Siege Weekend Returns to Schuylerville for Victory Season | Buying Local #91

00;00;00;00 – 00;00;12;18
Speaker 1
Welcome everyone to by local. I’m your host, Mike Nelson from Five Towers Media. Joined today by the executive director for the campaign, Saratoga 250, Bill Teeter. Bill, how are you, man?

00;00;12;20 – 00;00;17;24
Speaker 2
Great. Good to be back with you always knew, like, our collaborating and what we do.

00;00;17;27 – 00;00;38;23
Speaker 1
You know, I always love when you come on to Bill. I, I do like it better when you’re in person, obviously, but, you know, schedules and all that these days. This just seems to be so much easier. So, I’m excited to talk about victory season. I, like you said that term, I love it. And all that that entails and what it means.

00;00;38;23 – 00;00;48;25
Speaker 1
And, you know, the siege weekend coming up and, a lot of great stuff going on in Saratoga County. So, Bill, why don’t you take it away? Tell us, what is victory season? Let’s start.

00;00;48;25 – 00;01;15;10
Speaker 2
There. Yeah, I appreciate it. I’m glad you picked it up. I glad you like it. I hope people will like it. Not just this year, especially though next year in 2027 and then beyond for season. It’s either beyond victory season at Saratoga. We like to dub it because September and October, 1777 was the time frame of the battles of Saratoga and then the extended ten day siege of the British forces when they were in retreat.

00;01;15;12 – 00;01;35;12
Speaker 2
And ultimately that historic surrender that really was America’s turning point in our, war for independence on October 17th, 1777. So, yeah, for the last couple of years, we’ve been trying to introduce coming out of the summer, people know, Saratoga for a lot of things, the summer place to be used to be the August place to be.

00;01;35;12 – 00;02;15;08
Speaker 2
But the track season has been extended and it’s a summer place to be, and we all know that and we love that. But, really, originally back to the history of how Saratoga was put on the major, if you will, map of the Western world at minimum, was now this incredible turning point victory in 1777. So victory season consists literally of September and October and with Saratoga 250, we’ve been planning and having and hosting signature events every year during that time frame and are many of our community partners, not the least of which is the Saratoga National Historical Park and the National Park Service sites.

00;02;15;11 – 00;02;36;28
Speaker 2
They’ve been doing events for years and years, of course, at, the actual battlefield grounds, which they do a wonderful job shepherding, stewarding. So they’ve been doing events there and do have events this year in September, especially on the first Battle of Saratoga, which is the 19th, the Battle of Freeman’s Farm, as that’s known historically for the site.

00;02;36;28 – 00;03;00;06
Speaker 2
It occurred, that is on the national park site. They have an amazing encampment there where you can see a lot of the military and other living historian interpreters. But yeah, our signature series of events have always consisted of Siege Weekend as a hallmark on every Columbus Day weekend, Saturday and Sunday. And that’s happening again, I think pre season.

00;03;00;06 – 00;03;12;26
Speaker 2
It’s an amazing time of year up here. It’s when we get like to get out and check out the beliefs, get some apples, maybe some cider donuts. If you’re into that work, get off later by walking the trails.

00;03;12;26 – 00;03;14;19
Speaker 1
Around our historic sites.

00;03;14;21 – 00;03;16;16
Speaker 2
So it’s a great combination.

00;03;16;19 – 00;03;35;24
Speaker 1
For the record, I, I’m very much into the cider donuts mill. Probably too much so, because every year, I end up eating like a dozen of them in a sitting, and then I’m sick to my stomach. I need to, you know, take them, take a couple minutes for myself to get my sausage made. You can get away with it.

00;03;35;24 – 00;03;39;19
Speaker 2
You’ve, You’ve got to, like, the workout regimen. I see that.

00;03;39;21 – 00;03;48;00
Speaker 1
I’m. I’m feeling pretty squishy these day. Only going to get squish here. I mean, so,

00;03;48;02 – 00;03;56;18
Speaker 1
So much to unpack about this. Like what? What what did you say? The first event we have coming up in the next event that we have coming up?

