Work on the 2022 UKRO Festival of Rescue continues apace, and we’re delighted that we already have over 80 teams from around the UK and internationally signed up to join us for the event.
We are committed to make the Festival of Rescue the most interactive ever, with more involvement from the public and a more immersive experience for competitors. We also want this to be an opportunity to show off our fantastic local area, including the great city of Birmingham. To achieve this, we’ve pulled out all the stops when it comes to venues, build up, digital presence and visitor experience.
Iconic festival venues
Location, location, location. It’s the name of the game and we’ve secured several iconic locations for both the festival challenges and for the various celebratory events.
Our main festival location is Smithfield, in the heart of the city centre, near the famous Bullring markets. The site is being used as a key Commonwealth Games location this summer and will play host to the Birmingham Pride celebrations the week before the UKRO festival begins. With easy public access and the Birmingham skyline as a backdrop, it promises to be a great hub for the festival.
We couldn’t hold an event in Birmingham without involving its historic canals (more miles than Venice you know). Our water rescue challenge will be taking place at the Old Turn Junction near Gas Street Basin. For our swift water rescue challenge, we’re heading to the world-famous Ironbridge Gorge, with thanks to our colleagues at Shropshire FRS for their support in hosting at this location.
Our rope rescue challenge will take place at several Birmingham city centre sites, including the Forum building next door to Smithfield, the Bullring and on Lovelock Bridge by the unique Cube building. This will again give public spectators great opportunities to see the teams compete. All these city centre locations are within a short walk of one another and will give visitors to the festival an opportunity to see the best that Birmingham has to offer.
We’ve also secured some fantastic venues for the various Festival celebrations, including the beautiful Birmingham Library for our closing ceremony, the Birmingham City Council House for our challenge dinner and the historic Grand Hotel serving as the base for the UKRO team when they are in the city.
A truly engaging visitor experience
Digital innovation is always a focus for West Midlands Fire Service, and we don’t want the Festival of Rescue 2022 to be any different. We have been working with Shoothill to develop a highly engaging Festival of Rescue website, and this will be the starting point for our wider ambitions to make this the most digitally enabled festival yet.
We are planning a dedicated Festival app as well, to help people keep track of the events and get the most out of their visit to the West Midlands. It’ll include details of all the challenge events so people can follow along with the results and easily get to each challenge location.
We will be live streaming all of the challenges online so everyone can follow their local teams wherever they are in the world. This will be complemented by dedicated social media activity throughout the event.
The main site itself will also feature not just the challenge events but community and trade villages with opportunities for visitors and competitors to learn and enjoy themselves. We’re planning interactive experiences such as a real-life Fire Control setup, which will let people learn about exciting technologies such as 999eye. And, of course, we’ll have plenty of food and refreshments on offer for both participants and the public, showcasing some of the West Midlands most delicious street food!
We hope this gives a taster of what to expect and look forward to sharing more – such as the all-important challenge scenarios – soon.
For more information, go to for-wmfs.co.uk
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