Kynren – An Epic Tale of England is a live outdoor show located near Auckland Palace in the market town of Bishop Auckland, County Durham. The performance is brought to life through incredible sets, mass choreography, stunts, pyrotechnics and special effects.
With Kynren now expanding to offer a new daytime theme park at the current site, blooloop speaks to CEO Anna Warnecke about her unique career in eventing, Kynren’s current and future experiences, and its conservation efforts.
Warnecke, who studied medicine in Germany, was a former five-star eventer, competing at horse trials in England on the German team. She has been involved in Kynren since its formation.
Involvement from the start
“I met my partner here, and we literally have horses on the neighbouring farm to the [Kynren] site. When we heard that the site was proposing a theme park, our first instinct was, ‘Oh, theme park rides next to our field’. [We were] not so happy about it, but when we heard about what it really was going to be, we were very excited.
“I said I would love to be involved in any way. That led to me assessing the first riders and training them. When the horses came from France, the stables weren’t ready [at Kynren]. So, we had a huge amount of horses in our yard. It was a wonderful experience in the first year to be involved with all of the horse training.”
After taking on responsibility for the rest of Kynren’s animals, Warnecke “slowly but surely” assumed management of the whole site, including the artistic vision for the show, through the charity 11Arches.
Kynren is performed on a 7.5-acre stage with a 1,000-strong cast and crew of volunteers. Highlights include scenes like the Roman conquest and a medieval jousting tournament.
It’s unique, Warnecke says, due to “the amount of people involved”.
Kynren – an epic tale of England
“There are 1,000 volunteers involved in it. Even though they are volunteers, they are highly professionally trained, and know exactly what they are doing,” she says.
“It is very sleek, with beautiful choreography, amazing music written specifically for us, 150 animals, and over 100 kids involved. All of these things are only possible because it’s such a big project and production.
“We also have huge technical effects, like pyrotechnics. All of that coming together is really brilliant. It’s only possible because it’s purposefully built here, so it can’t tour. It’s here, and that’s what it does.”
The show is “quite jaw-dropping because you just don’t expect it”, she says.
“It starts fairly softly until the Romans… You have Constantine leading a procession with eight horses behind, more carriages behind Vestal Virgins, and gladiator fights. It’s just wonderful,” Warnecke added.
“What you don’t expect as a visitor is that you’re emotionally attached to what you see. [It’s an] emotional roller coaster.”
New immersive experiences
Kynren’s original show has evolved since its first season in 2016. Over the years, it has contributed £65.5 million to the North East economy. The production has also entertained more than 430,000 visitors to date. With the new theme park, Kynren expects to attract 3.3 million new visitors over the next five years.
“We have added, in total, three different scenes since 2016. Everything gets sleeker, faster, greater and bigger. Everyone’s confidence has grown. We have put a lot more horses in every scene,” Warnecke says.
“This year we have a brand-new Jubilee scene and it’s completely different. The story is told with new music, new projections, and new everything, featuring 150 actors and 20 horses on stage. It’s [set in] a sort of Victorian town celebrating Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, and it’s fun, fast moving, and very cool.”
Another new addition, launched last year, is a pre-show experience called Return of the Vikings. This includes an authentic 9th-century Viking village with a working blacksmith’s forge, a cookhouse, a woodworker’s cottage built into the hillside, and wooden roundhouses. During the Viking raid-themed pre-show, Kynren’s volunteers perform intricate combat scenes.
It was created for the many guests who arrive at Kynren early, “because it’s such a big production”, Warnecke says.
Return of the Vikings will offer new experiences when The Storied Lands debuts.
“[The pre-show is] for everybody to enjoy, with beautiful food outlets and bars, and the Viking village. [Guests can] get close to the actors, have a more immersive experience, and see them fight really close up and interact with the audience.”
Development in phases
Kynren – The Storied Lands is an expansion of the existing attraction – a new daytime theme park set to open in summer 2026.
The first phase of The Storied Lands boasts five shows and immersive experiences: the new Vikings show, an aquatic attraction on a giant lake that retells the Lambton Worm legend, The Lost Feather bird show, a Victorian England experience, and the park’s biggest production – Fina.
Warnecke tells us: “We’re moving from a purely nighttime show to a daytime attraction. It is done with professionals, because it has to be open all the time. In the first iteration of the park, guests will be able to see five shows, which is a lot, and they can choose which way round they are seeing them.”
The shows, she says, will be around 25 to 30 minutes long. It will be staged several times a day.
“All of the shows sit within a historic background, but some are legends and myths,” she adds.
“The Lost Feather is very much [about] the century-long dream of humans flying… In the end [it has] a modern message about conservation and habitat creation. It’s a really special show.”
The retelling of the Lambton Worm legend will feature water effects, stunts and fight scenes, all on an enormous lake.
Kynren: The Storied Lands
The new Viking village is part of the existing Kynren park and The Storied Lands. “This show is a bit smaller than the other shows and runs more often,” said Warnecke.
For The Storied Lands, Kynren has acquired the Victorian Village exhibition from Flambards theme park in Cornwall. The Victorian Village is one of the UK’s most detailed period recreations, featuring over 40 sets and scenes with authentic shopfronts and interiors. It will be transformed into a walk-through experience set in Victorian England at the new park.