00;03;56;20 – 00;04;17;28
Speaker 2
Yeah. So I was that was basically pointing out that there are a lot of other incredible events that go on back to our revolutionary history in victory season in September and October. And so the first thing giving a shout out against the Saratoga National Historical Park, I mean, they host, encampments on the grounds where the battles actually occurred.

00;04;18;00 – 00;05;01;15
Speaker 2
And, September 19th is the date of the first battle. It was called the Battles of Freeman’s Farm. And so there was an encampment weekend there. But, we Saratoga 250 with the county commission, and the programing that they created, four years ago, at least now we’ve been holding what’s called Siege Weekend, and that’s this year it’s falls on October 10th and 11th, Saturday and Sunday, Columbus Day weekend, and it’s base and, pretty much a one stop location at this point, which makes it really A and E to immerse yourself back into 1777 18th century living at Fort Hardy Park in Schuyler Ville, New York.

00;05;01;17 – 00;05;42;06
Speaker 2
It’s right in there downtown. And, we have a wonderful mix of living historians representing both civilian life, food prep, medicine. You know, what would have been the rudimentary by our standards, medicine of the day and either in camp or in a battlefield, music new this year we’ll have a musician interpreting music that would have been heard, both, you know, throughout these weekends grounds and also available to discuss, you know, some of that, the technique, the instruments they played, we always have very popular the American artillery unit, which is incredible.

00;05;42;06 – 00;06;15;09
Speaker 2
And they do live hand in firing, demonstrations, pretty much several times a day on Saturday and Sunday over the Hudson River and a really beautiful spot, in Fort Hardy Park and the British encampment. They are amazing. They’re, they are side by side with American and and camped and, interpreters. We have a growing number of units from across New England and upstate New York, of course, who participate in this weekend in both representing British and American forces.

00;06;15;12 – 00;06;38;21
Speaker 2
You can visit with them, walk through their camps. They’re very engaging. Love to talk to the public. There are musket little drills for families with kids especially. Get them and muster them and get them in order and do a little march, out there in the that municipal park. And yeah, horse and wagon rides with large draft horses, which are just beautiful animals.

00;06;38;23 – 00;07;06;10
Speaker 2
So it’s really something for all ages. Three it’s meant for multi-generational grandparents and parents and children to meet up together and enjoy just our wonderful, you know, Saratoga County areas in the fall. And yeah, for Hardy is where the British grounded. There are weapons, on October 17th, 1777. So don’t miss this chance. Be part of our living history 2026.

00;07;06;10 – 00;07;14;23
Speaker 2
And we have some other few, few other surprises I can get to, out there this year that are unique. And another reason to come out.

00;07;14;26 – 00;07;30;12
Speaker 1
Yeah. So let’s let’s talk. I have questions about the encampment bill. So do these guys like, I’m sure it’s not just guys. These people go out there like, literally like camp out like they’re living there for the weekend kind of thing.

00;07;30;12 – 00;07;54;06
Speaker 2
Like. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. It’s a mixed but a large number do do that. Yes. They, they come in and they’ll set up on Friday for the weekend and, we help out with supplying some straw and potable water and, you know, some firewood, but they’re out there and camped over the weekend sleeping under the stars or usually under authentic.

00;07;54;08 – 00;08;16;15
Speaker 2
These folks are incredible. They do all the research. They’re dressed in era garb. They are carrying most of them weapons or tools or campfire equipment. That represents exactly what would have been present in this era of history. And yeah, they’re making their own food. They’ll be like some of the best chicken rotisserie over a fire that you’ll ever see.

00;08;16;17 – 00;08;43;02
Speaker 2
And I. Yeah. No kidding. Like that feeding themselves. You know they they certainly we love this Schuyler Villa location because it’s authentic to history. Like I said, that is a municipal wonderful park that the village of scholar Bill has done an amazing job. You know, keeping up. It’s been a great place for the community to recreate. But increasingly, you know, as we bring this history back to the fore, it’s a place for living history, events and experiences like this.

