Hi Jim,

I used to be the Events Manager at Naper Settlement, a 19th century living
history museum and one of the events that I was responsible for was Civil
War Days. This event has actually been taking place at Naper Settlement for
over 20 years and to my knowledge, reenactors have never been paid a fee.
About 250-300 union and confederate reenactors would come to our site on
Friday night, and camp out on our grounds until Sunday late afternoon. The
event runs from 10 ­4 on Saturday and Sunday.

We did not pay them any fee, but we did (and they still do) provide an
Officer¹s Breakfast (usually coffee, juice, and donuts) on Saturday and
Sunday  mornings for reenactors ranked as officer¹s and a stew dinner on
Saturday night for all of the reenactors. We also provide a ball on Saturday
night in the high school next to our site. We provide a band that knows how
to coordinate the era appropriate dancing, decorations and refreshments.
During the event on Saturday and Sunday we would provide Ladies Activities
that were free to all of the women reenactors. These  activities were
usually some kind of era appropriate craft or tea party. We also usually
have a fashion show/competition for the best dressed reenactors, they won
small prizes. 

We also provide the black powder for the battle that takes place on Saturday
and Sunday. 

In general, we try as hard as we can to make the reenactors know how much we
appreciate them coming every year. Without them, there would be no event.
Sutlers also come, which are reenactors that sell their wares from tents.
They also camp out the entire weekend. We do not charge them any kind of fee
to set up and sell their products, but they must sell era appropriate items
and be dressed as reenactors.

We also give out ribbons to all participating reenactors that they can keep
they say Civil War Days 200-.

We do pay some specific characters that we hire for each day such as Abraham
Lincoln, John  Wilkes Booth, Generals Lee and Grant, etc. Their fees range
from approx. $75 a day to $150 a day.

I hope this helps! Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions
that I can help with.

Robin Frisch
Experience Director
MindSplash



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