Bournemouth 7s Festival

Bournemouth 7s Festival is a sport and music festival, and takes place over three days across the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend on the South Coast of England.

The festival has been celebrated as the "Sporting Glastonbury" [1] due its unique combination of sport and live music.[2][3]

Since being founded in 2008 by Dodge Woodall and Fleur Woodall, Bournemouth 7s Festival has grown to see over 30,000 people attending each year.[4]

The sports

Each year over 400 teams come together for their sports tour and compete across a large variety of elite and social sports tournaments.[5] The festival currently has five sports: rugby, netball, dodgeball, hockey, and CrossFit.[6]

The festival launched with two sports in 2008, rugby 7s and netball 7s. In 2013, the sporting offering was expanded with the introduction of dodgeball.

This trend continued as hockey was included in 2014. Volleyball and ultimate Frisbee featured from 2018 and were sports at Bournemouth 7s for three years.[7]

CrossFit, hosted by the National Fitness Games, is now the festival's fifth sport, having been introduced in 2021.[8]

The 65-acre festival site accommodates each of the sports, with a total of eight rugby pitches, 12 netball courts, two hockey pitches, two dodgeball arenas, and one CrossFit arena.[9]

The festival

Since 2008, the festival has expanded the entertainment, arenas and music offering year-on-year.

The festival now offers 12 themed arenas, all of which offer a different genre of music, including house, hip hop, bassline, cheese, and drum and bass, to name a few.

Past headliners include Ella Eyre, Professor Green, Example, MistaJam, and Fatman Scoop. They have been joined by other artists such as Majestic, Artful Dodger, James Haskell, Fred V, René LaVice, FooR, Jaguar Skills, and many more.

As well as sports tournaments and music there is a variety of stalls, fairground rides, and bars.

In the day, the VIP Colourseum arena combines games such as sumo wrestling and beer pong, and in the evening it offers entertainment and live DJs.

The V.VIP arena offers a private area where ticket holders can enjoy pitch-side views of the competitive rugby, a private bar and more DJs and live entertainment. Various celebrities from Harry Redknapp to Lewis Moody have been seen enjoying themselves here.[10]

The history

2008

Bournemouth 7s first took place in May 2008 with 8,000 people attending and 96 rugby teams competing. It quickly became known for being an end of season rugby tour.[11]

2009 - 2012

The festival was extended from 2 days to 3 days. Attendance grew to 20,000 and 300 teams competed.[12] After the success of the taster netball sessions in 2008, netball tournaments became a permanent fixture. In 2011, Nintendo became the first headline sponsor.[13]

2013 - 2016

Dodgeball was introduced as the festivals third sport in 2013,[14] followed closely by the addition of hockey in 2014 which brought the total number of teams competing to 360.[15] The number of festival goers reached 25,000 and 2016 saw Bournemouth 7s’ first headline performance by Fatman Scoop.[16]

2017 - 2019

The festival reached its capacity of 30,000 people on its 10th anniversary.[17]

2018 was the year of big change for Bournemouth 7s as volleyball and ultimate frisbee were introduced, two new arenas were established and Example headlined on the Saturday.[18]

A further two arenas, Funky Forest and Ya Mum's House, were added in 2019 to take the total to 12. The Saturday was headlined by Professor Green.[19]

2020 - 2021

Bournemouth 7s Festival 2020 would’ve been held from 29 to 31 May, however was cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[20]

The 2021 festival was scheduled to take place on the usual May Bank Holiday weekend, but had to be moved to the August Bank Holiday weekend due to COVID-19 restrictions.[21]

Taking place from 27 to 29 August, the 14th edition saw CrossFit make its debut [22] as well as Bingo Lingo.[23] Records were broken for the number of attendees and the number of teams competing, of which there were over 400. Ella Eyre headlined on the Saturday.[24]

The venue

Bournemouth 7s Festival takes place at Bournemouth University Sports Campus in Christchurch, just east of Bournemouth. It is situated on a 65-acre site, which houses the main festival arena, the sports pitches, the campsite and Glamping.[25] The festival hire the land from Bournemouth University, both of whom rely on a strong partnership to work around the challenges a multi-use venue poses.

The founders

Bournemouth 7s Festival was created by Dodge and Fleur Woodall, who still privately own the event today.[26] Dodge Woodall was introduced to the events industry while at Loughborough University, where he created two student nightclub brands and held 1,500 events over a 10-year period.[27]

In 2007 there were fewer festivals taking place in the UK, and having identified a market for a multi-sports and music event, Woodall saw the opportunity to use his skill set to launch a festival.[28] His aim was to create an ‘unrivalled experience with like-minded sports people and party goers’. Flyers were the main form of promotion until four months prior to the first festival, when Facebook hit the UK and meant a much wider audience could be reached organically.

