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

The reason why “Tour Guides” were allowed to operate and we were not 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, Musicians and Singers can potentially release an aerosol transmission of COVID 19 between themselves and the audience and vice versa, whereas 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 and is the reason why we made the difficult decision to postpone every performance since 13th March 2020.

We could have potentially restarted earlier in the year but there would have been many restrictions including masks, social distancing and limited audiences.

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 shifting away from the government and over to us.

WE are now responsible for our own risk assessments, and we are now delighted to announce that the outdoor performances can continue once again.

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

On August 16th 2021 we started and completed contacting everyone from a postponed outdoor performance listed below:

The Original Manchester Ghost Walk

The Saturday Night Manchester Ghost Walk

The Ancoats Ghost Walk

The Stockport Ghost Walk

The Highgate Ghost & Vampire Walk

The Altrincham Ghost Walk

The Chorlton Ghost Walk

The Didsbury Ghost Walk

Eventbrite had a thorough record of every ticket sale so we went through the postponed performances in date order and contacted each ticket holder.( If you haven’t received an email please check your junk and trash folders incase it’s been redirected by your email provider)

You should have received 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 is explained fully in the email).

Private & Corporate bookings have all been contacted on Wednesday 18th of August 2021. Each postponed performance has been given a rescheduled performance date, and also the option to choose their own. All monies paid has been carried over.

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

Also from August 16th we will start adding new public performance dates for all the outdoor performances to each different website page and also restart taking new Private & Corporate bookings.

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.
Our own risk assessment also makes the Tavern of the Dead and The River Cruise Experience currently not safe without the above measures.

Therefore

audience members that had their indoor performances postponed on the list below:

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, we are expecting this from early 2022 onwards.

 

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