LATEST NEWS! 

Hello Our Friends New & Old!

We hope you are all keeping safe and well.

2020/21 is a year that none of us will forget and we would never have believed that we would be banned by the Government from performing in front of a live audience for an unbelievable seventeen months.

You maybe aware that “Tour Guides” have been operating on and off throughout 2020 & 2021

The reason why “Tour Guides” were allowed to operate and we wasn’t is that Flecky is a “Professional Actor” and the rules are different for actors. This is explained by the Government Department of digital, culture, media and sport.

“The reason why there is a difference is that Actors/Performers and Musicians/Singers can potentially release an aerosol transmission of COVID 19 between themselves and the audience and vice versa – and tour guides, because they are not performing, don’t”

Here at Flecky Bennett Productions the health and well-being of our audiences was and still is of the utmost importance. This will never change. Therefore, that is why we made the difficult decision to postpone every performance since 13th March 2020.

We could have potential restarted earlier in the year but with many restrictions including masks, social distancing and limited audiences, however

all of Flecky Bennett Productions are pieces of promenade theatre which can include singing, screaming, shouting, dancing, audience participation, music, shared props and lighting/special effects, which take place either indoors or outdoors depending on the performance, and we

did not want to change any aspect of our award winning performances because this would mean short changing our loyal audiences.

On Monday 19 July 2021 the guidelines changed with responsibility for what we do shifting away from the government and over to us.

We are now responsible for our own risk assessment and this means

we’ve come to the conclusion that our main priority is safety – yours and ours, and therefore we are going to wait a little longer before we restart.

Here’s our reasons-

On Monday 2nd of August the effects of “Freedom Day” will start to show, so we are keeping our eyes on the data to see if the 3rd wave of Covid will require the Government to implement local/national restrictions once again. Watching this data will mean that hopefully when we do rescheduled and add new performances they will definitely go ahead and not be postponed once again.

The major issue currently is the need to self isolate without notice if “pinged”by the test and trace app. This would mean that we would have to postpone at short/no notice and the same would apply to audience members and may result in a performance being cancelled due to insufficient numbers to operate.

Therefore moving forward on Monday 16th of August 2021 the rules on self isolating will be changed and Flecky (who is doubled vaccinated) will no longer be required to self isolate if he comes in contact with a positive case. Also audience members who are double vaccinated will no longer be required to self isolate if they come in contact with a positive case, and therefore this should ensure that performances are not disrupted.

On August 16th 2021 we will start to reschedule the outdoor only performances. This will mean that we will be in contact with everyone who booked for one of the postponed “outdoor” performances, which basically means all of the Ghost Walks.

The Original Manchester Ghost Walk

The Saturday Night Manchester Ghost Walk

The Ancoats Ghost Walk

The Stockport Ghost Walk

The Bolton Ghost Walk

The Highgate Ghost & Vampire Walk

The Altrincham Ghost Walk

The Chorlton Ghost Walk

The Didsbury Ghost Walk

Eventbrite have a thorough record of every ticket sale and we will go through the postponed performances in date order and contact each ticket holder.

You will receive an email and a “New”gift voucher. This gift voucher will be exclusively for the performance that you were originally booked for but with the flexibility for you to choose which month/year you would like to rebook your postponed performance. These new gift vouchers have been created to allow audience members the option to book straight away or the option to ease themselves back into“normal” life at their own pace without any pressure!

(everything will be explained fully in the email).

Private & Corporate bookings will also be contacted and rescheduled with deposits carrying over.

And the older gift vouchers will be accepted even if they have expired.

We guarantee that no one will lose their ticket value or deposit value for private performances

We will also start adding new dates for all the outdoor performances to each different website page, and these will go onsale from August 16th.

Stockport Council who own the locations of The Air Raid Shelters, Staircase House and Bramall Hall, also Salford Leisure who own Ordsall Hall have decided after their own risk assessments not to remove social distancing/mask wearing or extremely limited numbers which means tours still cannot operate for the present time.
Also our own risk assessment makes the Tavern of the Dead and The River Cruise Experience currently not safe without the above measures.

Therefore

for those audience members that had their indoor performances postponed-

Stockport Air Raid Shelter Experience

The Bramall Hall Experience

Stockport’s Staircase House Experience

The Ordsall Hall Experience

The Manchester River Cruise Experience

The Tavern of the Dead

We will be in contact with you as soon as the locations reopen fully, and we are expecting this from Mid September onwards.

There are many things to get to grips with and this will take time, for example there is talk of Covid passports being required for all theatrical events, concerts, sporting events and nightclubs. This could mean that only fully vaccinated adults would be allowed on Flecky Bennett Productions from September onwards.

We are awaiting clarification on this from our union Equity. 

Thank you for your loyalty, patience and understanding.

We cannot wait to restart and hope to see you all again in September 2021.
Love from Flecky & Buggerlugs