The launch of Bournemouth 7s Festival saw 96 sports teams compete and 8,000 general admission tickets were bought on the day, at the gates.[28] Woodall is still the CEO of the festival and his wife, Fleur Woodall, is the Financial Director.

Awards

Bournemouth 7s Festival has received the following awards:

  • Event Production Awards 2022 - Sporting Event of the Year [29]
  • Event Production Awards 2019 - Sporting Event of the Year [30]
  • NOEA Awards 2018 - Sporting Event of the Year [31]
  • NOEA Awards 2018 - Large Festival of the Year [32]
  • Bournemouth Tourism Awards 2017 - The Great Time Out [33]
  • NOEA Awards 2017 - Sporting Event of the Year [34]

References
  1. "Bournemouth 7s Festival". www.festivalorganisers.org. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  2. "PART I Impacts and legacies of international sports events", International Sports Events, Routledge, pp. 25–38, 2013-05-07, retrieved 2022-01-06
  3. Silva, António; Lopes, Helder; Carvalho, Pedro Guedes de; Trindade, Rui (2019-07-24). "Resumos do Seminário Internacional: Impactos da organização de eventos desportivos na Região Autónoma da Madeira, Portugal". Motricidade (in Portuguese). 15 (S2): 1–32. doi:10.6063/motricidade.18360. ISSN 2182-2972.
  4. "Bournemouth 7s Festival - Visit Dorset". www.visit-dorset.com. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  5. "Bournemouth 7s Festival 2021". inDorset. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  6. "BOURNEMOUTH 7s FESTIVAL 2022". www.bournemouth7s.com. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  7. "Example to headline Bournemouth 7s Festival". Bournemouth Echo. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  8. Morton, David (2021-09-06). "Prime Yourself for the NFG With This Two-Part Competition Simulation by Zack George". Men's Health. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  9. "Bournemouth 7s Festivals". Open Air Business. 2019-03-10. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  10. "Moody in for sevens show". Bournemouth Echo. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  11. Team, The TRU; May 2015, Chris Heal Wednesday 20. "Bournemouth 7s Festival: The Sporting Glastonbury". Talking Rugby Union. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  12. Business, The (May 2011). "The Business - No 151 May/June 2011" (PDF). BizMag. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-01-07. Retrieved 6 January 2022. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  13. "Nintendo to sponsor Bournemouth Sevens". www.sportindustry.biz. 2014-09-18. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  14. November 2012, Friday 9. "Bournemouth 7s Festival 2013". Talking Rugby Union. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  15. June 2014, Tuesday 17. "The Bournemouth 7s Festival 2014". Talking Rugby Union. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  16. "Fatman Scoop for Bournemouth 7s Festival". Visit Bournemouth 2022. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  17. "Thousands flock to Bournemouth 7s Festival this weekend". Bournemouth Echo. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  18. "Example to headline Bournemouth 7s Festival". Bournemouth Echo. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  19. "Professor Green to headline Bournemouth 7s Festival". Bournemouth Echo. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  20. Powell, Olivia (2020-05-18). "Bournemouth 7s festival cancelled". Access All Areas. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  21. "Change of date for the popular Bournemouth 7s Festival". Bournemouth Echo. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  22. "FitGames Bournemouth". National Fitness Games. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  23. "Bournemouth 7s: What's happening when and where". Bournemouth Echo. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  24. "Bournemouth 7s announce headline act as excitement builds for festival". Bournemouth Echo. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  25. "Chapel Gate". Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  26. "Bournemouth 7s Festival 2019". The Festival Calendar. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  27. "People profile: Roger Woodall | Sports Management". www.sportsmanagement.co.uk. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  28. "Sports Management: Digital Edition". www.sportsmanagement.co.uk. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  29. Media, Mash. "Event Production Awards 2022 - 2022 Winners". eventproductionawards.com. Retrieved 2022-03-07.
  30. Media, Mash. "Event Production Awards 2022 - Winners 2019". eventproductionawards.com. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  31. slicestudio (2018-11-22). "2018 NOEA Awards Winner Announced". NOEA | UK. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  32. slicestudio (2018-11-22). "2018 NOEA Awards Winner Announced". NOEA | UK. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  33. "PICTURES: All the winners from last night's Bournemouth Tourism Awards". Bournemouth Echo. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  34. Tanner, Susan (2017-11-30). "Award Winners Announced". NOEA | UK. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
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