00;08;43;05 – 00;09;09;10
Speaker 2
But yeah, you’ll see them out there camping overnight, getting up in the morning, getting ready. Our, our public hours of this, our Saturday, 10 to 4, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.. But yeah, they’ll they’ll do it for real. And most of them, actually, I know when they do go up to the battlefield, like, that September date, they’ll camp out and some of them are really just, you know, going to lay out and camp out under the stars.

00;09;09;12 – 00;09;11;15
Speaker 2
So, yeah, that’s, they’re.

00;09;11;15 – 00;09;18;16
Speaker 1
True to your time. I like, how do I get into the encampment? I want to hang out for the year. Yeah. You’re going to need to,

00;09;18;18 – 00;09;21;00
Speaker 2
Check out some of their standards and see.

00;09;21;00 – 00;09;23;29
Speaker 1
If, when they interpret it for real in.

00;09;23;29 – 00;09;46;18
Speaker 2
The coming year, especially, they always are very authentic. But when they come up to the two 50th next year, we have a whole set of standards that are guided by these historians to, help the units that come from all over the place to recreate Saratoga, adhere to everything from facial hair, which was minimal in that era.

00;09;46;20 – 00;10;08;10
Speaker 1
So you’re still looking a little Civil War ish there. I think there area you see that clean shaven somebody actually, when my hair was longer, a couple of years ago, somebody was like, you look like you could be one of those Civil War reenactor guy of those. I was just assuming that everybody from, you know, the 1700s had a big, bigoted.

00;10;08;13 – 00;10;08;22
Speaker 1
Oh, they.

00;10;08;24 – 00;10;28;05
Speaker 2
You know, fashions change. So now, actually, it’s interesting. Like, they would get even in this battle, even in the battle campaigns, they would be like a couple of days stubble and they’d be shaving at the camps. That’s all stuff I’ve been learning through these incredible dedicated, you know, experts who are out there really create recreating this for us.

00;10;28;05 – 00;10;41;00
Speaker 2
And it’s a wonderful asset in our backyard, an amazing experience. And yeah, go out there and immerse yourself. Like I said, amidst the rest of your fall outings, it’s usually such a wonderful time of year for us anyway.

00;10;41;03 – 00;10;53;01
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, beautiful time of the year. So I need to ask about the canon bill. Yes. You said over the Hudson. Are we. Are we actually shooting Cannonball River?

00;10;53;03 – 00;11;30;02
Speaker 2
No. Thankfully for the neighbors right across the street, who are wonderful. They understand. And there is, you know, appropriate notice about this weekend in the village that, these things occur. But we’ve been doing it for a few years. We did it on the Henry Knox 250th during December. And, yeah, there’s a series of, you know, several authentic to to the era of replica cannons that are fully functioning, a unit led, by my companion, who’s a retired teacher from our area and his amazing team do a great job engaging with the public.

00;11;30;05 – 00;11;51;27
Speaker 2
You wouldn’t believe some of the stories about how far these things fly at different weights. You know, they were like a 6 pound cannons, a 6 pound ball, you know, and how far they could fly. I I’d love to, tantalize people enough to come out and let and hear those discussions because it’s an extraordinary and, frankly, horrifying.

00;11;51;27 – 00;12;17;08
Speaker 2
Honestly, some of the things that they would do to adjust the the shotgun spread and the potency of these weapons, but, yeah, the cannons are blanks and they’re done with a crew that they walk you through. Exactly. The role of everybody, for each shot. And it’s fascinating. But I, I, I’m bowled over, honestly, by a few things.

00;12;17;08 – 00;12;41;27
Speaker 2
You want to ask them about how far the different size, cannon, artillery, ammunition could fly and then some of the tactics they would use to try and increase their potency. But also one of the other things that’s mesmerizing is how loud it was. And they’re in the middle of live fire with the tire units of artillery firing at once.

