Hi all,
I had this idea since Hobbiton will be left intact and permanent that I would look into running a larp there once it becomes available.
More details to come…
Fingers crossed. It would be amazing.
Could be very cool, if the operators of the site are agreeable to it.
EDIT: also, some foreign larpers and fans would sell their souls to travel to NZ and have the opportunity to participate in a LotR larp at that venue.
Let me know if you need any help Jared 
That would be fantastic
First I’ll start with contacting the owner operator, see what they might accept. We might be able to make it somewhat commercial for him even, running regular events. Who knows, hence why step 1 is contact them.
But it could be awesome in potential scale.
Sounds brilliant, Jared.
And also, yes, thanks Michelle, I will be asking for help if this gets off the ground because I will need lots of help to make it awesome.
In the past the Hobbiton tours have provided little cloaks for the children to wear when they visit the site… so what we might do here could just be an extension of that.
I mean how many kids (let alone fans or larpers) would give up an opportunity to fight off some Orks or other bad guys in the Shire? In the REAL shire!
Pretty exciting if the owners / operators have any interest in this idea.
hobbitontours.com/Hobbiton-M … 1966_.html
Hmm will give them an email shortly. Looks much more possible just looking at this webpage. Haven’t dissected things much but it looks like a special evemt is entirely possible.
If you’d like a second pair of eyes to look over whatever pitch you’re going to email them I’m happy to lend a hand. 
And email sent… thanks to Jackie for the assist! Now we wait for a couple of days and see what happens before phase 2.
Fingers crossed
BAGSY Squinty-eyed man! preferably Ruffian leader 
Assuming you are going to do Bywater?
That sounds amazing!
Not to put a damper on things, just thought I’d point out that when we visited Hobbiton, a couple of years ago, it was one of the condition of the tour operators was that they did not have people dressed up as LOTR characters. Proabably part of the copyright stuff. Of course this may all change, but would be unlikely IMO. Also to hire the place would be exorbitant. They charge almost $80-100 IRC (which is unlikely) per person for an hour tour (which is the only way to see it).
Good luck with your negotiations.
Gosh that is costly as a per-person rate!
I’ll be curious to see what they come back with. I was careful to use the term “fantasy” rather than LoTR out of concerns for copyright issues.
Any updates, Jared?
The cost for the tours was what put me off ever looking at trying to organise anything down there. And considering those rates were for the old Hobbiton that was essentially concrete holes in the ground, I shudder to think what the rates are going to be in the future with the actual facades and props there.
But good luck, I hope we’ll be pleasantly suprised.
I once ran a tabletop RPG (DragonQuest) where the players were orcs sent to the shire to get some pesky hobbit that had nicked a magic ring.
They found him and turned him into salami.
No update yet. sent a follow up email on Monday. Will call before end of the week. am hoping they will do us a deal.
Hi everybody.
When I was in France, some friends wanted to run a LARP in cinema studios in Spain. The venue was amazing and the price was amazing too… Too high to run the LARP… A solution they proposed to the studio owner was to rent the place for a moderate price, but let him have visitors at the same time. Basically the LARP was made possible, we were bothered three times a day by tourists which were very happy to see the cinema studio full of people and so the cow boy/mexican village. And we were really mildly bothered as they often just came, took a couple of pictures of us and had a short chat they left.
Might be a possibility. The players must accept that they will be kind with the tourists a participate in the tour by accepting to have pictures taken/chat with them
Some other friends (whose names will remain secrets) also went with a group of friends in Tatooin (Tunisia), pretended they were film makers and preparing a pre footage for a new movie. They were granted full access to the movie decorum… I don’t think it will work here though…