“We got the opportunity to acquire the whole thing, to keep it all together,” Warnecke says. “It’s a big, beautiful collection. Here, it’s not like it was in Flambards, where you walked through and you [could] be close, but there’s no interaction, no storytelling as such.
“With us, it will be the backdrop of an immersive storytelling [experience] with actors and everything, and guests will be able to experience it as their story. They can go round and be a different person in Victorian times, depending on what they choose. They can follow that path and interact with the actors, and therefore be really involved in the story.”
Anna WarneckeWhat you don’t expect as a visitor is that you’re emotionally attached to what you see.
Themed F&B
As for the new park’s largest show, Fina is “the story of a girl training a horse to become a war horse”, she said.
“It’s actually telling the whole English story of medieval times. Many of these shows have a regional backdrop, but are absolutely relevant to the nation’s history.”
There will be themed F&B and retail experiences in The Storied Lands. “All of it is immersive,” Warnecke says. “As soon as guests come into the park, they will be in historic timeframes, and the food will be tailored to that.”
Fresh bread, baked on site “like it would have been 150 years ago”, is one option, she said. In the Viking village, there’s a “beautiful fire bar”.
“It’s all about immersive experiences and atmosphere. When guests come through the gate here, what they should do is leave their worries at home and enjoy their day. At the same time, they are learning about history, but in a very different way,” Warnecke adds.
The park prioritises sustainability, and is part of conservation programmes for endangered species. “There’s something beautiful about nature. It gets you to relax, and to see and smell and hear differently to when you’re in a busy town. Our aim was always to keep that in mind when we were building the park,” she said.
Sustainability and conservation at Kynren
“We have fields off site, around the side, that are all in a habitat creation programme already, whether that’s wildflowers, tree planting, all sorts of hedge planting. It’s all about building something fabulous for humans, but at the same time, for the animals that are here too.”
Developed on a former disused golf course, the site now includes woodland, hedgerows and wildlife corridors supporting native species, from birds of prey to bats and songbirds. Kynren is involved with conservation breeding programmes, including work with vultures and kestrels.
“The Lost Feather will be a beautiful show to watch. We are not preaching to [guests] but creating an emotional attachment to a subject and giving easy solutions that everyone can do,” Warnecke says.
Future phases of The Storied Lands will introduce even more shows. This includes The Lone Centurion, the Tudors-themed Conquest of the Seas, and those inspired by legends like Excalibur and Robin Hood.
Plans for new daytime theme park
“We have already planned and designed three more shows. The first one will be The Lone Centurion, which we will build a year or two years [after opening The Storied Lands]. The Lone Centurion will be about Binchester Fort and Hadrian’s Wall. Binchester Fort is supported and owned by our sister charity, the Auckland Project,” she says.
“The Romans had a 200-strong cavalry there with Spanish horses, which is interesting for us because we are using Spanish horses in Kynren.
“Also, we wanted to show that the Romans were very connected to normal, day-to-day life in the villages and often had English wives and so on. In Roman shows, there’s always a gladiator fight and Roman Centurions. But we also want to tell the story of the lives behind it all.
“It’s very difficult to research, but there has been quite a bit of research done at Binchester Fort.”
She says: “The Romans were here for so many years. They weren’t just coming, fighting a fight, and then going again. There was way more connection to everyone around them. That’s a bit of the story we want to also show.”
Robin Hood and more
After The Lone Centurion, the next show planned for Kynren’s expansion is one about Robin Hood.
“The concept that we have is brilliant. I don’t want to reveal too much. I know there have been [Robin Hood] shows done before, but possibly none of them [were] built as spectacularly as we have in mind. The story is beautiful. Reimagined here in the right way, it could be absolutely stunning. I’m excited about that one,” Warnecke says.
Anna WarneckeWe are building here to make a destination out of it.
“With the Tudors, what we want to do is the conquest of the seas, as with England, we’ve not yet done any of the sea battles. It’s all about Sir Francis Drake, because he’s interesting. He was a privateer, but he was also a pirate.”
“It will be quite heavy on technical effects, and also screens and projections. That’s why we don’t want to reveal more at this moment in time. We are very aware that things in that sector are moving fast. We need to have the latest and the newest technology that’s out at that time to create that project.”
Future plans
Kynren’s expansion plans in County Durham are substantial, and the charity will continue to focus on its original park for now.
“We are a charity and are here to regenerate the area. We are not a company that is just making a business out of it. It’s the connection to the local people and coming together that makes what we do now special.
“I have been asked by other areas in England whether we could create something there. But at this moment in time, we are very much concentrating on what we are doing here. I would never say never to anything. When an opportunity comes up, why not?”
She adds:
“For now, we will just concentrate on this park. It is a beautiful concept, and if you were going to build this park purely as a commercial venture, you would not build it where we are. We are building here to make a destination out of it. We have to climb a big mountain to do that, but we are very aware of that now, and the funding is secured.”
Kynren celebrates its 10th anniversary season in 2025 with shows every Saturday night from 19 July to 13 September.
Images courtesy of Kynren