00;12;41;27 – 00;13;05;03
Speaker 2
And if you come down and feel the compression and hear the sound of one of these firing, or two of them firing at a time and trying to imagine dozens firing and reloading and firing over and over, it’s it’s no wonder, you know, essentially most of the artillery unit would go death literally within like fairly limited deployments.

00;13;05;05 – 00;13;05;26
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;13;05;29 – 00;13;08;03
Speaker 2
Yeah. Sadly.

00;13;08;05 – 00;13;25;18
Speaker 1
What so let’s talk about, you know, you were mentioning that in the encampments, you can walk around and talk to people. I’m wondering how in character the British side is. Are these guys, are they going to be walking around with some some accents? Oh, yeah.

00;13;25;20 – 00;13;48;09
Speaker 2
Yeah, some of them for sure. And they are very proud, to be, committed to the Crown. And they, wear their, kit to the nines. They run it in the incredibly crisp camp, the women and children who are in the camp, are true to the time, too. That’s something that I was really fascinating.

00;13;48;09 – 00;14;21;00
Speaker 2
There were camp followers traversed not only the Atlantic, but then the wilderness from Canada, down the Hudson Valley and up in the back background of an incredible series of battles and a miserable siege, honestly. But you’ll see women and children there in camped with the British in particular. And yeah, like I said, cooking food, you know, full set ups of their tents and great kits and happy to talk about why the Crown and the His Majesty is the logical rightful ruler of the colonies.

00;14;21;00 – 00;14;27;06
Speaker 1
So, yeah, it’s a really immersive experience. Yeah. Yeah, that’s that’s really cool.

00;14;27;08 – 00;14;53;16
Speaker 2
Yeah. And you know, this year new to this year. One thing I really wanted to talk to you about, we we talked a lot about this. You’re obviously engaged with us on it. There’s through what we’ve been calling the Saratoga Revolutionary Experience, which is our brand, if you will, to sustain beyond the big 250th commemoration next year, 2027 is, we we built, on that domain.

00;14;53;16 – 00;15;22;16
Speaker 2
You can sign up for what we’re calling. We will releasing four siege weekend, a siege passport, and it’s easy to sign up. We’ll have signage out at the site itself. You can just scan with your QR code, sign up in like, 30s. It’s not complicated. And we’re. What we’re offering is anyone who signs up for that passport. As you go around to these incredible civilian and military interpreters, check in, you know, track your progress with, especially with your family.

00;15;22;16 – 00;15;51;05
Speaker 2
It’s something fun and engaging. You do, and you check in as you’re talking and listening and seeing their demonstrations. And everybody who completes the circuit, which looks like it’ll be about 11 or maybe even 12 different stops, all in this nice, beautiful fall day to walk around the park. You’ll be eligible for a grand prize, which will be family premium seating at the 2027 250th Battle reenactments.

00;15;51;08 – 00;16;28;04
Speaker 2
There’ll be two days of battle reenactments coming in October 9th and 10th, 2027, where we expect thousands of re-enactors from both sides. One Saturday reenactment, one Sunday reenactments. So coming out this year in 2026, participating in our passport makes you eligible for some premium grandstand seating to watch that. But everyone who signs up for this year’s Siege passport just signing up, we’re going to add you to a prerelease list that you’re going to get the first crack at these limited tickets we’re going to have at this reenactment.

00;16;28;07 – 00;17;02;24
Speaker 2
And, you know, essentially virtually no cost tickets are going to go quick for this once in a generation milestone. So people who are engaging with our siege passport, we also have something out that’s going to just be an ongoing passport to combine these heritage stops with hospitality venues, whom are great computer community partners of ours all year long that’ll be running, and anybody who participates in that also will be on our prerelease list for the big 250th milestone reenactments.

00;17;02;26 – 00;17;06;07
Speaker 1
That’s amazing. And is that live right now?

00;17;06;09 – 00;17;31;06
Speaker 2
The Turning Point Passport is live right now. It’s at Saratoga. Revolutionary experience. Dot com passports are either in the hamburger on mobile or just the left hand menu. And the only passport there right now is called the Turning Point Passport. It’s up to, I think, 18 different venues and growing. We have two tiers of eligibility for some prize, some merch giveaways.

