as a punter !

[Martin]

what draws you to a re-enactment market and what would you like to see at a market other than stuff to buy ? talks on specific and interesting stuff ? talks / demo's on historical cooking techniques ? an hour long talk on fabric, what's right, what's wrong and why that colour is a no no ? talks on armour and construction in specific periods ? just a brain storming session really to see what people want, and if its just to be able to go shopping with no frills please say

[Bittersweet]

yes talks and demos with the stuff to buy after the talk. 20 minutes max duration for talk and demo. 10 mins Q&A...then sell, sell, sell

Stuff that appeals to re-enactor, stuff the appeals to public and stff that appeals to both at the same time. Re-enactors are public too if they're stolling round, they're just public with slightly better clothes on

[Bittersweet]

Oh and repeat times for demos/talks I think should be about every two and a half hours. Could do with second stall holder to sell while you talk though. not everyone wants to wait 'til you've finished to buy something.

[Miss Costello]

just shopping I'm afraid...I usually have a list and in these miserable financial times I tend to stick to it.

sorry to be dull.

K

[sally]

just shopping I'm afraid...I usually have a list and in these miserable financial times I tend to stick to it.

sorry to be dull.

K

so even free 30 minute talks and demonstrations wouldn't appeal?

[Miss Costello]

To be really honest, unless it was something desperately of interest to me-probably not. Usually as I'm with my partner or son who don't want to linger, so I'd say for practical reasons more than anything.

Now if you could teach me to knit! I'd be interested, but I think I'm destined to stay a crocheter forever.

[Mark Griffin]

Business shopping, social, meetings, shooting the breeze, discovering new suppliers. If before Christmas possibly the odd personal purchase for pressies.

[Grania]

The odd display perhaps, information on different societies etc, but mostly as good a variety of shopping as possible - lots of options for the same items is great, but a greater variety of items/periods would be even better in some cases.

[Medicus Matt]

A personal shopper.

"You boy! Go and find me a 7th century Frankish belt buckle whilst I sit here and drink my tea."

[lucy the tudor]

A personal shopper.

"You boy! Go and find me a 7th century Frankish belt buckle whilst I sit here and drink my tea."

So, a highly educated and historically aware personal shopper?

You're just trying to avoid frisky traders...

[Fairfax]

Perhaps if you could find something on the lines of The Horrible Histories, you could do a demo on foods that played a part in historical murders, poisonings,choking, surfeit of lampreys, Sweeney Todd, cannibalism and piracy etc. This keeps the kids entertained and happy whilst the parents buy. There is a touring company for Horrible Histories now due to it's popularity ; you could make some Sickly Sweets from the fruit leathers for the kids to buy.

[Brian la Zouche]

as a shopper ,

it would be nice to see some items at different levels of construction, other than the finished item for sale

so long as any demos / talks do not mean a wait in me passing over my cash for goodies. or cause bottle necks down the isles like shopping at tescos on xmas eve

at ILHF and last years tweks i had very limited time, so needed to pop in buy and go, not how i prefer to do it, but was better than not going at all

every trader i have spoken to has always taken time to answer any questions i may have had, not only do you guys make the items but you know an awful lot about them, which is really good service IMO

[Dixie]

It was my first market. although I got a few specific things done that were the reason for going I do not know if I would go again.
It is not what you would call an extensive multi period market.
It would be good to see more traders from a wider range of periods before i could justify the 600 mile round trip.

[Martin]

this isnt a question about any specific market just a general one

[Dixie]

true, but the point still stands.
A good mix of different periods and a good bit bigger than cuurent markets but keeping the quality there.
Having been to wargames shows where they had lectures on specific battles and meet the author sessions, they were both enjoyable and well attanded. They always refresh you for your next bout of shopping as well

I like the idea of a dedicated food hall with each trader having the opportunity to talk around their wares and production method. I suppose that this idea my work for other traders as well.

Debates are always a good way of drawing attention to events as well.

just a few random thoughts.

[Martin]

Having been to wargames shows where they had lectures on specific battles and meet the author sessions, they were both enjoyable and well attanded.

I do one in Penarth and the talks etc are always well attended

[sierrakitten]

To be honest, it's usually to buy jerky.....

[Martin]

[Graham Cooley]

A venue with easy transport links and good access.
Easy parking close to the venue so your not walking miles too and from the car.
Nice toilets and plenty of them.
Good catering with a variety of choices at a reasonable price.
As many traders as possible. (There are perhaps 200 or more traders out there so why do the biggest markets only have about 100?)
Nice wide gangways through the market so you can get around those people who are just chating or looking at something.
Something to entertain the children other than shopping. What about a juggler, magician, puppet show, craft workshops?

