Avon Millennium Camp

Aim

The National Scout Association has been advocating for some time the Millennium Camps, to be held at sites across the country, on the late May Bank Holiday, with as many young people camping as possible. Avon's answer to this was to run one huge county event, involving Scouts and Guides.

Location

The camp was held on the Estate of Lord Wraxall, near Tyntesfield in North Somerset. This gave us a large number of acres to camp on, with plenty of woodland and open spaces to make the activities varied and interesting. The site lacked in basic infrastructure, so a team of slaves volunteered to import water, electricity, phone lines, toilets - absolutely everything needed to make a big camp comfortable.

People

There were lots of people. We had Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers, Young Leaders, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Ventures, Leaders, Fellowships, District Teams, County Teams, and Parents. They were all invited from Avon Scouts, Bristol & South Gloucestershire Guides, and North Somerset Guides. Approximately 5500 in total. Five and a half Thousand! That's an awful lot of people to keep entertained.

Some Statistics from the weekend:

• Approx. 3,400 people camped
• Approx. 1,200 people visited on Saturday
• Approx. 1,000 people visited on Sunday
• Over 5,500 people in total were involved in the camp

Publicity

Lots of publicity happened with the Evening Post touring the site, and publishing an article, but the biggest item was Trevor Fry from BBC Radio Bristol who broadcast live from the site for 4 hours on Sunday morning.

© Copyright 2000 - Avon County Scouts.

This page last updated 6 June 2000 by Graham Rhodes