Llamedos Holiday Camp came about as a direct result of an April Fools joke back in 2019.
Our company Director was attending the Irish Discworld Convention as part of the team at
Discworld Monthly (now known as Better Than a Poke in the Eye) when she decided to make a
joke about a future event. She even got Dai the Druid to confirm it was a good idea as a joke!
Discworld Monthly then put out the following on their social media channels...
As a direct result of this, not only did the Irish Convention committee believe it to
be real but so did thousands of people online.
So when she announced it was an April Fool's joke, a lynch mob formed chanting the phrase
It's the will of the people some of which followed her around Ireland for the next
three days!
On the ferry home, there were some decisions made...
With the main one being that she did NOT want to run a Discworld Convention.
Instead, she wanted to run something that was all about Discworld fans doing fun
activities with other Discworld fans and thus Llamedos Holiday Camp was born.
The premise was that Llamedos Holiday Camp is firmly located in Llamedos on the Discworld.
With ideas such as Nobby's knee competitions, talent contests, fun sports day races,
dragon racing, radio plays, witch trials and other fun activities, and a PurpleCoat team to
run it all, she headed off to find the perfect venue.
At the time (May 2019) 450 Discworld fans were heading to Llanelli for a European Premiere
of Snow Gum Film's Troll Bridge, a film based on a Discworld short story and she thought that
if 450 people were happy to come all the way to Llanelli for a 25 min film, then perhaps they
would come this far for Llamedos Holiday Camp!
Looking close by, she found The Diplomat Hotel and the rest is... well I wouldn't say
history but some of it is well beyond explanation, you'll have to come and experience it
for yourself.
2020
The first Llamedos Holiday Camp had tickets on sale just a couple of weeks later, and the
event itself happened on 6th - 8th March 2020 with 150 campers and 16 PurpleCoats in attendance.
The idea was that campers would choose to become a Discworld citizen for the weekend and
come on holiday to take part in such activities as Nobby's knee competitions, talent
contests, fun sports day races, dragon racing, radio plays, witch trials and other fun
activities.
The only stipulation was that campers could not be a named character in the books.
They could be one of Nanny Ogg's daughter in laws, or an ex husband of her's.
They could be an unknown Watchman, or a vampire or a relative of Dibblers.
This would allow campers to truly become the character they decided to be as there
would be no set ideas.
The PurpleCoat team then gathered campers into Discworld families and ran some crazy
activities as they competed for Llamedos Dollars and points to become the Best Family
of the event.
It was a wondrous event, filled with laughter and lots of mad shenanigans.
It created lots of friendships and memories which were going to be needed in the
very near future.
Unfortunately, just a week later the roundworld went into lockdown due to the Coronavirus.
Several other Discworld events were cancelled as a result of the lockdowns worldwide.
Side Note. We were seriously fortunate to be able to run Llamedos Holiday Camp that
first year, if Lockdown had happened a week earlier, it would have bankrupted the event and
the camp director as insurance companies would not cover events being cancelled due to it.
We are extremely grateful that no one caught Covid-19 from that first event.
From that moment on though, Llamedos Holiday Camp has had themed events that take
place at the camp itself... The plan was to run one every two years... however...
2021
Llamedos on the Clacks happened online, due to the Lockdown still being in place,
on 5th-7th March 2021. It was a mixture of Llamedos Holiday Camp and fandom convention.
Twenty seven hours of live television streamed to our campers via the omniscopes.
Mistress Weatherwax and Letice Earwig were the stars of our show Caged.
Our imps are currently uploading a lot of Llamedos On the Clacks to our
Youtube channel.
So if you missed it, or would like to watch it again, you can do so.
2022
Our next event was The Dragon Trials, 4th-6th March 2022.
The first Discworld event after the lockdowns had been lifted.
This event was based on the roundworld event Crufts - a famous large dog show, except
our Dragon Trials were for Swamp Dragons!
Dragon Dressage, Dragon Flight and various other Dragon themed activities took place.
Campers were in Dragon Caverns, which were groups of dragon breeders who came to compete
for Best in Show and the converted Best Dragon Cavern.
2024
The Scouts came to Llamedos Holiday Camp for the weekend of 1st-3rd March 2024.
The Llamedos Scout Jamboree was a huge success with the various Scout regions all being
represented by our campers. The aim for the scouts was to earn all ten activity badges over
the weekend.
Many of the usual Llamedos Holiday Camp activities remained as part of the programme
but with a scouting twist.
Which brings us nicely to our next event.
2026
The Hogs Ball at Llamedos Holiday Camp will happen on the weekend of the 6th-8th March 2026.
Exactly 6 years after the first Llamedos Holiday Camp!
The Hogs Ball at Llamedos Holiday Camp is based around families getting ready for
Hogswatch, with the Ball being the big event.
Families will be working together to make a Hogswatch to remember.....
And our PurpleCoats will have to work out .... Have you been naughty ? or nice?
As we don't want to spoil the surprises... That is all we are telling you.. for now.
