216 Charity Profile
Big Church Day Out A big deal at the Wiston Estate by editor Kris Thomas
35-40,000 visitors Many events are making a welcome come back this summer and Big Church Day Out (BCDO) is one of them. Ticket holders who were unable to come in 2020 due to Covid-19 have rolled over their tickets and these, combined with new ticket sales, mean that the 2022 event is on track to host 35-40,000 visitors this month. History
The idea for a Christian orientated music festival was conceived in 2009 after a meeting between Tim Jupp and the Goring family of Wiston estate. Tim Jupp was a founding member of contemporary English Christian band Delirious? (the question mark is part of the name). Originating from Littlehampton, the band had a successful career between 1992 and 2009 playing in over forty countries and in the UK at venues such as Wembley Stadium, Hyde Park and the o2 Arena, as well as on the main stage at Glastonbury in 1999. Tim’s idea with BCDO was to hold an event to serve the churches in the area but to also welcome non-religious people who were looking to experience a friendly and safe
local music festival. Big Church Day Out was the first ever event to be held on the Wiston estate and 13,000 people attended the first one. Tim explained that all did not run smoothly that first year! “It was incredibly hot and we had some serious traffic problems. Food vans didn’t turn up, there wasn’t enough drinking water nor enough team members...The bravest thing we did was to carry on and do the 2nd year.”
Since that challenging first year, the team have developed the infrastructure including building tracks to make the estate suitable for other large-scale events such as the popular Steam Rally and the many other events that Wiston now hosts. The festival was extended from one day to three days in 2010 and the number of attendees went up to 25,000. What’s it all about? Primarily it’s a summer music festival - not quite on the scale of Glastonbury but it’s grown year on year. Tim elaborates; “There are 6 music stages and it’s all sorts of music - opera, classical, rock and roll, hip hop - all genres. This year there will be 70 different artists over the weekend, the larger names are American as the Christian music industry in America is huge. There will be around 70 food vans and lots of
