Tonbridge Castle Medieval Festival
September 10th and 11th 2011
Having completed a health and safety visit some weeks before the event all the nessasary paperwork and forms had been submitted to Tonbridge council in good time. As standard we submit Risk assesments plus copies of all insurance, coaching certificates, CRB and first aid.
On the Friday before we erected all the required fencing and barriers, as our location was outside he main secure area we could not leave any kit over night . Saturday morning could well be a rush.
The weather forecast was not looking good, with the tail end of a hurricane blowing in on Sunday. However in the finish the weather was kind and we only got wet once over the whole weekend.
|
We arrived on site at 8.30 and set up the range, for this event we had a mix of targets, two large foams and some 3D targets, Deer, Fox and partridge. A mix of bows being our shoot through Cyclops recurves, English Long bows, Scythian Horse bows and smaller jelly bows for the children. We also have Browning and Mathews compounds but as we were using wooden blunts at this site the compounds were for display only.
We had everything set up and ready to go by 10am in time for opening. the morning visitors where few and far between, the festival is free to enter and set just of Tonbridge High Street, chatting to others people do their shopping in the morning and come down to the castle in the afternoon. By noon we where busy with a complete mix of people coming along to have ago, Children's archery seemed the most popular, with ballon poping and the 3D targets the kids really enjoyed their archery experience, adults where keen to try the long bow and a lot of ladies wanted to give the horse bow a try. Sunday was pretty much a repeat of Saturday, but with more people wanting to experience have a go archery. We did not stop all afternoon and at one point had a Disneyland style line of eager participants. |
 |
 |
Over the entire weekend around 270 people participated in the archery experience. We had a lot of questions such as, what's it cost to buy the kit to start? and where's my local club?
This goes to show the ever increasing popularity of archery in Kent. I am pleased to say that the organizers where quite happy with us and remarked on how smooth everything went. We have been booked already for the 2012 Tonbridge Medieval Festival. With our fully equipped mobile unit it is very easy for us to offer an archery experience in Kent. We are also happy to cover Sussex and Surrey. If you would like more information on how we can offer have a go archery at your event then please contact Ian on 0845 680 6341 for further details. |
