The Virtual Regimental Weekend

This weekend would have been the annual Regimental Weekend. Held annually on the second weekend in May, it is a time when former members of the Regiment travel for a weekend full of nostalgia and fun. Oh, and the odd tipple. We open our doors at the Museum and welcome folk in, often the only time we see them throughout the year. It enables us to showcase the displays, get out some of our archives for a bit of reminiscence, and chat to the veterans. Obviously, when the pandemic hit it was obvious that this weekend would be one of the casualties.

Although organised by the Carlisle branch of the Regimental Association, we are always busy this weekend with veterans and their wives dropping in to see us, share their stories and have a general catch up. On the Saturday night is the Regimental dinner at the Shepherd's Inn when everyone puts on their best dress and assembles for a sit-down meal before speeches, which continues with an evening of dancing. The Sunday morning is the Regimental parade. Nursing sore heads, everyone arrives with blazers cleaned, medals polished and berets brushed ready to parade. Before they set off for the Cathedral, there is the usual banter on the Castle parade square as veterans practise marching under the watchful eye of Graham, the former RSM, who keeps everyone on their toes. The band arrives, everyone lines up and the music begins. Time to set off towards the city centre. I try to take photographs which we keep for our archive and this archive has proved useful this year.

The cancellation of the weekend and the closure of the Museum has meant that we won't see many of the folk that usually attend. So discussions amongst the Museum team saw an idea emerge and develop - why not have a virtual weekend instead? I ran the idea past several ex-members of the Regiment to see whether they thought it was viable. The replies were positive even if a little but unsure about how it would work. Over to the Museum. We volunteered to support the event (as part of the local Regimental Association) and assist Nick, the only remaining member of Museum staff.  We used some funding to secure the expertise of local firm TomCo, a social media company whom we had worked with before. The stage was set - now to plan the detail.

Sticking to the original weekend format, a programme of activity was put together. It was important to keep it the same as attendees like to have their set routine and to change it for social media would have been a step too far. From photographs taken on the friday night social at the Shepherds Inn to planning a virtual parade, plans were developed and finalised. Encouraging people to contribute photographs, recording pieces to camera and ensuring we had additional activities to keep the programme varied and attractive was important. Once we were sorted, it was time to start publicising the event to encourage everyone to sign up.  

This task should have been fairly easy as over the last few weeks the interaction between veterans on the social media pages had increased. Encouraged by this interaction, we decided to host a facebook event so that once registered, participants would recieve notifications of the events and activities which they could dip in and out of throughout the weekend. This all sounds fairly easy but it didn't take long to realise that some folk were unsure what we were doing, despite numerous posts and encouragement to get them to sign up. As I type this the event is well under way so I am just going to check on progress. Tomorrow I will update you, dear reader, on how everything is progressing. Because at this moment in time my glass is charged ready to toast the Queen. Just like we normally do at the Regimental dinner.