Planning your event

Organising a Playday event is lots of fun. With plenty of help and support, you will be able to achieve a day to remember, and one that will make a big difference to local children and young people.

Playday parents

 

 

Your Playday event doesn’t have to be a huge public occasion, you may prefer to organise a small residents-only street party or celebrate with a group of friends and family.

The Playday Get organised! guide is full of useful advice to get you started.

 

 

QUICK GUIDE - PLANNING YOUR PLAYDAY EVENT:

 

Sign up for Playday updates

  • Sign up to receive regular email updates for the latest advice and support.

 

Start in plenty of time

  • For a large event start planning as soon as possible.
  • Securing funding is one of the first things you need to think about. Check out our Playday fundraising guidance.
  • If you’re planning a street party some local authorities may want three months’ notice of road closure.

 

Get a planning group together

  • Think about who to involve. Don’t forget to invite children and young people onto your planning group!
  • Refer to the Working in partnership with your community section of the Get organised! guide for more ideas of who to involve.
  • Define your roles and make an action plan of key tasks, who will do them and agree target dates.

 

The message

  • The campaign theme for Playday 2008 Give us a go! The campaign calls for children to be allowed challenging and adventurous play opportunities and aims to shake off the 'cotton wool' culture that can limit children’s play.  
  • You could develop this campaign message and think of an issue you want to address locally.

 

Decide on a date

  • Playday 2008 is on Wednesday 6 August but if it’s difficult to hold your event on a weekday, think about the weekend.
  • You may have a pre-organised event on a different day this summer, embrace the Playday 2008 campaign and adapt your event into a Playday event!

 

Decide on a venue

  • Playday events can be held anywhere, from your back garden to Trafalgar square!
  • Last year lots of street parties were held on Playday, why not organise a Playday street party again this year?
  • You could use open spaces in your community like a park, village green, grassed area of your neighbourhood, or even close off the car park of a local venue.
  • Lots of local authorities hold events in pedestrianised town and city centre locations.
  • Think about whether you want to hold one large event or a number of smaller events to reach different parts of your community.

 

Set goals

  • Do you want to make it bigger and better than last year’s event? What do you want the people who attend to get out of the event? Think about the best way to promote play and the benefits it brings. Is publicity important for you?

 

Set a budget

  • How much can you or are you willing to spend? How much is it likely to cost to deliver? Will you need to fundraise?

 

Get the details right

  • You may need to apply for licences and permits. You should also think about safety, food and insurance for example. Refer to the Getting the details right section of the Get organised! guide for further advice.

 

Invite the guests

  • Spread the word. Tell everyone you know!
  • Invite people who can help you achieve publicity, or who could be influential in helping you achieve your campaign objectives. These could be local celebrities, the mayor or councillors.

 

Order additional materials

  • Register your event to receive support materials, which will be available to Playday organisers while stocks last. Check out the resources page for further details.

 

Plan play provision for the day

  • Refer to Event ideas and play section of the Get organised! guide for more ideas. Further guidance on accommodating this year's risk and play theme into your event, will be available soon.

 

Plan publicity

  • Local media love to feature fun stories of local interest, especially those featuring children. Refer to the Getting publicity section of the Get organised! guide for more advice.

 

On the day

  • Have lots of fun celebrating children’s right to play and the benefits it brings!

 

After the event

  • Once everything has been cleared up, take a break, thank everyone and congratulate yourselves on a successful event. You might want to develop a local campaign to follow on from your event. Refer to the Developing a campaign section of the Get organised! guide.  
  • Send us your photos (making sure you have required permissions) for the Playday gallery.
  • If you've held an evaluation of your event, you may want to share it with us or give us any feedback on how Play England can support your future Playday events.