in an armoured battle with vehicles and explosions, or living history and displays onshore along side ship-based activities (ideal in a historic dock environment, for instance). But for a truly spectacular event, why not consider combining ground, sea and air together?

Other themes: Our events can also include anniversaries and commemorations, equestrian displays; historical fayres, markets & bazaars; and cultural history. Entire events or elements from them can also be staged for corporate hospitality or at themed weddings and parties.

At all, we seek to maintain the highest standards of authenticity to ensure visitors are seeing as accurate a portrayal of the past as possible. Whatever the scale, whatever the theme, you can choose EventPlan with confidence.

Historical re-enactment as we know it today is a relatively recent development, only commencing in the UK during the late 1960s.  Despite this it has become hugely popular with audiences and participants alike and a well-known visitor attraction, particularly at historic houses and castles.

^{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.}

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 23 February2010