Thank you so much for booking on to one of my Original Murder Weekends. I am delighted that you will be joining the many thousands of lovely people in our marvellous ‘Murder Weekend Family’.
If this is your first time, we really hope that you thoroughly enjoy your experience and that we live up to your expectations. If you’ve been before, thank you so much for returning, welcome back and thank you for spreading the word!
Each original Murder Weekend plot is based around a fictitious theme which is the vehicle to explain why a random group of friendly strangers would all meet up together in a hotel for the weekend. We hope that you, our very welcome guests, will enjoy playing along with the main characters in our plot. I always try to create a fun theme where we can all stretch our imagination and become people that we’re not, both actors and guests – and I hope that I’ve come up with a theme where we can all get involved.
On more than one occasion, I have said I wish I could go back in time when life was simpler and more carefree, when we didn’t have the weight of the world on our shoulders and where family and friends were held more dear and when we didn’t know all the news – both fake and real that we are bombarded with now on Social Media.
Ironic then that Harry Miller, a massive fan of all things 80’s, started a club on Facebook, which now with 3,000 members, has decided to arrange a get together, for as many fans as could make it, to join him for a new venture. He will announce his plans on Friday night, but it’s something that will really excite all the lovers of the 80’s. With money to invest and enthusiasm by the bucket full, it’s going to be a very exciting time for all the members of ‘Back to the 80’s’.
Harry not only wants everyone to have a brilliant weekend, but wants to spread the word, for everyone to stop, take a breath and enter a world long gone, to bring back those carefree days again. He wants us to use cash, he wants people to live in a community that cares for each other, he wants everyone to read books, to research in encyclopedia’s (apparently Googling everything rather than thinking is driving people on the fast lane to dementia in later life), and to eat unprocessed food – Harry wants to start a wave of happier, healthier adults who won’t be panicking in the inevitable next ‘outtage’!! Harry has a grand plan and he hopes his members will want to jump on board! Talking about ‘outtage’s’ I’m sure that Harry will arrive, a massive fan of Freddie, not realising that more than one will be ‘Biting the Dust’!
On Murder Weekends we always have a colour theme on Friday night, and I think that on this occasion it’s not just one colour, it’s as we were in the 80’s, a riot of colour, even neon; wear the jazziest outfit that you have in your wardrobe and if you can still find them, your ‘fame’ leg warmers, your head bands and your long hair cut into a mullet – no, that’s going too far, ha ha!! There will be a bottle of wine for our favourite.
On Saturday we always have a fancy dress themed party and more recently introduced our ‘Alphabet parties’, they have always been so varied and fun and so for this plot we are going for “Things beginning with B” for ‘Best Decade ever!’
We have been amazed by the ingenuity of our guests and I’m sure this particular letter will be no different. It could be a film, a TV show, a food, a person, a phrase, there are thousands to choose from, but if fancy dress isn’t your thing, please don’t worry, just sticking something on a jumper would work.
You could wear a white T shirt with an image of a bee and a hive – a beehive; or a shirt with bees, with some exit signs – ‘believe’. You could come wearing a mullet, beard and with false teeth and white suit – a Bee Gee; go the whole hog and come as a beanstalk with a mini Jack teetering on the top!
Often the simplest ideas are the most subtle and ingenious but some of our talented guests love spending weeks making their outfits, which they say extends the enjoyment of their weekends. You only have to look at the photo albums on our Facebook pages (Joy Swift’s Original Murder Weekends and Joy Swift’s Original Murder Weekends Discussion Group) and you will see some of the most amazing, handmade outfits imaginable! Our guests are so much fun and very creative, some of their outfits are quite spectacular and extraordinary, and it’s often impossible for us to choose the best.
Please don’t hire anything unless you want to – make, beg, steal or borrow! We’d hate you to spend any money on what is, after all, just a bit of fun which is a great photo opportunity for our guests. If you do get stuck, give Geri a ring at our office and she’ll help you with some ideas. But please remember, as little or as much as you choose, we just want you to have a lovely time and lots of fun.
As usual there will be some themed games, with prizes for the winning table or individuals (but not for Googlers). None of them are too complicated but are just a light-hearted way to get you socializing with your fellow guests. Also it lightens the mood, if we were just seriously sleuthing and discussing murder, it could get quite deep and dark, and there’s nothing, absolutely nothing we like more, than laughing on weekends and I promise you we do a that a lot! One guest was once quoted in a newspaper that we should be prescribed on the NHS, after all laughter has been proven to be the best medicine.
Nothing is compulsory on Murder Weekends, so if you’d rather not wear fancy dress or want to sit out a game, go for a snooze or visit the Incident Room to study the evidence, that’s fine. But remember there is always quite a lot of action and we only have rows, deaths etc when all the guests are assembled. This is usually over mealtimes and sometimes when we’re marking games, so even if you don’t play, do come back, otherwise you may miss something vital that’s related to the plot, like another murder! Timings will be in the timetable in your arrival welcome pack.
We know you’ll have a lot of fun no matter how you decide to play the game, but for those of you who want to solve the crime, I have enclosed some tips on ‘How to Play’. Please read them as they will help. It is also a good idea to bring along a notepad and pen to jot down conversations you overhear or to collate evidence you think is important.
I hope you love the plot and enjoy all the many twists, turns and laughter that I promise there will be! Thank you for being part of our ‘Original Murder Weekend Family’, a nicer family you could never wish to meet!
We very much look forward to meeting you on Friday at the Welcome Reception at 8.00pm, before dinner at 8.30pm. We hope you have a marvellous time and manage to crack the case, which will be solved before the weekend finishes at 12.30 on Sunday.
