Re: Winter 2016 | Page 51

The Brighton Medieval Banquet 2017 is the 50th anniversary of our charity partner – Rockinghorse. As a consequence we wanted to do our bit to help the charity meet its ambitious goal of raising £500,000 to help sick children across Sussex. Never one to shy away from a challenge the marketing team at MWB came up with an idea for a unique themed fundraising event, The Brighton Medieval Banquet. From what we can tell the city hasn’t hosted an event like this before and it wasn’t long before plans were starting to form. This themed dining experience will be a truly unique event as over 400 of the County’s finest will be transported back in time. The night will start with a drinks reception, tankards of ale and goblets of wine before you are called to be seated at the long banqueting tables in the ‘Kings Hall’. Medieval fayre will be served to the tables and guests will help themselves to the feast before them. During the banquet guests will be entertained by minstrels, jesters and possibly the occasional sword fight! The evening will be hosted by our celebrity King (TV’s Sid Sloane) who will preside over proceedings and there will be live music to dance the night away. Guests are encouraged to dress in Medieval fashion and an amazing prize awaits the best dressed couple on the night. There will, of course, also be some fundraising on the night with amazing raffle prizes and auction items to help Rockinghorse and the sick children of Sussex. To many of us the term Medieval probably conjures up images of knights in armour, damsels in distress and castles with moats but when exactly was the Medieval period and what was life really like back then? The Medieval period (also known as the Middle Ages) lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire until the dawn of the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the Medieval period, and the modern period. The Medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. 49