Yesterday was my first opportunity to visit the Big Church Day Out for many years and it is a much bigger event than took place a decade or so ago. The website for the event is available here. There are about 30,000 people who are visiting the site this year, many of whom are from around the whole of the UK. There are a lot of people camping in the estate and many others visiting for the days who either live nearby or were staying in other locations near the site. My visit was primarily to take part in a stand in one of the exhibition locations that my company is involved in. As I left last night the Rend Collective group were taking part in the Main Stage event as can be seen in this photo. At lunch time I had the opportunity to listen to Martin Smith at the UCB Stage which was also a great event. The BCDO event takes place at the Wiston Estate just North of Steyning which is a very significant location and there are many groups of people who are taking part to make the BCDO very valuable for the people who visit it. Today is the second day and it will end with Matt Redman who I have known from many years ago and our company is carrying out a musical based Fireworks Display at the end of his session.

My knowledge about the Big Church Day Out began when I was the coordinator for Churches Together in Sussex and Tim Jupp who is the organiser contacted me to ask if he could speak to the Senior Church Leaders across Sussex and indeed in some cases they were the leaders in Surrey and also in Kent. I was able to organise him to meet with my colleagues who were very positive about his idea and so I found out about the plans before the first event took place. His work has been incredibly significant ever since.