00;17;31;08 – 00;17;54;23
Speaker 2
And like I said, the, top tier of the, the top, level in that turning point passport will be in the drawing for premium seats. We’ll keep that running all year. We’ll probably do every quarter, do a drawing for like a family of four or a package of four. Premium seating for the 2027 to 50th reenactment will add to that passport heading into siege weekend.

00;17;54;23 – 00;18;30;12
Speaker 2
The siege passport. And that’s going to be just for the weekend. You got to be on site, come down and immerse yourself in 18th century history with these incredible interpreters and, that everybody who signs up for that will be enrolled in this prerelease ticketing window. We anticipate probably releasing those tickets to this release group for a couple of weeks, exclusively not open to the public, but direct messaging to those folks in the spring of 2027 to just get those before we open it up widely.

00;18;30;14 – 00;19;02;08
Speaker 2
We really have seen incredible enthusiasm for what we’ve been building toward the last several years, so we’re optimistic that they’re going to be in high demand by the time next summer. And this time of year, factory season rolls around next year. We we feel like they’ll be a scarce supply of tickets to these reenactments. So we’re going to do a window in the spring to early summer where folks who’ve been engaging with our events like this, are going to get a prerelease opportunity to secure their tickets and be part of that history.

00;19;02;10 – 00;19;09;00
Speaker 1
That’s amazing. I gotta tell you, as a homeschooling parent, this sounds amazing to me. Yes.

00;19;09;03 – 00;19;11;28
Speaker 2
It’s perfect. You’re right. Like perfect.

00;19;12;01 – 00;19;18;27
Speaker 1
It sounds like a great opportunity for us to log some, some history out here, some social studies. That’s a little the.

00;19;18;29 – 00;19;48;20
Speaker 2
Yeah, totally. You’re dead on. That’s a great point. I absolutely, for the homeschool community, for the for the public school communities, too. It’s a great way to have your family go together and learn something new, see something very immersive and visual. Yeah. And, yeah, map it back. I mean, we’ve had, some public schools in the past as as high as that, you know, in, your state curriculum, it’s believe it’s fifth, seventh and 11th grade.

00;19;48;20 – 00;20;16;09
Speaker 2
Our U.S. history in units in social studies. And we’ve had some teachers since 11th graders, you know, year juniors to our events over years past two. Yeah, right. You saw an essay about what they learned that was, you know, related to the unit in U.S. history and the founding or the revolution. And we’ve had other great success with, different public schools, participating and homeschools private schools as well.

00;20;16;09 – 00;20;29;27
Speaker 2
So you’re that’s a really good point. It’s it’s absolutely the way to go. Yeah. And there’s a lot of other fun things too. I mean, this can be fun. Learning can be fun. Edu training as Lauren Roberts, our two 50th commission chair, likes to say.

00;20;29;29 – 00;20;30;16
Speaker 1
Yeah, our.

00;20;30;16 – 00;20;44;06
Speaker 2
Work goals are educate, engage and preserve. Saratoga is revolutionary heritage. And you know, that’s exactly what this this is one of our signature weekend events. For all those reasons, it checks all the boxes.

00;20;44;08 – 00;20;49;24
Speaker 1
Yeah. Love it. And one more time. That’s the weekend of October 17th.

00;20;49;24 – 00;20;59;25
Speaker 2
You said no. Sorry, but I guess my bad. I haven’t hammered this home. Clearly, it’s October 10th and 11th. Columbus Day weekend, Saturday and Sunday.

00;21;00;04 – 00;21;02;04
Speaker 1
So you said that I think I 11th.

00;21;02;06 – 00;21;02;16
Speaker 2
No.

00;21;02;16 – 00;21;02;29
Speaker 1
You’re right.

