The World Scouts Jamboree

Large-Scale Event Experience

The 21st World Scout Jamboree formed a part of the Scouting Centenary celebrations of the world scouting movement.

The event was hosted by the United Kingdom, and also marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of Scouting on Brownsea Island relatively close-by to the event site at Hylands Park, Essex.

It was a very long event at 12 days in duration and it was impressive to see the immense scale of operation. Over 38,000 Scouts and leaders from 158 countries camped for the event, while over 50,000 others attended for day visits. There were also over 8600 members of the International Service Team who came from all over the world.

As a member of the local event management team, I helped closely monitor the event to protect the site and surrounding areas (including traffic management) and also as a more approachable liasion between local residents and the Scout Movement.

Preparations for the event included a smaller scale Jamboree – the EuroJamboree – when 12,000 scouts camped in the same location.

This dry run allowed tests of a number of aspects of the event, including the control of the massive influx of the contingents into the area.

The experience helped develop additional large-scale event expertise and was also an impressive experience to witness.

Some Big Numbers

The event was the second largest ever Jamboree held with 38,074 people attending and with more countries than ever before. More than 42,000 day visitors.

On average, within a 24 hour event snapshot, one coach arrived at the site every two minutes.

One roll of toilet paper was used every minute.

Over 5km of fibre-optic cable and over 45km of Category 5 cable was used in the IT systems.

More countries took part in the 21st World Scout Jamboree than in the London Olympic Games in 2012.

Over 100,000 kg of meat was eaten during the course of the event.

Approximately 90 tankers of toiletry waste were taken away from the site every day.