Doug ; The soonest event that I know of is the civil war event at the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop & Farm in Olathe , Ks. It is the weekend of April 19th & 20th , 2008 . This event usually brings in close to 500+ participants and 4 -8 pieces of artillery . It is a generic western boarder war scenario event . I will be there printing on my " Army Press " a war extra of the Olathe Mirror , this was one of two newspapers destroyed by Quantrill in 1862 , and they hope to have one or more wet-plate photographers there also . You should contact Tim Talbott or Alexis Radil as to your wanting to attend as a participant . They can be reached at 913-971-5111 or email at mahaffie@olatheks.org . This being OFF season for them it may take a few trys to reach them . You also might try to Google up the Mahaffie site . ED H