A new location for The Big Weekend

As you will understand, the weather over the last four months has been particularly difficult for residents of Nottinghamshire, with many people and businesses having been impacted in many ways. The extreme weather has meant that Southwell Racecourse has flooded on multiple occasions. The ground conditions coupled with continuing wet and freezing weather patterns have meant that the area is not draining as expected nor will it be likely to be in a fit state for TBW in May.

The Leadership Team and the Trustees have been carefully monitoring the situation at Southwell and clearly a difficult decision needed to be made. We were not prepared to deliver an event of a lower standard than we had planned for at Southwell and the health, safety and welfare of all our members and visitors remains a top priority.

With 99 days to go we are pleased to announce that Newark Showground will be the new venue for The Big Weekend 2024. Newark showground is adept at hosting large scale events and has all of the infrastructure that we need to deliver the event.

Sean Kelly, Event Lead said "Newark Showground is a fantastic venue, and we thank the Showground for their support in providing a new home for The Big Weekend. The venue is a great site, and we're confident that all of our Big Weekenders are going to have a memorable experience.

Whilst this may initially raise some questions, we have made this decision to benefit the people attending the event. Not only are we able to transfer all of our plans for TBW from Southwell to Newark, the change of venue has allowed us to further enhance our plans for the event.

If anyone has any questions, or needs to contact us about the change of venue, please follow the link to TBW 24 help page https://tbw.ticksy.com/#personal_info and one of the team will be pleased to help.

Squirrel and Beaver Day groups will be contacted to confirm which days your groups will be attending and in February, we will confirm more arrangements such as camping space and more practical information.

We would like to thank all our members attending for their patience over the last few weeks. Our team has been working non stop to ensure that The Big Weekend 2024 will be the premium Scouting event for Nottinghamshire Scouts and add to the long and excellent history of Scouting events within the county.