Fixing Gettysburg

[cblodg]

Lads;

I'm sure that most would agree that the Annual Gettysurg Reenactment needs to be revamped. So instead of complaining, why don't we use this thread to start offering solutions to the problems.

Lets face it, this is the one battle that the public recognizes and knows when you say "civil war".

So I'd like to see a list of things from people that:
1) Need to be fixed
2) Would like to be fixed
3) Doesn't need to be changed right away

Perhaps these ideas/solutions could be forwarded on to the committee.

Chris

[Remise]

Hoo-boy! I can't wait to see the responses this will generate. I know you mean well, and hope that whomever does reply will remember this, as well.

B.C. Milligan

[ewtaylor]

Not to burst your bubble Chris, but this event gets ragged on every year. And every year people come up with ideas on how to fix it. I think the reason there were fewer people was because most are sick of it. I have never reenacted in the East, except I did go to McDowell 2003. I actually had a decent time of it and will probably go to the 2007 (didnt go to 2005). With the price of gas and the weather I'd say most are staying closer to home or saving up for the bigger and better type events.
ew taylor

[Trimmings]

Still trying to make a silk purse from a sow's ear? If for some reason anyone has deluded themselves to the point where they believe history has some priority over profit when it comes to Gettysburg, please seek professional help immediately. The Gettysburg reenactment has been a big fat turd in the punchbowl for decades and will remain so as long as it is held. Does anyone really and truly think a town with a monoculture centered on raping history for profit is going to care what a few reenactors think? Support a quality living history or stay home, mow the grass, and send $50 to CWPT instead.

If I seem grouchy this morning, please just chalk it up to filling up the gas tank.

Ray Prosten

[MStuart]

f I seem grouchy this morning, please just chalk it up to filling up the gas tank.
Ray Prosten

Ray:

Pickup truck? I feel your pain. First it was smokes, now it's gas. A man can't even have a vice these days.

Mark

[Wild Rover]

Trying to reinvent the current Lomasburg would be like, well, cheesegrater amore.

Slightly amusing but mostly painful.

Time to forget about that mess and go to a real event, put on by real historians- based on history.

Kick the moneychangers out of the temple.


Pards,

[indguard]

The only thing that will "fix" it is if the big mouths and whiners that complain about it get up off their lazy rear ends and HOST ONE themselves!

The reason events go as they do is because the people that host them WANT to run them the way they do. They are putting all the effort in so THEY get to call the shots.

If you HATE the event.... DON'T GO!

If you want one better .... HOST ONE!

This is why some of the good Recon style, or campaign style events have been so successful. Guys who wanted it done right got together and hosted it themselves.

Personally, I ignore all the whiners and carpers about events when they just want to sit comfortably in front of their computers and throw stones at everyone else.

Put up or shut up, boyos.

Want a better Gettysburg? MAKE IT YOURELF!

Warner T Huston
The "not expecting the whiners to do anything but whine" mess

[Loyal Virginian]

I think that this is a fair question, and I agree with one of its key premises, that it may be the most visible reenactment--at least in terms of venue.

I am sure that I could add to anyone's list of problems with the G-burg reenactments in the past. I suspect that I could add a few items that I have enjoyed in some of the ones that I have attended.

I have not attended a G-burg reenactment for several years, specifically because of the accumulation of problems that they have had.

But I am an optimistic sort and fail to subscribe to the notion that the G-burg reenactment cannot be made better, a lot better, enough better. And I agree that it would benefit reenacting a lot if it were made a lot better.

So I am interested in what folks may have to say about making it better.

I will put in an observation or two of my own to help move the discussion along. Not intending to make definitive points--that is why we need a fulsome discussion here--I would right now offer these:

1. The ground is great. There is still a fair amount of farm land around to make for some decent reenacting room (though houses are popping up here and there).

2. The enduring value of the venue is demonstrated by the quality living histories that are still conducted there.

3. The timing works for many people, since many, if not most, have time off around the 4th of July.

4. In terms of getting an audience to educate, this is one of the best venues in America to do that.

I guess I could list a lot of problems, including those that have kept me away form the G-burg reenactment for several years, but that would be too easy and others I am sure can help with that end of the discussion.

[Regular3]

Want a better Gettysburg? MAKE IT YOURELF!

Time to forget about that mess and go to a real event, put on by real historians- based on history. Kick the moneychangers out of the temple.

I agree, but ... Would 'twere that simple. For some time now, one group or another has been doing "better" Gettysburg events - Living history on the battlefield. But those efforts are overshadowed by the carnival-like festivities hosted by the Gettysburg Anniversary Committee.

Unless and until control of the event is removed from GAC (AKA The Moneychangers), nothing any of us could do or say or suggest in the way of improvement is going to make one iota of difference. Heck, I figure the only reason this year's event bombed is because they moved it at the last minute, not because so many people voted to skip it ... And that would be the only way I could see that history-minded reenactors could get control of it: If the GAC announced it and nobody registered. Anyone care to make odds on that ever happening?

Having exhausted that facet of the topic for the moment, I'd be interested to hear opinions on when Gburg started to slide into its current lamentable/laughable state - My memory isn't what it was when I was under 50, but I do seem to recall that the 135th anniversary reenactment wasn't all that bad, while the 140th (the last one I attended) was pretty much a joke ... Where did it start going wrong?

[Wild Rover]

Folks have alluded to it. Time for a historical Gettysburg in 08.

I am working towards that.

There it is.

First let's make the 145th 1862 Event year a great success, and take lessons learned from that and many others and make a 3-4 thousand man Gettysburg that is Gettysburg.

Maybe, just maybe the time has come for folks to come in out of the cold and warm their feet by the fire with others of like intent.

Pards,