Along with our customers’ enjoyment of our events and activities, we also take their safety and well-being seriously and have various policies and procedures in place in order to care for everyone. We welcome under-18s to our open days as well as to many of our special events and are committed to caring for their safety and welfare.
We pride ourselves in providing a friendly, welcoming, safe and fun environment for persons of all backgrounds. We have a long-standing reputation as being one of the best organisers in the industry when it comes to new, inexperienced and younger players, and enjoy welcoming newcomers to the sport.
Although we make every effort to be child-friendly, due to the nature of the activities we provide and the fact that each individual participant is partly responsible for everyone’s safety around them, we consider it to be an adult environment.
The imitation weapons which we use for our activities are highly restricted in the UK, it is even illegal for an under 18 to buy or sell one which is brightly coloured! Couple this with the active use of age-restricted pyrotechnic devices and the simulation of military and police scenarios, and it becomes apparent that all participants must behave in a responsible manner at all times.
We are fortunate enough to have public liability insurance in place which permits persons as young as 12 to participate in our activities, subject to certain conditions. Because of this insurance requirement, we are unable to accept players younger than 12.
All participants aged under 18 MUST bring a completed consent form with them on each visit. 12 & 13 year olds MUST have a responsible adult named on their consent form who will remain on site all day to take responsibility for their safety and well-being. The adult does not have to play and may remain in the safe-zone at no cost, one adult may be responsible for more than one young player.
They must wear lower face protection in addition to basic eye protection – there are many ways they can acheive this, even a thick fabric covering over their mouth is suitable to reduce the likelihood of facial injuries.
Under 18s are prohibited from using any pyrotechnics (grenades/smokes etc) by law. Non-pyrotechnic alternatives can be used (usually compressed gas powered).
They must wear long sleeves and trousers.
We expect them to behave in a mature manner (to be fair, we rarely get issues with under 18s’ behaviour, it’s normally the “grown-ups” who let the side down…)
We see the bulk of our players at our open day events. As stated above, we do consider all of our events to be adult environments, so there will undoubtably be some exposure to bad language throughout the day as well as simulated acts of violence (we are pretending to kill each other, after all).
Displays or threats of actual violence, aggression or abusive language directed at individuals are absolutely not tolerated however and will be dealt with severely. We constantly monitor the game zone, and if a player is beginning to get wound-up or upset, we prefer to resolve the issue then or get them to take a breather for a few minutes before it develops into a meltdown.
We encourage team play, cameraderie and good sportsmanship at all times and re-enforce this with regular positive feedback and encouragement during the games and briefings. We ensure that all players are treated with respect and as adults, whatever their age and experience.
Our regular annual August Bank Holiday weekend event has been going on for many years now and is due to be supplemented by an additional episode every May Bank Holiday weekend.
These events have additional rules and the play zone is open for approximately 5-7 hours on the Saturday and 4-5 hours on the Sunday. Although there is a team of staff and volunteer Marshals running the event, players are expected to look after themselves and their friends when it comes to breaks, food and water etc – there are no enforced break periods during the day.
This does require players to be more organised and self-responsible than on our open days. Under 18s are welcome to participate subject to the normal conditions for our open days above.
Most players either camp over on Friday and Saturday night or find a local hotel or B&B. Under 18s are allowed to stay on site overnight if accompanied by a responsible adult to ensure their well-being and safety.
Most of our special events are themed and story driven experiences and are based in a particular historical or contemporary timeframe, and in a particular theatre of war. For example, WWI, WWII, Vietnam, 1980s Cold War, 1990s Middle East, Modern Europe & Former USSR etc. Players take on a role which may be a soldier, civillian, freedom fighter etc.
Our special events frequently have a more mature theme and content and as such may not be suitable for some younger players. As many of them are also fully-immersive military simulations designed to replicate films, immersion-breaking elements are not permitted (for example 12yr old NATO soldiers). Simulated injury detail, interrogation/torture role-play and moral dilemmas may be presented to the players as well as likely exposure to bad language. If you might see it in a 15 or 18 rated film, then you may well be exposed to it at one of our special themed events.
In order to shield younger children from potentially disturbing content and experiences, unless stated otherwise, all players at our themed special events are required to be aged 18 or above, with mature 16 or 17 year olds being accepted alongside a playing adult named on their consent form. This is especially applicable when events permit sleeping in the game environment – the accompanying adult must be aware that they are accepting responsibility for the well-being of the under 18 at all times on site.