00;21;03;00 – 00;21;27;21
Speaker 2
Hey, surrender day is October 17th. We also have an incredible pair of ways to, you know, commemorate the big surrender on the 17th. But the siege Living History Weekend, which is immersive, fun. Edu training October 10th and 11th, Fort Park, Schuyler Bell in New York. Okay, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

00;21;27;23 – 00;21;32;13
Speaker 2
And if you have a few more minutes, there’s some fun. Other things too. To just add to that.

00;21;32;15 – 00;21;35;13
Speaker 1
Though, I got all the time in the world and let’s. Yeah.

00;21;35;13 – 00;21;57;18
Speaker 2
So you’ll also find I mean, engaging with the historians is incredibly fun. We also have 18th century toys and games. It was extraordinarily popular. Last year was the first year we did it with an amazing interpreter who runs that little area, and you’re literally playing with the toys and games of the 1770s and 18th century children and household.

00;21;57;18 – 00;22;15;11
Speaker 2
It just drew a great crowd. The draft horses are beautiful, majestic. Oh, what’s more fun than taking a little wagon ride when you got, you know, kids or your grandparents or with you? That’s that’s an just amazing fall upstate thing to do, right? And when we were.

00;22;15;14 – 00;22;20;05
Speaker 1
Yeah. The draft horses are the huge ones, right? Yes, yes. They’re like so big.

00;22;20;10 – 00;22;43;14
Speaker 2
They are two teams of two each. So four horses keep and they they work. That’s what they’re designed for. We have an incredible partnership with the Washington County Draft Towers Association. They take such great care of them. And so it’s a wonderful way to get, you know, out and about with family. And then we’re also Stewart’s Ice Cream.

00;22;43;14 – 00;23;06;09
Speaker 2
They’re incredible community partners on Saturday. And this year, I believe maybe someday they’re going to do this too. But they donate to these events. So for a I’ll have more detail out on that exactly when. But for sure, at least one day, hopefully two days, there’ll be a couple of our window where they’re scooping some flavors of ice cream for free.

00;23;06;11 – 00;23;35;25
Speaker 2
They’re amazing. As you know, the Deep Family Foundation, Seward shops have been incredible partners of ours and so many in this region just keeping history and arts and our culture and our heritage alive as part of their goodwill. And so they’ll be there, and we’re featuring the Saratoga Revolutionary Experience, a new exhibit in what we’re calling the Saratoga Revolutionary Experience Center, which is directly adjoining for Hardy Park.

00;23;35;28 – 00;24;22;18
Speaker 2
And they’ll be an immersive, handful of exhibits in there. Eventually, that’s going to be an entire hub to orient people around the, this September 19th to October 17th, 1777, you know, Battles of Saratoga and then send people out using our app to all the historic sites that they should go see. But this weekend, on October 10th and 11th, there will be a new digital wall that just immediately gives you, real chronological timeline and charting of the American and British forces and their movements in that September 19th to October 17th critical window.

00;24;22;21 – 00;24;52;13
Speaker 2
And so that’s an incredible way in 21st century way for people to just see visually. And there’s a little bit of interactivity on the panel, to understand, okay, where were the forces? Where were they moving? There’s movement in multiple directions during that time frame. This isn’t a one and done Battle of Saratoga. It was really a 4 or 5 week, you know, strategic advances and retreats and movements in multiple directions.

00;24;52;15 – 00;25;27;07
Speaker 2
And that, digital display will really orient people around that. And just kind of gives us a chance to sneak preview this center that, over the next year and years and years to come, we hope will be an orientation. Right next to that for already feel the grounded arms and a great way for people to kind of onboard themselves to this history and then go out to the national park sites and a bunch of other beautiful local, nonprofit and state sites that can, bring this story home and, you know, put their feet where it happened.

00;25;27;09 – 00;25;56;26
Speaker 1
Yeah. And, Bill, I know you’ve mentioned it a couple of times and, you know, talked about the ongoing efforts, right? Not just celebrating the historic milestone of 250 years, but also continuing to move forward in continuing efforts to recognize and educate and and maybe can you just talk real quickly about why that’s important and why that exists?

