Dday-Conneaut Administration Building — Local services in Conneaut

D-Day in Conneaut, OH This is an amazing trip with a huge re-enactment group. Our first time and would recommend these things to make your first trip better: Parking: There was only one lot that had free shuttle service; it was located at the Gateway Highschool. There are a lot of signs leading to parking, but there were “no shuttles” lots. The signs leading to the shuttle parking are not marked “shuttle” parking. So park at Gateway Highschool. At the parking lot they put a colored wristband on you that corresponds to the colored flag on the bus. I think they may have busses for handicapped parking and veterans, and re-enactors too. Bring your chairs; arrive early and claim your spot at the beach area for the re-enactment. This is on a very hilly bank. The map for the area was really hard for us to figure out. The areas are in different zones, by country ie: France, Germany, USA, Britain. I didn’t think there was enough on-site signage to direct people to the areas. I know I was confused. Germany/upper pavilion is quite a hike up an old metal staircase to the top of a hill; worth the trip. It is quite a hike to each area so plan your day. Lots of info booths manned by volunteers who didn’t always know answers. Vendors and re-enactors didn’t know a lot about the area because they were visitors. There are plenty of golf carts to drive you around if you have a hard time walking; especially to go to/from the German camp. The American campground is in the middle of the park, you will see the brown tents; many of the demonstrations happen in this area. The USO stage is located there also. To hear the veteran’s stories, you need to go to the blue and white striped tent that is next to the American camp. Seems the vendors are located mostly along the paved streets. Make sure to talk to the re-enactors, they love to tell about the war and about their equipment, etc. You can learn so much from them. They were great. Re-enactors love being photographed also. Lastly, it seemed like a lot of the demos only lasted 10-15 minutes; so be early or you will miss it. The website is very good. Print out the area map to bring with you there NO FREE ones onsite. They only have the map in a book they sell for $5 (used as fund raising). They have free schedules that are written in military time. So you may want to print yours at home. Food was plentiful. Mostly Port-a-Johns; ask if there are any bathrooms before you get started. This is a great service to Americans; so worth the trip; A BIG thank you to those who work so hard at organizing it. Please, give a donation before you leave. Collections are taken after the beach re-enactment. Or mail a donation to an address on the website.

I only have one suggestion to the organizers. Please add a location marker or signage to the location of the event or demo. I found myself wandering around not knowing where the demo was actually going to be held. Or be more specific Thanks! Would I...

Parking signs lead us about a mile away from event. So we slogged along with our stroller from Day Street with no signs to guide us to the event. We ended up entering at a beach gate way below the main event. There were no signs about ramps, so we kicked the kid out of his stroller and we dragged it up about 60 steps.

The crowd was enormous. Very little signage directing you to where different events would be. Basically a free for all. There were no staff around to direct people. Ropes and fences everywhere. Frequently we’d walk with our stroller down a path only to find it was a dead end and we had to turn around.

Any shady areas were packed with people and generally inaccessible. Very little by way of benches or places to take a break.

The “main event” (reenactment of Dday battle) was impossible to get seated for. You need to claim your spot on a grassy hill with a blanket hours in advance if you want see it. We did not so there was no where we could go to sit for it. The hill was packed.

Veterans seating for the battle did not include Desert Storm vets (Vietnam vets or older), which I guess was fine. But we’re kinda getting up there in age too.

So basically, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you just wander around aimlessly, pressing through crowds to perhaps by luck find a location with a smaller scale event. We saw a battle reenactment for a bridge in “French occupied territory” which was awesome. Did we know where “French occupied territory” was? No. No signs. No folks saying “this way for the next battle”. Nothing. Just look for a bunch of other people sitting, assume they know what they’re doing, and then hang out around them for a half hour or so and something cool might happen.

I don’t like to complain but this IS a TICKETED event. They seemed unable and uninterested in any sort of crowd control management or making sure TICKETED customers had a spot to see the main event.

I won’t go back again. And that’s a shame because I was super excited to go. Instead I pretty much ruined a Saturday for my grandson...

There is Soooo much to learn if U ask questions n so much neat materials these people have purchased to show n preserve! The big issue is Hearing any presentation where more than 10-20 people gather in the open AND the gold carts running around as a Demo.is in progress. Need better coordination, n volume. This is the 21st century. Portable 2 to 5 watt systems are available. Also, a better way of Squeezing Donations outta cheap people! " The next 30 min. We R seeking a goal of 5$ a couple to improve this event. Please consider helping!!" Put up a Goal chart: upDate three times a day! Something needs to b done to also encourage the ReEnactors!! 40/40/20 raffle every 2 hrs to split with a visitor n ReEnactor! 20% for D-Day ! One $1 ticket per person! Even if it is only $100- 200 in it n a D-Day pin, People would have fun. But. U. Have to b present! Maybe move it from Camp to Camp to get people traveling into different areas! These girls walk their feet off for $100 - $200! Better they do more of this.. Or sell B4 n pull winners...