Meetups for 2011

[Mystara]

Kieran and I had a chat regarding some Knightmare community meetups for 2011.

We thought that three specific dates/activities sprang out. Obviously, other people may want to organise some and more ideas may pop up over time. Some people may want to run some more closed/private community meetups. In particular, I'm hoping that AQ will do its filming for series 1 this year. But we don't see any of this clashing with our ideas below:

1) Easter Break
We came up with the idea of visiting the Camelot Theme Park. The main attraction of this venue is that one of its rollercoasters is named "Knightmare". We thought that visiting the park was well past its due date. Camelot is relatively central in the UK. It's also not (to my knowledge) been visited on a previous knightmare social.

The park is tailored slightly towards younger age groups. However, it still has a number of rollercoasters (including 'Knightmare'). There's also jousting and various medieval themed events that go on every day.

2) Halloween
We didn't have any specific ideas for halloween. But it seems that there's always something going on, based on previous years.

3) New Years!
We thought that a Knightmare-based New Years meetup would also be a good idea. Particularly if we start planning it soon, and thus avoid some of the higher prices.

Of course, my suggestion for this would be to visit Edinburgh (where else, for new year's eve/hogmanay?) even though I'm not really living there any more. Street party, fireworks and drinking. And there are a few fairly straightforward ways to get these done cheaply.

Thoughts?

[Kieran]

The new years trip itself was mentioned as far back as 2004.

This, if it happens, requires some very careful and very early organising. I am fully up for it, as I'd rather like to do something different for my new years next year.

I it gets decent interest then I'll start looking into our options (ok, I have already started looking at options...but I'll do so in a more serious manner )




The Camelot trip has a decent enough theme for us (Knightmare, duh), although I can't tell you what the park is like these days, having not been there since 1996. However, I still like the sound of it.

Halloween is a popular time for events, and there's always a lot to do in that period of time.

[Mystara]

I've also visited Camelot. Probably around 1996. Of course, it was before the Knightmare ride appeared.

I remember it being good. The jousting was quite impressive

[Kieran]

To my 12 year old self, it was a pretty decent occasion certainly.

Seemed to be as decent as the Pleasure Beach anyway. And people seemed to like that last year

[FN75]

I think I would quite like to go to Camelot!

[Snowcat]

Well... "The Road to Hell and Back" will likely go ahead during the Schools October break/Halloween as it has in past few years.

Alton Towers (Staffordshire), Thorpe Park (London) and Tulleys Farm (just South East of London).

Intended as a disjointed roadtrip so obviously scope to add other destinations. The Dungeons (Edinburgh, York, London), York GhostWalks, several Farms besides Tulleys have opened Halloween festivals, plenty smaller theme parks dotted around, You name it... I know Blackpool has seen a fair few scare attractions open over the last couple of years + of course the resorts traditional attractions. Being a central location, perhaps start there and meander South?

A little under a year away so time yet to decide and plan. >:-]

[Mystara]

Sounds good. More events to go to! Multiple halloween events, hurray!

[JamesA]

1) Easter Break

I would definitely be up for this - I originally made the suggestion back in 2007 during the Thorpe Park trip, but it would be fantastic if it actually happened this year. Even if it meant repeatedly queuing up for and riding on Knightmare endlessly.

2) Halloween

See my comments on Snowcat's post.

3) New Years!

This would be a perfect way to see in the year of Knightmare's 25th anniversary (of which I hope to plan more stuff centred around this at a later date). And I agree that the earlier we make preparations for this, the less expensive it will cost us. (I.E. Leaves more money for drinking!)

Well... "The Road to Hell and Back" will likely go ahead during the Schools October break/Halloween as it has in past few years.

Absolutely - I thoroughly enjoyed the trip To Tulley's Farm back in October (and agree that it should be done again this year) but would definitely give consideration to taking part on the entire length of this trip, giving that I was only available to attend the one part of last year's adventure.

[Mystara]

Turns out that, according to reviews, Camelot has fallen into disrepair and is in serious need of some work.

Any other suggestions for an Easter trip?

[Pooka]

Enfield!

No, seriously. I've wanted to do an Enfield social for a while, although the problems are that it only has one hotel and there's not much to do - but we have a cinema, leisure centres including swimming and bowling and lots of nice green places to go for walks in. Plus Enfield Town, which is a good shopping centre with many restaurants. It's also easy to get into London so we could spend the final day in central London.

Not very likely, I'll admit, but if anyone's up for a weekend in Enfield I'd love to have a go at hosting a KM social here - why not?

Or, as a more feasible option, a summer picnic somewhere like Hyde Park is always a good way to keep things ticking along. Woodcraft does a lot of those and they've always worked well.

[Mystara]

As exciting as Enfield sounds, I think it's more suitable for a mini meetup as you propose here.

I've found a few other places, but I'm continuing to look.

[Mashibinbin]

Whilst the London stuff is all well and good I'm personally more in favour of centralised meets meaning northerners and southerners travel equally as although I've been to a few London things the price factor gets increasingly difficult to justify if just a day/ 1 night job.

[Mystara]

I have to agree with that. Having to travel from Edinburgh put me off a fair few events in the past.

But of course, it's all about finding something to do.

[Kieran]

It is always a good idea to have the main meets as centralised as possible. Sometimes it can't be done, sometimes it can.

London sees most of the activity for mini-meets simply because a lot of KMers live in that area. Alas I do not, so I always appreciate it when things move a little moree Northward. Useful that Blackpool is a popular destination too

It has been mentioned that we could do a LARPing based weekend/week somewhere. Early days for this but I feel it could actually suite the communal peoples rather well. We'll have to develop this idea.

[Mystara]

The LARPing sounds like a good idea, I'd be up for it.
But let's run it as a separate (additional event). It will require time, preparation, effort and organisation.