[Martin]

craft workshops?

Im considering running master classes in meat drying etc at certain shows this season, not at markets yet but if any organisers want me to I can

[cloudy-cola-corp]

a school my mum is a governor at was approached by the horrible history's people it was quite expensive (£600 the day kind of expensive) for a few of them to come down and do the kind of chat thingys.

Perhaps if you could find something on the lines of The Horrible Histories, you could do a demo on foods that played a part in historical murders, poisonings,choking, surfeit of lampreys, Sweeney Todd, cannibalism and piracy etc. This keeps the kids entertained and happy whilst the parents buy. There is a touring company for Horrible Histories now due to it's popularity ; you could make some Sickly Sweets from the fruit leathers for the kids to buy.

not relevant but may as well throw it out there

[lucy the tudor]

[quote="cloudy-cola-corp"]a school my mum is a governor at was approached by the horrible history's people it was quite expensive (£600 the day kind of expensive) for a few of them to come down and do the kind of chat thingys.

I agree that is a lot for the school to find, but most reenactors who are properly trained and qualified, taking artefacts and providing a quality service, will charge between £150 and £200 per day, when you look at it as how many schools they can do in a week, with all the prep before hand, paperwork, and cleandown of stuffs after, this does not work out to be a high wage. It takes me between three and six hours to get the materials prepped for a full school day, a couple of hours to clean down after, the travel time- sometimes need to camp in the van overnight etc. So effectively two days work for every charging day, without looking at the cost of diesel and aquisition of the clothes and artefacts in the first place.
Horrible Histories people would have overheads of agency, presumably a fee to Mr Deary for using his branding, and were offering a few of them for that price. I have seen music experiences and maths activity days charged out at over £450 locally, and not even for a full day in the case of the music one- three orchestral musicians, an hour talk for the whole school, and fifteen minutes with tambourines and drums for each year group and they were out of there...
There is a tendency for a school to think nothing of spending £250 a day to an agency for a supply teacher to come in and teach lessons prepared for them, and go straight home, but baulk at paying a qualifed teacher £175 to come in and work three times as hard as a History expert, with all the added extras.
You pays your money and you takes your choice.

[Mark Griffin]

presumably a fee to Mr Deary for using his branding

I've worked with Terry on a few things and he gets not a penny from the brand or name, it's owned by Scholastic Publishers. He's a jobbing actor and author who was approached by scholastic to write some historical joke books they could flog to schools. When researching he realised that the facts were far more funny if told in the right way and would be more educational. Hence what we have now. So basically he gets a flat fee for writing and probably a bit of commission on sales plus library issues. No idea how much but a few friends are also reasonably successful authors and one figure i have been quoted is 6p per book issues. Bit like PRS but for authors.

Terry does own the stage plays format but 'Horrible Histories' name is Scholastics property.

[Martin]

My sister is an actress and has worked with him, says he's lovely

[gregory23b]

From TD's site

"My best-known titles were "Horrible Histories" series and they are still popular thanks to a BBC television series based on the books. There were around 60 titles with total sales of 25 million in 40 countries."

nice

[lucy the tudor]

I sit corrected, if scholastic own the rights to the name for such purposes, then there will CERTAINLY be monies owed to them by the actors for using it.
I meant it as no criticism to Mr Deary.

[Bittersweet]

My sister is an actress and has worked with him, says he's lovely

I would think he would have to be to write the way he does

[Fairfax]

When I was trading books at reenactment, The Horrible Histories were my best seller for kids, couldn't get enough of them, selling each book for £1.00 (pre-owned), making sure I checked the curriculum before I sold, as it had a huge impact on the era of titles I sold; so, if they are studying Egyptians , I made sure I had 50 copies of Horrible Egyptians.

[steve stanley]

Another vote for larger mix of periods..............

[Teagirl]

as a shopper ,

it would be nice to see some items at different levels of construction, other than the finished item for sale...
every trader i have spoken to has always taken time to answer any questions i may have had, not only do you guys make the items but you know an awful lot about them, which is really good service IMO

Sometimes space for display is so tight that having items of different levels of finish are not easy to display as they don't produce revenue for the space allocated. Traders who are enthusiastic about their work will always (mostly) be more than happy to talk about their work but not have space to show half-finished items.

As far as a wider range of time periods, are there specific instances?

Also, even though there are numbers bandied about as to how many traders are out there without any access to a space at a fair, there are also a lot of traders with websites who simply have little or no interest/time in doing fairs because they're at home making and filling orders from their online venues.