Battle lines drawn over Bannockburn row

[AcuteEnigma]

The fun includes:
(paraphrased from an email making the rounds)

-- a large scale battlefield involving over 300 re-enactors (live people!) who will recreate the atmosphere of the most famous battle in Scotland's History. Battles will take place at noon, 2pm and 4pm.

-- encampments that evoke the preparations for battle and of medieval times including a fully operational kitchen, blacksmiths, armouries and living quarters [ your basic SCA encampment? ]

-- a Clan and Family Village with 40 clans and families

-- a Food and Drink Village will have high quality, seasonal and local artisan food and drink for sale.

-- Storyville - a place for Scotland's story to be told through music, song and the spoken word. There will be many interactive games and activities for children.

-- The Main State which will have folk and contemporary music

-- Craft stalls and demonstrations

Sounds similar to the big Gathering 2009 event but with a war instead of the "games" and a much bigger emphasis on history, which makes sense.

Either the live re-enactment or the digital re-enactment costs more money. Not sure which it is.

[ThistleDown]

Phil and Jock, this is VisitScotland, the replacement for Tourism Scotland. Its mandate is to get people from other lands to visit Scotland. It spends its budget abroad fulfilling that role. It doesn't have much money left to toss about encouraging folk from Peterhead and Loanhead to visit Stirling for a day away. It's in The Netherlands and New Zealand and Australia and Canada and America convincing people to come with full sporrans for two weeks and more. What I find amazing is that so many of us simply accept the media negativity and become negative ourselves. I know its a national trait, but we really should try to fight it sometimes. Write a letter to The Scotsman and ask them to publish what you want to know.

[Jock Scot]

I seem to recall the local Scots have been down this route before, Rex. We did not like it then and sadly it looks like we are about to get another dose this time. I live in hope, but I am not holding my breath. To be a fisherman we learn to be optimistic and often exist on forlorn hopes but at least we know that the fish are not interested in Bannockburn

[ThistleDown]

Yes, optimism is a virtue, Jock. All I am saying is that the fault in not informing us lies with the media even though we automatically wish to fault VisitScotland, which has a limited in-Scotland mandate and budget. As you see in this and other threads, VisitScotland is doing its job in promoting Scotland and encouraging tourism in overseas markets. The media sets aside the good-news promotional information it receives and, as in this case, reports issues of conflict and negativity. If the Bannockburn part of Homecoming 2014 really is the success it is presently on track to being, credit must be given to two realities (barring another world financial disaster!): the fact Scotland this time retained control over the event, and VisitScotland was able to convince tens of thousands of overseas travelers to make Scotland their destination this year.

[Jock Scot]

I hear what you say Rex and of course I hope the whole thing is a huge success, but I really find it interesting and baffling that, thus far at least, the locals yet again, have been neglected.

[ASinclair]

I've just learned that Clan Day Monday has been cancelled. When you go to the website now, it is billed as a two-day event Saturday and Sunday. Wow, what a moving target.

[cessna152towser]

I hear what you say Rex and of course I hope the whole thing is a huge success, but I really find it interesting and baffling that, thus far at least, the locals yet again, have been neglected.

A big difference this time is that the event was well publicised among the Scottish based clans and clan societies in the early stages of planning and we locals have been given the opportunity of hosting the clan tents, unlike the 2009 Edinburgh gathering when it seems that many of the clan hosts were already signed up in USA the previous year.

I've just learned that Clan Day Monday has been cancelled. When you go to the website now, it is billed as a two-day event Saturday and Sunday. Wow, what a moving target.

The Re-enactments are on the Saturday and Sunday. The Monday is a private event for the Clans and Clan Societies.

[ThistleDown]

Will you be going down to Stirling for the Bannockburn thing yourself, Jock? I'm sure The Camerons will be doing something a bit more local for you, and there's always the Macphersons at Newtonmore, the Clan Chattan at Moy and, in September, the Highland Clans gathering at Inverness. All part of Homecoming 2014 but, now that I think on it, I don't think I've seen anything in the S&B Herald on any of them, either. There was quite a bit in the Inverness Courier a month or so ago about the Highland Clans gathering and we can expect a few inches on the Game Fair in June, as usual. Paid advertising, that will be, of course. Maybe if a mob of kilties stood downwind in a windfarm we would get the media to report it. Mind you, the coverage would probably be about exposure, the horrors of harnessing the wind, how difficult it was to access the site along that estate road with 13 gates and one in sad condition and it was a shame about the weather.

[Jock Scot]

Alex.

The problem is that in my experiance, as most locals do not belong to Clan societies, then the plan has fallen at the first fence!

Rex.

I very much doubt that I shall go to Bannockburn, not really my thing. I will try to go to the games at Inverness, although still not really my thing, but Alan may need a spot of local support when he takes on the world.

[Phil]

Its mandate is to get people from other lands to visit Scotland. It spends its budget abroad fulfilling that role. It doesn't have much money left to toss about encouraging folk from Peterhead and Loanhead to visit Stirling for a day away. It's in The Netherlands and New Zealand and Australia and Canada and America convincing people to come with full sporrans for two weeks and more.

It's not doing a great job then if this quote from the article is true - "MSPs have already been warned the event is unlikely to attract the 17,000 US visitors who came to Scotland for the 2009 Gathering in Edinburgh. That was the flagship of the Year of Homecoming five years ago, but it lost more than £500,000 and the organising firm went bust".
It does go on to say, however, that there is no question of it being cancelled.

Here is another article to add a little more to the story - http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/ar...dget-1-3302922 .