TAKEPART-Brighton and Hove International Festival of Sport

TAKEPART - the first Brighton & Hove International Festival of Sport 2008 was the first city-wide sports festival in Brighton & Hove aimed at people of all ages. It was organised and delivered by Brighton & Hove City Council, the Brighton & Hove School Sport Partnership, led by Dorothy Stringer School and the Brighton & Hove Primary Care Trust (PCT). It included the large School Sports Festival that has been successfully run by the School Sports Partnership since 2006.

The long term aim of the Festival is simple: to get more people more active more often increasing participation levels in sport and physical activity. Five Festivals are planned between 2008 and 2012 building the event in to one of the region’s main legacy events for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

TAKEPART 2009 was a great success, exceeding all expectations and achieving significant levels of participation from clubs, groups, organisations and the general public. Its main achievements were:

• Overall attendance for Festival events of over 59,000 from 45,617 in 2008
• Substantial increase in the Schools Festival element which coincided with Lloyds TSB National School Sports Week. Attendance increased by 40% on the 2008 level (16,612) to 23,197
• TAKEPART Launch Day in Preston Park was extremely successful with 12,000 people attending
• Inclusion of disability programme in Preston Park
• Introduction of the In’ Zone, an interactive area in Preston Park providing information about training, education, careers, coaching and volunteering opportunities in the sport and active leisure sector
• Widespread involvement from over 100 clubs, associations and organisations from across Brighton & Hove
• Significant increase in in-kind sponsorship
• Wide range of sports and physical activities offering taster sessions with over 200 different activities available, an increase of over 100% from 2008
• Introduction of TAKEPART Local which replaced the competitions and tournaments element on the final weekend of the Festival
• Higher profile gained for the Festival through media partnerships
• Highlighting and raising awareness of the Active for Life website and directory to promote the database of sports and physical activities available in the city
• Increase the profile of sport within the City and a celebration of the culture of sport and physical activity.

Please click on the link below to go to the TAKEPART website: