The military heritage preservation charity, Essex HMVA, is sorry to announce their flagship event, Echoes of History will unfortunately not take place in 2021.
We have been informed by the landowner of the Purleigh showground, that we would need to confirm our intentions to run an event in 2021 with an early financial payment. As a charity, we felt it was not possible to commit to such an undertaking during the current Covid-19 conditions and the continuing uncertainty around future possible lockdowns. We are particularly disappointed with this decision as we had worked hard with the landowners to provide a great attraction.
This action, we are told, was primarily taken because of restrictions put in place for Covid-19 safe events during 2020, which led to the cancellation of all the scheduled events at the landowner's showground and it was this as well as the current unease around events taking place during 2021 that has caused significant nervousness on both the landowners' part as well as the charity trustees.
With this information, alongside the added effort of having to work towards securing a new location, we, the Trustees, feel we are unable to risk committing financially to a 2021 event. The Essex HMVA instead, intends to focus on other activities during 2021 such as the Milliboot Militaria fair, continuing to develop our media profile (YouTube, the OliveDrab magazine, and school education), as well as working with, supporting, and developing our contacts within Civic Societies, Councils, and other organisations and finally attending shows and displays where and when (COVID lockdowns permitting) we are able.
We are already actively engaging with organisations to enable planning for Echoes of History 2022, which, if successful, will be bigger and better than ever and provide an event of terrific entertainment. If you wish to be involved with this or any of the other charity activities, or indeed want to join the Essex HMVA, you can contact us via our Facebook pages or our Web site. You do not have to be a vehicle owner or even based in Essex to be a member; our membership is worldwide!
2020 has not been a good year for Charities such as ours, and we seem to fall "between the cracks" regarding support grants; however, we have still managed to increase our membership with new members joining on an almost weekly basis. This, together with a revamped magazine and some recent new alliances has meant we have gained support and strength, which we will be able to apply to our 2022 event and any 2021 events as well.
We would like to thank all those who have supported us so far and continue to help us, and we hope that you and your families remain safe and healthy during these difficult times. We will provide an update with the new dates for Echoes of History 2022 on our website and social media accounts as soon as we are able to do so.
If you have any further questions about this announcement, please contact us using the 'Contact us by email' link on this site.