00;25;56;29 – 00;26;25;25
Speaker 2
Great. It’s great questions, good contacts. So yes, absolutely. We’ve all been taking a lead again from the Saratoga County to their credit, visualizing this, opportunity to really reconnect this generation and the whole next generation for 50 years at minimum, we hope to this amazing legacy that’s right here in our, our region and our backyards, where this founding era turning point victory occurred.

00;26;25;26 – 00;27;00;05
Speaker 2
You know, it’s improbable nobody in the time could have predicted it or known it would happen this way. It was that remarkable. And the whole initiative, you know, of American colonists pursuing self-governance, and in and honoring inherent liberties, you know, that is a continued work in progress that continues to be interpreted and needs interpretation to new generations in order to sustain that connection right to where we came from and why we came from.

00;27;00;07 – 00;27;31;11
Speaker 2
And in that case, and a British empire that was ruled under a monarchy and had imposed its will increasingly on colonists. You know, it’s not revolutionary cliche. It was truly a revolutionary change in the form of government. So there is an opportunity here to just continue to reconnect people to the difficulty and the challenges that occurred, to shape that opportunity that we’ve enjoyed and hopefully continue to enjoy.

00;27;31;13 – 00;27;53;16
Speaker 2
But it also just is very relatable at a human level. There are people who are loyalists or royalists, as they were called, understandably, in our whole region and in our backyard, and patriots, you know, and it’s not easy for any of us to predict which way we would have fallen as much as we may think, knowing with hindsight, of course, I would have been a patriot.

00;27;53;16 – 00;28;16;24
Speaker 2
Well, write reality, you know, you’re inviting like a rebellion and war and disrupting, you know, maybe your your farms and your trade routes and everything you know about how your family takes care of itself or survive. You know, that’s hard to predict. So a lot of what we’re trying to deliver is relatable connection to the human experience, from leaders, but also just rank and.

00;28;16;24 – 00;28;17;23
Speaker 1
File.

00;28;17;25 – 00;28;49;16
Speaker 2
Militia responders or camp followers with the British and and the German forces that were with Burgoyne, you know, native and indigenous tribes. So we’re we’re really intentionally trying to bring these voices to the fore. So, you know, you can relate at a human level to the to this history and then derive, you know, why it is still relevant to us today and continue to pass that on in our own families, from our own communities, you know, for many, many more decades to come.

00;28;49;19 – 00;29;22;26
Speaker 2
So that’s that is a educate, engage, preserve Northstar set of objectives that we’re really adhering to. And I believe out of this milestone morphing into what we are branding the Saratoga Revolutionary experience will deliver that opportunity. You know, for those of us who are, you know, enjoy the privilege of living here, but also to attract people from across, you know, the dry time regions, from the borders with Canada to Boston to New York, new Jersey to Buffalo.

00;29;22;28 – 00;29;59;03
Speaker 2
But even nationwide and internationally, this really was a incredible bit of history that shaped the direction of the United States and the world. So we really believe that with the combination of that world impact of this history that occurred here, the places that you can still visit and lock, and the world class hospitality sector that we already have and enjoy in Saratoga County and the greater capital region, we can combine those, through this Saratoga revolutionary experience to keep attracting people for years and years to come.

00;29;59;06 – 00;30;15;28
Speaker 1
Yeah. I you know, I think one of the things I have enjoyed the most and we’ve talked about this on, on other podcasts, and if you’re listening, I, you know, I would encourage you to go back and, you know, you can just go to our website at buying local.us and just do a quick search, bill Teeter to tour.

00;30;15;28 – 00;30;38;10
Speaker 1
And some of those other podcasts will come up in articles that we’ve done. But, so I’ve said this before is the reason why I say that, but I just want to say it again, because I really do love how all your efforts have really shown all perspectives of what happened. Right? It’s not just, you know, the rebel scum.

00;30;38;13 – 00;31;02;10
Speaker 1
It’s it’s you’re showing it from the British side, from the rebel side, from women in the war side, from, you know, I mean, it’s it’s every children, you know, with the children’s book that you put out. I it’s I really have enjoyed seeing that different perspective because, again, you know, my, outside of my own personal exploration, really most of it comes from school when I was growing up.

