Blackthorn Productions

Blackthorn Productions, founded in 2004 by Ian Walsh, was created to provide quality medieval education to grade 4 elementary students and to support their unit on Medieval History. With only Ian at the helm, booking schools was a bit of a slow process but he was able to book and hold onto several loyal schools. Since its inception, the quality of the program has improved by leaps and bounds.  Blackthorn’s displays consist of an extensive array of weapons, armour, reproductions of jewellery, games, tools, etc., and most impressively of all, authentic medieval artifacts.

Ian decided to take the program and do public demonstrations apart from school programs. Some of the first public demonstrations were at the old Fergus Market.  Over the last 7 years Blackthorn has participated in festivals such as: The Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games, The Royal Medieval Faire, The Country Renaissance Faire Milton, Guelph Faery Fest, and many other public and private venues across Ontario. Blackthorn now holds a Medieval Week that runs out of The Museum in Kitchener once a year and plans are afoot to bring this program to more museums across Ontario.

Education and Medieval Reenactment aside there is also the entertainment portion of the program. Having produced two of its own medieval feasts, providing both the show and the food, Blackthorn is also a theatre company.  Production of the third installment in their Crusader’s Feast series is currently under way. The evening matches superb entertainment with a lavish array of medieval food.
Blackthorn’s most recent big step up the ladder was its incorporation and Ian’s partnership with Richard Crossman of Hamilton.  With their combined skills and resources the sky is the limit to what they can accomplish over the next few years.

The Treasureventure Adventure Festival is the first major event since this partnership and looks to be one for the history books… pun intended.