Op-Ed: High demand and high prices may keep history groups out of reach for rural Vermont towns

Editor’s note: James Dassatti is a member of Wilmington’s Vermont 250th Anniversary Committee as well as the executive director of the Living History Association, an organization that, among other activities, serves historical reenactors. Dassatti says the committee plans to present a full week of activities for Wilmington’s semiquincentennial celebration. But Dassatti explains why, especially during this 250th anniversary year, the committee is finding some challenges in planning the climactic celebrations they envision for the Fourth of July weekend. 

The Living History Association and the Wilmington USA 250th Anniversary Celebration Committee are struggling to find groups to perform over the July 4, 2026 holiday weekend.Many groups are looking for more money to attend an event than Wilmington can afford, or for many years have already been too involved in their own local celebrations. To get musical groups or historical reenactors into a rural town for performance activities such as a display show-and-tell, a parade or concert can be expensive for a town, and in Vermont nearly impossible over a July Fourth weekend.
Generally these groups have committed so much time and expense developing their performance groups that over July Fourth they want to get as much bang for their dollars of commitment as they can.
While music groups endlessly practice their music, reenactors are a different breed. They are constantly reading history books related to the time period they portray. They then have to seek out and buy the gear associated with their persona. In many cases they start their search for period materials of wool, canvas, linen, leather, and proper patterns a year or more before attending an event.Winters are often spent drawing, cutting, and sewing together next summer’s uniform and they become experts in their portrayal.
Reenacting is entered at all levels of historical knowledge. For the new family, it just looks like a fun activity to be involved in. Joining a reenactment group that has a particular portrayal often has as much to do with the hospitality and inviting nature of the people in that group as it does with the history being portrayed. Mom and Dad are all enthusiastic while the children are trying to figure out how they can part with their cell phones for an entire weekend.
To make matters worse, the children are often given the task of hauling water and firewood for the cookfire. This equation “of interest” can also work in reverse where the child in the family loves the outdoors, the idea of camping, being part of a group, and learning by doing versus learning through books (at least initially as book studies do become a very big part of this hobby).
Mom and Dad are quick to note that spectators from the general public like to ask questions. If you have been reenacting for a year or two answering questions is no problem. If you just joined the group last month and are wearing mostly items that members of the group have loaned you, that can be a big problem. The uncertainty of answers given by unknowledgeable new recruits is immediately noticed by the spectator who often is a real history buff who might easily judge the reenactor to be a fake. The really good groups generally have a few extremely knowledgeable people that the new recruits are told to deflect questions to. These new reenactors learn from the veteran reenactors.
Of course, not all spectators are avocational history experts, but rather give voice to questions like “Is that a real fire?” Do you cook your food over that?” Do you really sleep in those tents?” Or my favorite, “Do you actually shoot at each other?” If we did, the reenacting season would be very short!
Sometimes a reenactor unit has an individual or two who make some of the items needed. For the American Revolution, the American militiamen all dress differently as they are wearing what they brought from home. The more seasoned soldiers of Gen. Washington’s Continental Line have actual uniforms with each unit conforming to what the written records indicate plus some amount of individualization, as the army was always short of something. Hence you used what you brought from home or picked up on the campaign.
In the case of the British, they generally have found people who will make all that they need and as such, it is more expensive. Waistcoats and breeches need to be made of linen, regimental coats are made of wool and many are trimmed in gold or silver bullion thread. Everything must match according to a set of regulations. The hats all match, as does the gear, and most of it is numbered.
All the groups must know the military commands, how to do the maneuvers, and how to uniformly drill with the musket.
It is all very different from the modern army. In a modern-day pass and review ceremony (a march past a commander or honored guest) the American flag never dips, all other flags do dip, and none touch the ground. In the 18th century, all flags were lowered and drug across the ground. (Yes, it was “drug”! Try explaining that to someone in a modern veterans group!)
Creating a long-term, several-year program is often frustrating, and the end results can be an anticlimactic failure. The competition to get groups to come to your town is fierce. A July Fourth weekend in a rural community that has only an average historical past compounds the difficulty. Experienced reenactors and/or musical groups are attending parades in the population-packed beltways of Massachusetts or the I-91 and I-95 corridors. They will attend two or more events each day in a long holiday weekend, pulling in $2,500 to $5,000 for each event. They may make their entire budget for the year in one weekend. The money is so good that locations in eastern New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island often suck in units from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, where those kinds of fees are unheard of.
For July Fourth, we here in Wilmington have an uphill battle. Wilmington having a successful July Fourth week of festivities will depend on how unique the event is and how much money is spent on it. Those working on the celebration are very inventive and will assuredly come up with something for the period of July 2 through 6, 2026.
News of the Declaration of Independence did not begin to filter into Vermont until about July 25, 1776. That being the case, a theme within the context of the annual Blueberry Festival parade on August 1, 2026 will be America’s 250th anniversary.