Chedworth Roman Villa has established itself as one of the favourite
UK locations of the society, the wonderful surroundings, intimate size
of the event space and zero passing traffic all combine to create a
marvellous experience for the members and public alike.
This year
saw us use the building with its full extention as one edge of the
arena for the first time. Its full length of 30 feet created a
tremendous backdrop for photographs and safety.The weather meant we had
to be very inventive with the aggressive show schedule or hourly arena
events; mixing displays aimed at young children, teenagers, casual
visitors and gladiatorial officianados in showery weather was hard work
but terrific fun. Judging from the feedback from the visitors and
customer alike the members present managed the task with flying
colours. Bringing to bear many of our display elements into a single
weekend including; children's massed battle reenactment, gladiatorial
munus, theatre combat display, children's gladiatorial training school
and gladiatorial munus dressup/kit display into a series of main arena
shows was tremendously well received by all the visitors to the site.
The
dreadful weather on the Sunday saw us switch to our wet weather
routines enabling the 'show to go on'. Working doubly hard members of
the public were brought under the cover of the building to listen to
gladiatorial tales, try on equipment, examine merchandise common to the
games and ask as many questions as they wanted. Arena events took place
as gaps in the clouds and rain allowed through out the cloud darkened
day.
Special mention should go to a few of our number for their hard work over the weekend.
Paul,
for his constant efforts in making sure no one missed out on the
opportunity of trying on some of the equipment if they wanted to.
Alisa and Becky, fighting for the first time as tiro dimachaeri and managing to wow the crowds with some impressive moves.
Steve and John for getting the building up and down in double quick time and arranging much of the wet weather routine.
In summary the event was hard work but great fun for all involved. We are already looking forward to next years visit!