Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, UK
North Worcestershire Economic Development and Regeneration (NWEDR) and Bromsgrove District Council commissioned a six month programme of events (funded by the Welcome Back initiative) designed to encourage the local community back to town centres while helping local businesses and retailers bounce back from the pandemic.
The brief for this series of events and activities was to bring the WOW factor to our local town, to give the community a reason to visit their high street all while supporting local businesses who had struggled due to the pandemic.
The deadline for spending was tight and there were numerous restrictions on how the money could be spent but being a Bromsgrove-based business with many of our staff living in the Bromsgrove and surrounding areas we had a strong vested interest in seeing the successful re-opening of our local economy and vibrant town centre, and were thrilled to win the tender for this project.
We created a six month campaign of community events that not only appealed to the local community but incorporated as many local suppliers as possible. The campaign consisted of;
October Festival – A music, food and drink festival featuring a range of Bromsgrove based food and drink vendors who became a core team supporting the WBF events across the next 6 months. The event also saw live music from four local musicians.
Jazz around town – Jazz musicians were placed in several venues in the town centre and surrounding areas to encourage the community to book a table at a local venue and help hospitality businesses and local artists bounce back.
Christmas Tree – Installation of a 25 ft Christmas Tree for the lead up to Christmas.
Christmas Carols – North Worcestershire’s Rock Choir filled Bromsgrove with the sound of Christmas Carols. With a hog roast and mulled wine from local vendors, families and friends could enjoy a festive evening.
German Market - The weekend before Christmas Bromsgrove was converted into a German Christmas Market which featured different local crafters each day totalling 22 crafters and 9 local food and drink vendors.
January Blues - Following the success of Jazz around Town, we set out to beat the ‘January Blues’ with a week of live music across several venues in Bromsgrove and the surrounding areas. A programme of gigs was created to allow venues to pick a time and date that suited their business best.
Februsaurus - Throughout the month of February children could take part in a dinosaur trail across Bromsgrove town centre. This dinosaur trail allowed participants to discover some fantastic businesses in Bromsgrove who were handing out stickers and trail booklets.
Dinosaur Day – Concluding Februsaurus, Bromsgrove was transformed into a Jurassic Park where children and adults were able to witness the wonders of the dinosaur kingdom. Children were able to take a selfie with a dinosaur egg, take part in a ranger training camp and roar with a giant T-Rex and Triceratops. The event featured a range of Bromsgrove based food and drink vendors.
Coffee in the Community - A series of 2-hour community centred events in our six local regions designed to create an opportunity for local people to come together to enjoy a free tea/coffee.
Spring Into Bromsgrove - This one day event featured a children’s petting farm and fairground rides as its central attractions. The event featured a range of Bromsgrove based food and drink vendors.
We started the commission by creating ‘Your People, Your Places, Your Bromsgrove’, an overarching brand for the Welcome Back Fund activity to be delivered under. The brand created was bright, colourful, and fun, and with the strapline ‘Bromsgrove we’ve missed you’ it highlighted that we were looking forward to the safe and responsible return to Bromsgrove high street and local centres.
In addition to creating a series of fun, creative and engaging events that motivated people to return back to the high street, part of our objective was to directly support local businesses who had struggled throughout the pandemic.
This was a project of pure joy. We absolutely loved devising, planning and delivering the events and activities, and received overwhelmingly positive feedback from local vendors, businesses and the community.
We appointed Blackberry to deliver the Government’s Welcome Back campaign for residents, retailers, and businesses in Bromsgrove.
The deadline for spending was tight and there were numerous restrictions on how the money could be spent. Blackberry rose to the challenge and immediately started to plan a campaign of exciting and innovative community events which they delivered over the following months.
Blackberry were an exceptional team to work with delivering quality community engagement and fun activities from jazz festivals to dinosaur days. Blackberry’s professionalism, support and dedication were vital to the success of the project.
Jane Berry, Project Delivery Manager, North Worcestershire Economic Development and Regeneration (NWedR)
