Bicester Heritage becomes a visitor attraction, with regular ‘Scramble’ events opening up the time-warp base to 7,000 attendees each time
A giant inflatable maze and vegan festival are amongst some of the events planned at the site for 2023
Bicester Heritage will also host its own ten-year anniversary event: Flywheel, a celebration of wings, wheels and motion
Bicester Heritage, the nation’s best-preserved World War 2 RAF Bomber Station, continues to support Oxfordshire’s tourism sector through its varied events calendar.
The site itself has become a visitor attraction, with regular ‘Scramble’ events opening up the time-warp base to 7,000 attendees each time for an insight into the skilled work that the on-site businesses do, with 4320 attendees aged 15 and under visiting during 2022, sharing the magic of the motoring industry with young enthusiasts.
The reactivation of the events calendar could hardly come at a better time, as recent data provided by Experience Oxfordshire finds that there was a 56% increase in both the number of visitors and related expenditure in 2021 compared to 2020, rising from 14.5m to 23.3m visitors and from £1bn to £1.6bn in expenditure in the county.
Further data from Experience Oxfordshire’s annual consumer survey found a pent-up demand with 80% of past visitors keen to return to Oxfordshire this year. When asked what attributes they would associate with Oxfordshire as a destination, 86% stated history and heritage, 71% museums and galleries and 58% arts and culture.
Bicester Heritage hosted Tuff Nutterz, the UK's largest bouncy obstacle course, a 300m inflatable maze, during April 2023, with around circa 5,500 attendees enjoying the course, of which 4,500 were aged U15.
The site will also host the world's largest vegan camping festival, Vegan Camp Out in July, with singer-songwriter Sam Ryder and comedian Romesh Ranganathan amongst the confirmed line-up.
Bicester Heritage will host its own ten-year anniversary event: Flywheel, a celebration of wings, wheels and motion on the 17th and 18th of June, with live displays planned on the Experience and Demonstration Track in addition to a fly-in from the sole surviving Bristol Blenheim Bomber.
Liz Pilling, Associate Director, Events comments:
“While we are thrilled to be recognised as the centre of excellence for historic motoring in the UK, it’s exciting to open up our site to other attractions for visitors from within Oxfordshire and beyond. We are continuing to develop our events calendar to provide a range of listings that we are sure the whole family will enjoy.”