00;31;02;12 – 00;31;23;12
Speaker 1
I’m a bit older now, so some of that’s a little plus, but, you know, but also it was it was just I was learning it just from a single teacher’s perspective or from a textbooks perspective. And it really doesn’t help you get, you know, in the shoes of people in different parts and the experiences of everything that went on.

00;31;23;12 – 00;31;26;21
Speaker 1
So it’s I, I really enjoyed that. And I wanted to mention that too at live.

00;31;26;21 – 00;31;53;26
Speaker 2
Appreciate it. That’s exactly it. That’s the way we want people to think about this. Like I want to. You can read and watch all kinds of videos. Hopefully you’re following us at Saratoga 250 Dot and on at Saratoga, 250 on Instagram, and we’re on Facebook and TikTok and, you know, please follow us. You can see great content or reels, but we’re really are trying to remind people as a priority, which was one of your initial questions in this segment.

00;31;53;29 – 00;32;21;03
Speaker 2
It is a priority. We want people to put their feet in those places and those types of content, you know, that are digital or video and otherwise, that people consume these days are hopefully the spark to want to go to these places and feel that presence, see those landscapes, experience some of these other more immersive exhibits that we’re developing under the Saratoga Revolutionary Experience brand.

00;32;21;05 – 00;32;23;05
Speaker 1
Yeah, I think it’s amazing.

00;32;23;07 – 00;32;23;25
Speaker 2
Thank you.

00;32;24;01 – 00;32;24;10
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;32;24;11 – 00;32;44;12
Speaker 2
Yeah yeah I, I hope I hope to see more and more folks out there. Seeds weekend October 10th and 11th. We had probably 2000 plus in 2025. Grew from around 800 a few years before that. It’s been on a nice steady growth. But there are new things to see this year if you’ve been before. We’re adding something every year.

00;32;44;13 – 00;33;08;22
Speaker 2
Lauren Roberts and Team always are looking at ways to bring in new interpreters. We have, like I said, that new, really great, digital orientation in in the physical Saratoga Revolutionary Experience Center, that we’re, you know, premiering, if you will, that that exhibit this this weekend and then. Yeah, just fun things you can go grab, you know, look at our turning point passport.

00;33;08;22 – 00;33;29;16
Speaker 2
Go grab a beer afterwards that, bound by fate and the nice little dinner there in Schuyler Bill. Or come in early, go to Mama Bear’s Diner, like right around the corner, which is amazing. And all the other local, establishments. I’ve been amazing. Saratoga, Apple. Schuyler Farms make a whole fall outing of, victory season here in Saratoga.

00;33;29;18 – 00;33;38;05
Speaker 1
Plenty of. That’s for sure. If there is. Bill, thanks so much. One more time. If people want to learn more, one of the websites. One more time.

00;33;38;13 – 00;34;08;08
Speaker 2
Yeah. Saratoga 250.com. Always through all of 2027. The best place to go for events. We will be releasing around this October. We’ll start releasing, like I said, this prerelease sort of window for people who are early enthusiasts and followers of our, content to get tickets to the big two 50th reenactment. But then also check out Saratoga Revolutionary experience.com.

00;34;08;10 – 00;34;25;22
Speaker 2
That’s where you’ll see these passports reside. There’s also suggested guides if you have an overnight, a weekend and afternoon. What’s the suggested itinerary to take in this history that’s at, Saratoga revolutionary experience.com. Awesome. Thank you.

00;34;25;24 – 00;34;26;08
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.

00;34;26;08 – 00;34;27;08
Speaker 2
Thanks, Michael.

00;34;27;10 – 00;34;40;01
Speaker 1
Yeah. Thanks, everybody. Of course, for listening. You can hear this episode, all of our episodes at Buying local.us. Also find them on Spotify, Rumble, Apple and YouTube. Thanks everybody for listening. And, you’ll hear from us next week.