Regional Handover and Launch Weekend Celebrations - Summer 2008

Thanks to everyone who made OPEN WEEKEND such a huge success over the weekend of 26-28 September - your contributions were really appreciated! Here's some feedback .......

Handover :
• 48 church towers ringing bells for from 2 to 45 minutes as part of our “two minutes noise”
initiative.
• 75% take up for flags by local and unitary authorities from Chipping Campden to Stonehenge to
Bodmin to Lands End.
• Awesome 2 minutes of noise on Weymouth Beach – 15,000 people + cannon at Nothe Fort, and
the ringtone played through the PA of the main stage.
• 1 specially commissioned ringtone – 2 more to follow.
• National TV coverage.
• 4 x local TV coverage (BBC and ITV).
• 9 local radio pieces.

OPEN WEEKEND:
• 96 events across the SW (more than any region outside London).
• 50 bandstands promoting the work of young musicians (and initiative we will repeat and roll out
to Wales, the South east, the East Midlands, the North East and possibly the City of London in
September 2009, aiming to go UK wide by 2012).
• 1 inter-generational dance piece performed in 4 centres (Swindon, Plymouth, Weymouth,
St Ives).
• 2 new annual festivals – Bristol Do (city centre event based on the village fete) and B-Side
(multimedia festival in Weymouth).
• 3 Inspired mark projects
• 85,000 + audience
• National TV coverage – the public face of the Open Weekend! BBC breakfast programme and
BBC News 24.
• 6 x local TV coverage (BBC and ITV).
• 12 local radio pieces.