The Challenge

The 2021 Salomon Festival was adapted from our 2019 ‘Trail Running Festival’ series, which you can read about here. 

Set to be larger than ever before, we were challenged with not only adapting the festival to reach new objectives, but also to breathe new life into an old format.

One of the key objectives of our brief was to convert road runners into trail runners and continue to grow the trail running community nationally. In addition, we also wanted to open up the event to the wider outdoor community and promote inclusivity & diversity, whilst focusing on these key objectives: 

The Result

Working closely with the Salomon team on all aspects of the event, we positively transformed the festival with a refreshing new format that had strong links back to its roots – ensuring the legacy was not lost. 

Keeping the festival’s key objectives close to our hearts when planning, we were able to boast not only a slightly new name (which in itself promotes increased accessibility away from just running), but the objectives were also reflected in a number of other positive changes too!

Including: 

• A beautiful new location – with key transport links making it easily accessible and more centralised for many.
• Inclusion of a shorter timed distance of 5km – offering those who may be starting out in trail an opportunity to challenge themselves in a new environment.
• The introduction of multi-length hikes – providing a chance for outdoor enthusiasts to see new trails, feel part of the Salomon community and offer an alternative activity for runners.
• An enhanced talk schedule on the main stage and new concept of ‘walk & talks’ – offering a wider, more diverse selection of educational topics on; run, outdoor, gender & ethnic diversity, mental health and more.
• The addition of partner led workshops on map reading, yoga, kit care & bushcraft, plus a larger festival presence for complementary brands – meaning that festival goers could do more than just run or hike by immersing themselves into everything related to running and the outdoors.

Overall we saw a massive increase in multi-activity participation and a decrease in ‘timed runs’ indicating that more people were taking part in more activities and our attendees were less ‘elite’. 

For us, this meant that we reached our objective in making the event more accessible and inclusive for participants from different sporting abilities and backgrounds.